TPE #137: what works now in Google Ads (11 high-impact tips from top PPC experts)

Read time: 7 minutes

GM, Miles here with a special issue of The PPC Edge.

We regularly share what’s working for us — but today we’re doing this differently.

The PPC Hub has over 2.000 members right now, and most of them are experienced Google Ads Specialists.

That means there’s a lot we can learn from each other — so I asked 11 of the highest-performing members of The PPC Hub to share something that worked well for them this year.

So here you go: 11 high-impact Google Ads tips from top PPC Experts (as well as my thoughts about those tips in a single line).

Let’s dive right in!

1: Susan Koolen-Tops: segmentation & consolidation improved results.

“I'm working in-house for an international company and I'm working in 7 different accounts in 7 countries/webshops. In every country I have a native colleague that I'm coaching in the SEA field and online marketing. The past 6 months we worked on segmentation and consolidation in all accounts. We filtered out the spare parts and created new feed attributes to ensure segmentation based on animal type.

We tested this segment in several types of campaigns in all accounts. Especially the Pmax acquisition campaign, specified on products for one specific animal, worked out super good. ROAS went crazy! Segmenting based on a part of a country (e.g. only the south) worked out pretty good as well.

In June we ran a full asset festival campaign (discounts and giveaways). My advice is to make a separate Pmax for it, isolate the products 2 weeks before the launch of the sale discounts to ensure there is no learning time when you go live with your campaign. The assets (images and video) were in line with the rest of the campaign that was launched in all online marketing channels. As you can see, crazy ROAS as well! Tip for Black Friday.”

💜 My thoughts: I love this. Segmenting based on specific parts of a country doesn’t seem like “best practice”, but it goes to show that every account is different and the strategy should align with the business goals, challenges, and limitations. The results don’t lie, well done!

2: Ramial Aqeel: impacting results with Unit Economics.

“Over the last 6 months, doubling down on Unit Economics has had the biggest impact on both performance and client relationships. By having that clear understanding of the important numbers, I've been able to align much better with clients and specific business objectives. More meaningful conversations, better testing and much clearer and cleaner strategy. This is paramount for all PPC campaigns for steadier account growth, rather than second-guessing, and something I will be explicitly pushing at the forefront of my PPC services.”

💜 My thoughts: I can’t stress enough how important it is to understand your client’s Unit Economics, because they usually have no idea themselves. Kudos to Ramial for championing this in The PPC Hub for a while now!

3: Lol Lowe: back to the basics increased CTR and conversions.

“The one thing that’s moved the needle on my ad campaigns is going back to basics on old school marketing i.e. understanding the end customer, what their concerns are, what they perceive as value and addressing those in the ad copy. Typically I’ve seen between a 19% & 67% increase in clickthrough rates and significantly increased conversions with or without landing pages that completely reflect the ad copy. I add customer research to Claude to help create ideas for the ad and landing page content, so it’s a nice blend of old and new style marketing.”

💜 My thoughts: A perfect execution of the basics often leads to the best results, as you also see in this case from Lol!

4: Wolkan Yagar: 60% lower CPA with the Feeder strategy.

"This year, I decreased a client’s CPA by 60% by using Smart Bidding and Maximize Clicks based on John Moran’s Feeder strategy. The client is B2B selling pharmaceutical products with a high AOV. They were using broad match before and DSA with no restrictions. The result shouldn’t shock you: lots of wasted ad spend.

So when I took over, I cleaned up everything: added like 1.000+ negatives, set up a solid DSA campaign with designated pages, and restructured the entire account. This slightly improved conversions and CPA. Then I discovered John’s Feeder strategy — and after implementing it the CPA dropped by 60%. I recommend everyone to try it out!"

💜 My thoughts: It still surprises me how many B2B accounts have little to no negatives — and they still wonder why their CPAs are too high. Great case from Wolkan!

5: Hester Geerdink: increased value for clients outside of the Google Ads interface.

“Over the past six months, I’ve increased the value I deliver to clients by focusing less on the Google Ads interface and more on two other areas: marketing strategy and AI.

For new clients, I develop strategies that go beyond account settings. By mapping out the marketing funnel, clients get a much clearer picture of how their audience behaves and where we can drive results. It also makes getting buy-in for landing pages a lot easier, something many PPC specialists struggle with. This more comprehensive approach allows you to overdeliver and creates a strong start to the partnership.

On top of that, many businesses want to do something with AI to save time and money, but they don’t know where to begin. Luckily, the PPC Hub is full of savvy online marketers. :) Sometimes I build a solution myself, sometimes I simply point them to the right tools. Clients value the time and money saved. In a time when PPC is increasingly automated, this is exactly how you can maintain, and even grow, your added value.”

💜 My thoughts: Hester perfectly demonstrates the essence and value of the T-Shaped Google Ads Specialist profile. Her deep knowledge of Google Ads + broad knowledge of broader business topics make her the perfect business partner for her clients and not just a commodotized button-pusher!

6: Sandi Walsh: landing pages drove the best results.

“It’s been a massive six months for me, and I’m so grateful for all the support and tools from the PPC Hub community. Over the past 6 months, I finally cracked the ‘better landing page’ challenge by using the PPC Hub’s Custom GPT from the Success Path to help a new client build their first Google Ads–optimised landing page.

It’s outperforming their old pages and bringing in high-quality leads. So much so that they’re building another one! This, plus going fully freelance, sharing my story on the PPC Mastery Podcast, and achieving Google Partner status this week, has really boosted my confidence.

My big takeaway is that positioning yourself as a business partner, not just an ‘Ads manager’, is what sets us apart. Because it’s more than just the click, it’s what happens after the click that really drives results. And I couldn’t have done it without the constant support and inspiration from the PPC Hub community!”

💜 My thoughts: Sandi recently went freelance after years of working at an agency — and she’s already miles ahead of the competition because she understands how important it is what happens after the click!

7: Louis Bogdan: feed better data into Google Ads with enriched conversion tracking.

"Enriching conversion tracking setups so that they go beyond feeding basic data into Google Ads has been a game changer. I've seen many stuck or slow campaigns sky-rocket in growth after implementing Server-Side Tagging, Conversion with Cart Data, user-provided data, and new customer data."

💜 My thoughts: Your conversion tracking setup is the ultimate foundation for your results and Louis understands this. Whoever has the most high-quality, relevant data, wins!

8: Harm-Jesse de Jong: breakthroughs by blocking out time for self-development and experimentation.

“The biggest breakthrough I’ve experienced over the past months is consciously blocking out time for my own development and experimentation — especially when it comes to AI.

Starting with such a broad topic can feel overwhelming, but simply setting aside a few hours each week to dive into something new is a powerful first step. For me, this meant looking at which daily tasks I could potentially automate, and then just starting to experiment with building simple AI scripts.

Sometimes there are already better solutions out there, but the real value comes from the learning process itself. Surrounding yourself with specialists and like-minded peers, and just trying things out, helps you stay up-to-date and actually grow with the industry.

What’s more, this process is genuinely rewarding — it’s exciting to learn new things and realize you’re able to deliver even more value to your clients. And I’ve noticed it creates a kind of snowball effect: as you get a better grip on your own development, you start feeling more energized and motivated to keep going, making continuous learning something you really look forward to.”

💜 My thoughts: Investing in yourself always has the highest ROI. Harm-Jesse always shows up to our live sessions and I’ve seen him have major “aha” moments, so I’m stoked to read his investments in himself (both with time and money) are paying off.

9: Robin Hendriksen: consolidation still outperforms fragmented account structures.

“Over the past six months, consolidation in Google Ads has still consistently delivered more stable and better-performing results for me compared to fragmented account structures. Yet I still often see overly complex setups with far too many campaigns and ad groups, relying on automated bidding strategies — while most of those campaigns don’t even hit the 50-conversion threshold over 30 days.

Without sufficient data, Google’s AI simply can’t perform optimally. So before scaling horizontally, focus on gathering enough conversion data per campaign. When data is limited, it's equally important to be critical of your bidding strategy. You don’t always need to start with an automated bidding strategy (something I still see happen far too often).

In some cases, I prefer to begin with manual CPC or Maximize Clicks to build initial volume and then transition to tROAS or tCPA once enough data is available. I also frequently see the technical foundation being overlooked. Personally, I always start by setting up proper conversion tracking, dynamic remarketing, and an optimized product feed. Without that foundation, campaigns lack stability: good input = good output.

In the end, Google Ads is just one piece of the puzzle. What happens before the click (like creating an irresistible offer) and after the click (like optimizing landing pages) is ultimately more important than having a perfectly set up account structure. That’s exactly the kind of thinking I fully align with the PPC Hub. If you don’t get those two parts right, it doesn’t matter how well you build your campaigns — you still won’t get there.”

💜 My thoughts: Robin’s take on consolidation sounds accurate, but I love his thoughts about Google Ads just being one piece of the puzzle even more. Ultimately, driving results comes from striking the perfect balance between what you do inside and outside the ad interface — and Robin gets that.

10: Kudakwashe Chinhara: transformative shift in skillset by tripling down on the fundamentals, while deepening technical automation skills.

“The most transformative shift over the last six months has been tripling down on these two, specifically drilling the fundamentals while deepening my technical automation skills. This approach to your T-shaped Google Ads Specialist framework has created two new revenue streams I never anticipated.

1. I've secured multiple AI/Automation retainers by building custom tools that solve my own repetitive campaign management tasks.
2. My software has generated direct sales from PPC practitioners who gain value from it.

A bonus is that two recently launched campaigns for local services businesses had to be paused early due to overwhelming lead volume and closed deals - all from following the good ole formula.

Also, a key insight for me is that I cannot automate or AI-enhance a fundamentally broken process. I need to master the basics first, then layer technology on top to scale what already works. Weakness in any fundamental creates a leak that undermines everything else, no matter how sophisticated your automation becomes.”

💜 My thoughts: Kuda has seen a massive transformation since joining The PPC Hub about a year ago. I haven’t seen any other member who has so actively doubled down on mastering and applying the fundamentals of Google Ads like Kuda — and he embodies the T-Shaped Google Ads Specialist profile: deep knowledge of Google Ads + a self-chosen skill development of technical automation makes him a powerful expert.

11: Geert Groot: using the Google Ads API & AI to build custom tools.

“2025 is the year automation really took off for me and my clients. Tools I've built with Cursor are using the Google Ads API combined with custom GPTs to set up new Search Ads within minutes.

I've even got clients where the complete website is set up by talking to Cursor, where last week it went to next level when I played a voice memo from my client and the AI took off to make the changes.

If you're not using AI, you are falling back rapidly, not only in management but even more in personal development. People using AI to help their clients will be adding more value, can deliver quicker and cheaper, and will take your job. So start to FAFO with the tools available and make your clients love you even more.”

💜 My thoughts: Geert is one of the most active AI-builders in The PPC Hub and he’s built epic tools for his own use, to become more productive and efficient with less time per client. He’s right about how PPC Experts who leverage AI will eventually take all the opportunities… So start messing around with it!

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That’s all for today, I hope you enjoyed it!

See you next week :).

Cheers,

Miles (& Bob)