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Some Google advertisers are convinced that ad strength is a meaningless metric that should be ignored.
The diagnostic tool, which is touted by the search engine as an effective way to help marketers create better ads, has drawn harsh criticism, with some labeling it a “waste of time.” Additionally, many marketers have noticed a curious trend: campaigns labeled with a “poor” ad strength rating often outperform campaigns rated “excellent.”
As the debate heats up, how much attention should PPC marketers pay to the power of advertising?
‘The score for the strength of the ad does not matter’
Mateja Matić, founder of Dominate marketing and an expert in the field of online marketing for more than ten years, shared his vision on the power of advertising. Despite Google’s emphasis on this, Matić revealed that he does not prioritize the power of ads when building campaigns.
After running numerous tests, he said Google’s responsive ads have never outperformed ads he set up manually. With this in mind, he doesn’t trust Google’s automated recommendations. He wrote further X:
- ‘If you’re new to Google Ads, keep in mind that Google’s recommendations aren’t necessarily the best for your account. I can tell you from experience that most of the things they recommend in your account don’t work as well as other things you can do to make your ads better.”
- “I don’t believe the Ad Strength score means anything. I have ads that are performing extremely well and have a very poor ad strength score. It says ‘bad’ and yet they get a 10-15% conversion rate on actual leads.”
‘Don’t worry about the power of ads’
Frederick Vallaeys, co-founder and CEO of Optmyzr, offered insights into ad strength, highlighting that exceptional campaign performance does not always correlate with a high ad strength rating. The power of advertising mainly reflects general trends and not the nuances of individual campaigns and target groups, says Vallaeys. This is why even if a campaign with a low ad strength rating performs exceptionally well, Google won’t change the score.
Vallaeys emphasized this point in a blog postwhere experienced advertisers are advised to prioritize other metrics over ad power:
- ‘If you’re concerned that poor ad strength means your ad will show less often, rest assured that ad strength won’t affect your ad rank or Quality Score. In other words, if your ad strength is poor, it doesn’t mean Google will de-prioritize your ad in the ad auction.”
- “Higher ad strength does not mean better CTR, better conversion rate or better Quality Score. If you’re new to advertising or don’t know what works, consider this advice. But if you’re an experienced advertiser, do what you do best. Don’t just be blinded by the power of the ad.”
‘Waste of time’
Anthony Higman, CEO of online advertising agency Adsquire, said he was experimenting with prioritizing ad strength when creating campaigns. Despite his efforts, he found that emphasizing the power of advertising did not result in an increase in quality leads.
Through extensive testing, Higman concluded that he would prefer campaigns with “poor ad strength and good leads” over campaigns with higher spend and fewer relevant leads, which he considered a “waste of everyone’s time.” Despite his skepticism about Ad Strength’s effectiveness in generating quality leads, Higman suspects it could soon become a metric that influences ad rankings. He told Search Engine Land.
- “I believe they will soon make ad strength a factor of ad ranking. About two months ago, a representative who contacted us said in an email that “ad strength” is a factor in ad ranking. I think he slipped. When I lost it and said, ‘Excuse me, but the strength of the ad is not a factor in ad position,’ it came back.”
- “Either way, ad strength will likely impact ad ranking in the future, which is disappointing. We just pray that they come up with a solution before everyone abandons ship.”
Google responds
When Search Engine Land raised the PPC community’s concerns about the relevance of ad strength, Brendon Kraham, Google’s Vice President of Search & Commerce, addressed the issue. He claimed that ad strength is “very important” and emphasized its importance as an evaluation criterion that marketers should prioritize. He said:
- “I don’t know where (the idea that ad strength is not important) comes from. Ad strength is central to what we’re trying to do, because creative is going to be incredibly important, and ad strength will be the mechanism we use to evaluate that, both in Performance Max and in channels like search.”
Kraham further explained that Ad Strength assesses the breadth and depth of items within a campaign before assigning a rating. According to Google, this breadth and depth of resources are crucial for reaching users across channels, including SERPs, video display and other creative options. Google prioritizes this aspect as it ensures campaigns are well-equipped to effectively engage users across platforms and formats.
The role of Performance Max
Kraham noted that PMax offers asset generation capabilities that can increase advertising power. He highlighted that advertisers who leverage PMax’s asset generation capabilities while building campaigns are 63% more likely to achieve a good or excellent ad strength score. This indicates the effectiveness of Performance Max in optimizing ad assets and improving campaign performance. He added:
- “Advertisers need to move at the speed of consumers to ensure they deliver the right ads to the right user at the right time – but many advertisers, large and small, struggle to deliver the breadth and depth of resources required. Leveraging the generative capabilities of (PMax) really gives advertisers the power to deliver the right ads to the right user at the right time. It can really deliver on the promise of what marketing has been trying to do for a while.”
Is PMax the future of Google Ads?
Kraham concluded by emphasizing that AI represents the future of digital advertising, with PMax being a prime example of this concept. He highlighted how PMax offers businesses, especially small businesses with limited resources, the ability to deliver a broader range of assets, helping them keep pace with changing consumer preferences.
In his latest remarks, Kraham reiterated the importance of AI-driven solutions like PMax to enable businesses to thrive in today’s fast-paced digital landscape. He said:
- “Automation is the future, and PMax is the best example of AI in advertising because it is the only campaign type that runs inventory using AI; both predictive and generative.”
- “In either case, we will continue to build because we need to help marketers reach consumers at the speed at which they operate – PMax is the best manifestation of how you can do that.”
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