2020 was the best year of my life. Why? My first child was born last year, so for me personally, 2020 was fantastic. Other than that, I’m with you – what a wicked year. But that’s about all the negativity you’re going to get out of me. I’m a natural optimist; I see 2020 as a stress test for all things in life, including business, to make me a stronger person, to make my business stronger, and to clarify what I want to do in this current year 2021. 2020 clarified a lot of things for me when it comes to Google Ads management. And in 2021 I’ll be focusing on the following things.
No More Wasting Time
2020 has taught us lessons in what really matters. It has taught us how precious life and good times are. And I’m done wasting my time. I’m done wasting time with losers and I’m done wasting time with loser ways of doing things. Regarding the losers, I’ve updated my thinking to relabel people who waste my time into a word that’s much worse than “time-waster”; this relabeling has actually caused me to be more disciplined about avoiding and being firmer with toxic people, so the relabeling has been working.
On the systems level, I’ve developed a method of dually managing Google Ads accounts using both the regular Google Ads platform and the Google Ads Editor. I have both systems open at the same time, and I flip back and forth with my management, to most effectively and quickly manage accounts on a world-class level. I’ll be discussing this new, dual management strategy on an upcoming podcast episode.
Account Quality Score
As a complement to not wasting time in 2021, I’ll also be focusing on the most important things, the things that matter. And one thing that matters tremendously in Google Ads is the account quality score. There’s nowhere in a Google Ads account that’ll tell you “this is your account quality score,” but I’m convinced it exists, and some management softwares will show it to you. I think it really is a thing. I’ve seen some long-term, well-run Google Ads accounts that get unbelievable quality scores, clickthrough rates, and costs per click. Like truly unbelievable. And I’ve seen them.
In 2021, I’ll be focusing on the account quality score, even if I can’t see it, and I’ll be trying to “play the game” more and give the system what it wants, and in return hope that I get access to more search auctions, higher positions, higher quality scores, and lower costs per click. I’ll be doing more of what the system seems to be rewarding. These days that includes making sure you have responsive ads mixed in with your ad groups and trying very loose modified broad keywords or pure broad keywords. So I’ll be doing more of both of those things, and I’ll always have an eye towards the mysterious account quality score goddess in the sky, trying to please her and give her what she wants – if the account quality score goddess is happy, then truly unbelievable Google Ads results are possible.
Higher Clickthrough Rates
Clickthrough rates will be a big focus for me in 2021. Why? Something I remind myself of all the time is that PPC is easy, but dumb people make it hard. At its core, Google Ads is a simple system: Show your ads when people are searching for your product or service, get clicks from those people, and get leads and sales and grow your business. And one simple aspect about Google Ads that I’m trying to focus on in 2021, is that you can’t get leads if you don’t first get clicks. I want leads. Where do leads come from? Leads come from clicks. How do you get clicks? Amazing ad copy. Invert, always invert, as Charlie Munger says. In 2021, I’m going to be focusing on running continual ad tests, trying to get better and better clickthrough rates, which will lead to more clicks and more leads.
Implementing the 80/20 principle
The 80/20 principle never fails. One new area I’m going to apply the 80/20 principle to is big Google Ads account management. And I’m talking big. I manage some accounts that have an incredible number of campaigns, ad groups, and keywords, and they’re set up in very sophisticated ways. But sometimes sophisticated is the enemy of simple, and simple always wins. One breakthrough I had at the end of 2020 was realizing that the 80/20 principle applies to huge Google Ads accounts where you have many campaigns, ad groups, keywords.
The temptation is perfection. You come up with some great ad copy and you want to roll it out to 50 campaigns. You come up with a great keyword idea and you want to see it in all match types across 150 ad groups. But then reality hits and you’re sitting there for the next hours or two, dutifully making things look so pretty and nice across hundreds of ad groups, and then just like that twenty percent of your day and a lot of your energy is gone, and what for? So things can look nice?
No more of this! It’s about results! And in Google Ads, you get to know exactly what campaigns, ad groups, and keywords are getting you results. I can make 100 ad groups have spectacular ads, but if 20 of those ad groups actually drive most or all of the conversions, then why focus equally on all 100 ad groups? The new philosophy is to focus on the campaigns and ad groups that are actually driving the leads, make them stronger and stronger, and get more and more leads.
Applying the 80/20 principle to Google Ads management doesn’t feel natural at first, as striving for perfection always feels noble, but in reality, the 80/20 principle can turbocharge a Google Ads account’s performance, and this is especially true on big accounts with lots of campaigns and ad groups.
Goodbye 2020
2020 was a horrible year for many, a good year for some, and a teachable year for all. 2020 was a teacher of life’s lessons, and I listened. I learned a lot last year; I grew stronger as a person, a Google Ads manager, and a businessman. I’ll be applying my enhanced skills and knowledge in 2021, working to get the best Google Ads performance possible for my advertisers. The Google Ads Editor, account quality scores, clickthrough rates, and the 80/20 principle will all be a big part of that work. Drop a comment letting us know what 2020 taught you and what you plan to focus on in 2021, and thanks for reading!
