Take your Google Ads audits to the next level

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00:00All right, welcome back guys to Scaling with Bob, a sub series miniseries of the Pepc Mastery podcast. In the first two episodes, we dove into Bob's new offer uh for a new client that he is he is running right now. In the second episode, we spoke about the importance of asking the right questions upfront before you even start doing an audit, before you start working with the client. The sort of unsexy stuff, the unsexy work to uncover everything there is to know about your client so that you can give the right advice later on when you start working for and with the client. And in this third episode, we want to dive into the actual audit that you did, Bob. you've done a few new things that are are are ground well groundbreaking uh are just really cool in my opinion like next level stuff with this audit. So maybe we you can uh talk a little bit about the structure of the audit. How did you do it? I know you used you used our checklist for example, but what other things have you done to make this audit really next level because I know you like to overd deliver.

01:09Yeah. So um I wanted to try new things uh when doing this audit. So previously um I did most of the work myself. Um uh for example when looking at uh historical performances I just downloaded um a hell amount of um well performance reports from Google Ads. Uh I tried to well u make a certain structure uh within those documents in order to give my the give me the insights I needed. But now we are in the era of AI. So I figured why the hell am I not going to well let CHBT or CLA run through the numbers. Um and what happens if you for example uh utilize certain features like deep research within CHP but that you also have in cloth nowadays. Um so that's what I did um when analyzing the performance within this particular audit. Um, and it gave me a crazy amount of uh really solid uh solid insights um that we can well um that we can peek into in a bit. But then I also went a step further and I uh tried to create all sorts of advanced visualizations with cloth artifacts that are also interactive that my customer can go through um and also well uh uh see certain certain performance segments for for themselves. So it was a really cool journey and I'm really really happy with the results not only textwise uh that well chip deep research gave me but also the transition to actual

02:46visualizations um in cloth. So that's what I did differently this time. Nice. Cool. So let's start at the first step and that is the the checklist that you've used. Uh by the way you can grab it just go to the link below or pcmastery.com/ audit. Now you can use the uh exact audit templates that we use that Bob has used in this case. Um but what are you what are you trying to do with this checklist because it's a it's a long a long list of things that you're checking right. Yeah. So I think it's um important to start off with the first component um of the the the checklist uh and also the audit. So I like to start with um uh well what I also mentioned in previous uh episode I like to start with overarching business targets and business goals and then map that uh or uh well compare that with actual inplatform and out of platform uh performances. So um I start with asking the customer certain performance related questions because I want to hear uh their targets. I want to hear the numbers. I want to hear their um uh their their challenges. I also want to hear well what worked in the past, what hasn't worked in the past, stuff that we went through in last episode. And then I um basically have a checklist and a structure of questions for myself uh that I pair with certain um Google Ads reports uh that I then basically plow into um chipd research or cloud to analyze the data. So uh in order to have a really proper performance analysis

04:25within the audit uh what you need to do really really uh well and where you need to pay attention to is structure and uh data structure but also data quality paired with the paired with the questions that you want to have answers to. Um so what I see people do um most of the time is they just create a simple export of their Google Ads results uh dump that into uh LLM like CHP deep research and have them analyze some basic results. But if you want to really um have a proper performance analysis you need to come up with more structured data reports. So for this customer uh active in the travel ind industry uh I really needed to extract um core booking metrics like leads, qualified leads um closed closed deals which were bookings then also the CPA uh based on the the raw leads, the cost per qualified leads, the customer acquisition cost, the lead to qualified lead rate, the lead to booking rate, stuff like that segmented per um uh per period. for example, per quarter, per month. So the LLM can also understand trends within the data because if you just pick one data period and you don't segment the the the time series, then it will also not uh not understand the trends. So that's what I did um at first. If you um extract all of that data in a really organized and structured way and then pair that with the correct questions that you want to

06:04have answers to and then also ask the LLM like hey uh what can I answer um uh what what questions can I can I ask even more in order to get the proper instance that I need then you will get crazy crazy in uh insights and output from LLMs like chipt deep research So I tried to do that. Um it failed the first uh three times because I didn't structure my data in the correct way. Uh but if you're trying to do this, you're you will see and you will understand what you need to do differently. Um and then when I got it right um data quality and data structure wise um well I got this crazy uh text wise uh output. But then sorry what did you want to ask? Yeah I wanted to ask like what what did you see initially the first three tries it didn't work out. What did you do differently after that did fix it? Was it a change to your prompt? Was it a change to the to the data sets? What what did you change?

07:09Um the first time it was um a lack of context. So I needed to explain um what the columns were in my documents. So really needed to tell the LLM like hey we have multiple conversion related columns over here um segmented per month but you need to understand for example um this was a really solid example um I had two different types of uh lead conversions because they transitioned to web conversions uh by utilizing well uh conversion pixels uh to OCT offline conversions somewhere uh last year in June June 20 uh 2024 uh and that's where that's when well the the uh the one um conversion action stopped working and the other one started working uh but then there was a slight period where the conversion column over overlapped and they over uh attributed conversions so to say so the metrics weren't right if you didn't tell the LLM like hey this is what happened and you need to look at the um conversion related metrics this way um in order to give it full context because otherwise well they will add up certain conversions and your your CPAs won't won't match anymore. So stuff like that uh needed to be done in order to properly instruct the LLM like okay um here's my data set here's how it's structured uh these are the columns uh this is how you need to uh interpret uh the columns and this is what I would like to know um that was the second

08:48problem because um the second time I wasn't extensive enough with the questions that I uh that I wanted to get answered um so that's when I went to a new chatbt and cloth chat in order to also cross-check the questions that I wanted to get answered. And they also gave me um uh way more ideas uh way better deep dives and way better ways um to to ask those questions uh to give me the proper um output that I really needed. Yeah, super interesting, man. I just had this thought like with an audit, it's so much more about understanding the data than the setup of the account. Like obviously I'm not saying that is not important at all. It is super important because that's the next step. Um but what you're just saying now like you spoke about the audit and you're you're going uh you're you're speaking already five minutes about just uncovering data insights and you didn't say oh the campaign structure was this or the the tracking was that or the ads were not converting blah blah blah. No, first you try to understand the data on an overall level because that is that's the core of of everything for us like that that data. So I'm curious then is there anything that you found with your analysis in CHBT and claude that you would have never found out just by yourself by analyzing the data which you might have done like two three years ago.

10:19I think in the end I would have figured it out myself, but I think I would have needed uh way more time in order to uncover certain certain insights. And now I just had to wait for 15 minutes. Um waited until well the deep research was finished and it was uh I was queued up initially by CHP. So I had to wait a little bit longer. Okay. But then after 50 minutes it was done uh done thinking, done analyzing. So you have to understand that this particular customer has um I think over 50 different destinations that they're advertising for. Uh they have uh an MCC with well multiple underlying accounts sub accounts for different geo targeting. So they have a different account for uh the USA. They have a different account for the rest of world. um also known as ro that's how I how they how they say it inside of the account um and if you want to well extract all of those data points and you want to create all sorts of pivot tables you want to create all sorts of charts yourself in order to uncover certain trends within certain destinations you are going to need a lot of time and a lot of excel skills uh before um uh those will open up so um within just 15 to 30 I immediately see um uh their top 10 uh destinations when looking at qualified lead and booking volumes. I saw a um a really cool um uh matrix where Claude basically paired up every single

11:58destination looking at lead volumes and sales volumes um cross-cheed with efficiencies like uh the the customer acquisition cost and the cost per qualified leads a lot of the destination on the uh uh on the the chart itself that well if I wanted to do that myself I think I would have struggled a full day uh trying to to uh to do that and now I just had the best insights immediately just within within well a day's work. Um and then I mean well everything everything performance wise that you can you can imagine. Um, also trend trend wise, uh, it's really tough if you want to analyze 50 different destinations, um, across a multi-month period and you want to see trends in, uh, lead volumes, uh, search impression share volumes, qualified lead volumes, booking volumes, and also the efficiencies. Uh but if you just drop the data in a really structured way, ask the questions um to analyze those trends, you will get you will get a list of the most interesting insights in just 30 minutes time. So that's just crazy to me. Yeah, that's the next uh the next level, the next iteration of this because I remember when you first created the audit templates three years ago. Um you also had a Lucer Studio dashboard or or sort of your own Lucer Studio dashboard that you use to visualize the data which back then was super nice because you in one overview you can see the impressions, impression share, conversion data, etc., etc. But this takes it to a whole another level. Um and so much as well.

13:37And one thing I'm experimenting with right now, but it's not not done yet, is basically taking all of the uh insights that I got from the LLMs and also all of the charts that were generated uh interactive charts through cloud and then basically built build them a client specific um environment that they can log into in order to go through the data and the insights themselves. So basically uh everything in an interactive way on their own environment in order to present um all of the data and charts in a really really cool and fancy way. So I'm uh trying to to to build that with C cursor right now. Um and I think if that works that's going to be epic as well. Yeah. And just imagine the the client reactions as well because no one is used to getting this type of detail um in a in an audit presentation you know as you said like we're all just using spreadsheets Excel and then copy pasting the the screenshot uh of those of static slides static slides yeah but just imagine the reaction I'm I'm curious because you haven't done the the audit presentation yet right no uh I'm going to do it in two days so uh I have almost finished the audit itself. Uh I think I'm at 75% right now.

14:55Uh but I think for the last couple of uh sections I already know what I'm going to tell. So um but yeah, it's going to be an epic epic audit and also epic presentation. Uh at least that's from my personal opinion and I hope I can I can overd deliver and get them really excited. Yeah, I'm sure I'm sure they will be man. so much level of of of of uh depth and and detail. Um yeah, great job there. So um in terms of the the structure of the the checklist, so now you have the performance that you're going through. That's super important, but what else do you check when you do this do this account audit? Yeah. So I start with uh performance um like I mentioned and then I basically follow our um uh or audit checklist that we well that we publish for free that people can download themselves and cover every single important element within Google Ads.

15:52Um but I try to um to keep it contextually relevant to the particular um to the particular client. So previously what I did differently is basically I grabbed my audit templates and I also presented the uh the audit in the form of a checklist with some notes that were worth mentioning. Uh but that means that your customer will also get a lot of insights that aren't really necessary to know. Uh for example uh there are parts that are really really important to have right like account settings. uh content suitability, um the certain conversion action settings, uh certain uh uh settings on the uh admin account level that you want to have enabled or uh disabled, but those are really the nitty-gritty stuff that uh that you want to uh mention, but it's not the core point of doing the audit. The core point of the audit is keeping it really to the point. um uh keeping it really relevant to the stuff that really matters to them and then leave out all of the small minor details that are basically meant for Google as specialists and not particular for a CMO or CFO. So really need to know where you're uh what you're dealing with as well and where you're presenting the audit to.

17:18Um so that's what I'm doing differently. Um so I'm looking at the audit. I'm checking everything but I basically separate the the core insights that I want to uh incorporate within my presentation so to say and also the documents that I that I present um versus all of the the the minor detailed little stuff uh that is is important but not worth mentioning during a presentation. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And you you only have limited time in this presentation as well. You want to start with the most important things, right? Yeah. The high impact stuff. And that's most of the time the overarching the overarching stuff. So after performance, uh I um I looked into conversion tracking. Found a lot of uh stuff that went went wrong. Uh for example uh they were working with a lot of offline conversion tracking um conversion actions for not only form submits but also qualified leads and bookings.

18:21For bookings they have um really long conversion cycles or time to conversion periods depending on how you want to mention that. Most of the times um it's within a 90-day period. Um, so you can upload the offline conversion to Google Ads, but for those clicks that basically exceed the 90-day click period, uh, while Google simply cannot import them anymore. So I peaked into their um daily upload CSV file and I saw a lot of different errors uh with the error uh click to alt where I think 40ish% was basically not getting imported due to um the maximum cookie uh cookie window that they were exceeding. But prior to the meeting uh I was told and this is a good example why you always need to fact check uh by the CMO like hey I'm pretty sure uh our conversion tracking is set up correctly uh so I'm trusting the data.

19:19Well now I added a big disclaimer on page number seven in the audit basically saying disclaimer booking metrics are fundamentally flawed. um already mentioning like hey I did this performance audit uh by looking at your inplatform um metrics mainly uh but everything that you're going to um uh to see um is flawed related to lead to booking rates qualified lead to booking rates uh booking volumes uh customer acquisition cost because you're missing well 40ish% of actual bookings into your platform not only speaking um um about bookings that well um that that converted on a different way where a Google click ID wasn't even attributed uh to you for example. Um so those are really crucial things to then also highlight to also zoom into you also when you're presenting certain well performance analysis data it's a big and I think this is going to hurt.

20:24Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. I think this is going to hurt. Yeah. because they are somewhat convinced that they have set up their OCT the correct way but it's not working correctly. Well, that's a good but that's that's ultimately if they have growth mindset which I'm sure they will because they hired you. Yeah. Is why they hired you uh to find these things and if you uncover that that if if they fix this that's big huge going to be huge for them. Yeah. And that's the the next part and that's a really really uh big cornerstone of this particular audit and also the recommendations that I'm going to um well to to tell them. Um this is fundamentally flawed. You cannot really fix this because Google simply has a 90-day max cookie window and if the click is older than that um that's it. Google simply forgets about the click ID and you cannot attribute it anymore to Google Ads campaigns. So even though they try to prolong cookies or they try to be fancy in other uh advanced conversion tracking ways uh this won't be imported because it's well a Google Ads native thing that you just have to deal with. So what does it mean?

21:36Well, if you cannot import or if you cannot well if you cannot rely on your booking metrics in platform uh but you want to optimize towards uh bookings and a particular um cost of um uh cost of acquisition uh customer acquisition cost I have to say um then you need to do it differently because you cannot you cannot do this correctly and prior to this they try to optimize towards bookings uh with a value based bidding mindset where they well tried to target rorowaz but it failed miserably. Well, no because you're missing 40% plus of the actual data plus the conversion cycles are crazy long. So, um that brings all sorts of um uh uh well all sorts of problems and challenges within Google Ads. Yeah. So, knowing that um uh well, I'm going to um to recommend them to well rely more on backend data.

22:36Uh so, how are you going to do that? Well, you need to um send over all of your Google Ads metadata, so to say, your campaign ID, your ad group ID, your keywords, uh maybe your local um the local uh geo of the the the user you're targeting with the final URL so that all of those information points and those data points can be sent over in hidden form fields within the form requests when people want to request a booking so to say. So you can then later uh pair those metrics with the actual booking uh by pairing them uh based on the lead ID so to say and then do the proper analysis uh and then basically calculating the the the cost per cost per action by looking at the raw leads the cost per qualified leads uh backwards in order to then feed Google Ads with the proper target setting that needs to be set. Um so those are all sort of things that are the result um those are all recommendations based on well certain findings of the audit and that's also how I like to structure my audit. So observations first and then within the category recommendations. So here uh this is what I observed. This is this is flawed. This is wrong. Uh personally um this is not working. Uh and then I uh then I go to the next section uh within the audit which are called recommendations. And then I basically tell them what I would do if I were in charge of their Google Ads account.

24:13Yeah. and then backed by data because you have all the uh data visualized, exported and then you can show the proof of why you think you know your the the observation based on the data and then you connect the advice on the other end to it. Uh yeah, super solid man. I think we can we can dive into so much more of the audit. Um as you said you're presenting it in two days. By the time this is live, you would have already done it. Um maybe then in the next episode of the this minieries we can dive into how the presentation went and maybe a few other of a few other big things that you found in this audit um that were surprising or that other people can learn from just like for example these uh these things that you mentioned in this episode. Um and then also how the client um uh yeah what the client thought of the presentation of the if they said anything about this vis about the visualizations uh the reception of your advice and then after that you know you're going to start implementing and then we can start or we can talk a little bit about that as well but I think in terms of audit man we could talk about this whole process for for 10 hours um so that maybe in the next episode we can dive a little bit deeper in the second half of the uh of the audit combined with the with the Yeah, sounds fun.

25:39Cool. So, um for everyone uh thank you so much for uh listening, watching all that stuff. In the description, you can find a link to our audit presentation um or not presentation, audit checklist uh that you can use for free. Um that's the one that Bob has used himself. Uh but also again teach yourself to think independently. You know, checklists are awesome, but you also want to make sure that you tailor it all to your specific client, your specific case. Um, add in stuff that is relevant to you. Remove stuff that is not relevant to you. Um, but most importantly, do your your your data analysis. That is so crucial because that, as Bob also showed or explained in this episode, that's the backbone of your advice because you can just show the cold the cold proof like this is this is what's going wrong. Not because that's my opinion, but it's actually just the data is wrong. Here's where the performance is trending upwards, where it's trending downwards, these metrics, etc., etc. And then from there, you can really give the best possible advice uh and start, you know, working with the client later. Um, grab all that stuff in the description and then we'll see you in the next episode of Scaling with Bob. All right, that's the end of this episode of the PPC Mastery Podcast. I hope you enjoyed it and if you don't want to miss any future episodes, we're going to be back next week. Then don't forget to subscribe and share with a friend, family member, or a colleague. Uh cuz that's the only way we can grow this show. Now, there's two more things I want to share with you. If you want to take your Google Ads game to the next level, the first one is if you want to get advanced Google Ads tips delivered

27:18straight into your inbox on Mondays and Fridays, head over to pbcmastery.com/newsletter to subscribe to our newsletter called the PBC Edge. And next to that, if you want to really, really, really take your skills to the next level and become the best Google Ads specialist you can possibly be, then consider joining the PPC Hub, which is our coaching and community platform for experienced Google Ads specialists. You can find everything about it on pbcmastery.com/hub. And with that said, I'll catch you in next week's episode. Peace.