Transcript

The Revenue Room – Episode 018 Highlights

Hosts: Harry Hughes & Dan

Topic: The frameworks Harry and Dan use to audit, structure and run Google Ads for B2B and lead gen (not e-commerce), from conversion tracking and bidding to campaign structure, match types and negative keywords.

First Stop in Any Account: Conversion Tracking

The first thing Harry checks in a new account is what is set as the primary conversion action.

• Primary actions are what Google optimises towards

• Secondary actions are observed but not optimised for

A common mistake is a pricing page view set as primary. The primary action should be as close to a closed deal as possible while still being meaningful: a demo booked, a sales call booked or a lead form.

Dan’s point: if pricing page views, email sign-ups and demos are all primary, the algorithm is fed low-intent data.

Other checks:

• Cover every way someone can contact you (email clicks, phone, contact forms, downloads, webinar sign-ups), mostly as secondary

• Avoid GA4 as the primary source. Fire conversions directly through GTM and keep GA4 as a secondary comparison

• Enhanced conversions switched on

• Consent Mode v2 if you advertise in the EU

Offline Conversions and Values

A green flag in any audit is CRM lifecycle stages being imported back into Google Ads.

• When a contact becomes an SQL, opportunity or customer, send it back as a conversion

• Dan’s next step: assign a value to each stage, then use Target ROAS once volume allows

• If unsure, run Max Conversions against tCPA or tROAS as a 50/50 experiment for around three months

Two Settings to Check on Every Campaign

• Location: use presence only, not presence or interest, unless you are deliberately targeting people planning to travel in (a trade show, for example)

• Networks: untick search partners and the display network on search campaigns. The volume looks good but the quality is poor

Bidding Strategies

• Harry doesn’t start new campaigns on Max Clicks. Switching objective later forces the campaign to relearn, so he runs Max Conversions from the start

• tCPA or tROAS come later, when values are being imported

• Brand campaigns: target impression share or manual CPC

Dan on why not Max Conversions for brand: someone searching your name already has the intent, so the goal is to pay as little as possible. Google reps will usually recommend conversions bidding, and it tends to cost more.

Harry’s benchmarks for search impression share:

• Brand: 80 to 90%, targeting absolute top of page

• Non-brand: 40% and upwards

Check auction insights to see who is bidding on your brand. Competitors often appear without realising, through PMAX, phrase match or AI Max.

Campaign Structure Follows Spend Control

There is no single correct structure. It depends on how many geographies you serve, how many products or services you sell, and your budget.

The underlying logic: Google only lets you set budget at campaign level. If one ad group converts well, it takes the spend and the others are left behind. So you split campaigns wherever you need to control spend or expect a different CPA:

• By geography

• By product or service

• By intent

Dan’s example for a single-product business, split by intent:

• Solution intent: “CRM software for manufacturers”

• Comparison intent: “best CRM platforms for enterprise”, “Salesforce alternative”

• Action intent: “book a demo”, “request a quote”

Within campaigns, keep ad groups thematic so the keywords, ad and landing page all match. Consolidate where you can, because more learning per campaign makes it more efficient.

Keep Brand Separate

A red flag: brand sitting as an ad group inside a non-brand campaign. Google pushes budget to the easiest conversions, so brand absorbs the spend.

• Run brand as its own campaign

• Exclude brand terms from non-brand campaigns through a brand list in the campaign settings and a negative keyword list

Competitor Campaigns Need a Landing Page

Harry has seen competitor campaigns outperform generic search tenfold, and seen them fail completely. The difference is usually the landing page.

• Don’t send competitor traffic to your homepage

• Build a comparison or alternative page (“them vs us”)

• Be upfront in the ad that it is a comparison

• Keep it in its own campaign, because CPAs are volatile

Match Types by Size of Search Pool

• Exact: a small or niche pool of search terms

• Phrase: a wider pool, or to expand once exact reaches 40 to 50% impression share. Phrase is much broader than it used to be

• Broad: very large pools or scale testing. Harry hasn’t seen it work well in B2B

• AI Max: a campaign setting, not a match type. Effective in some of their B2C lead gen accounts

PMAX, Demand Gen and Display

Neither host is a big fan for lead gen.

• Harry has seen early results from Demand Gen and Display trail off over time

• PMAX lead quality in B2B was poor, though tighter controls mean he is testing it again against generic search

• Start with retargeting audiences before prospecting, and only if you have suitable creative and budget

• Dan would sooner run display-style creative on social, or test YouTube

Search Terms and Negative Keywords

In an audit Harry opens the last 30 days of search terms to see how much spend has gone to irrelevant queries.

• Review search terms regularly

• Keep separate negative lists (competitors, brand and so on) so you can choose which to apply per campaign

On day parting, he has tested it on high-spend accounts and seen minimal impact.

Key Takeaways

• Audit conversion tracking before anything else

• Optimise to the action closest to revenue, and import offline conversions

• Presence-only location targeting, search partners and display off

• Structure campaigns around where you need to control spend

• Keep brand in its own campaign and exclude it everywhere else

• Choose match types by the size of your search pool

• Stay disciplined with search terms and negative keywords