Should Law Firms Use Google Performance Max Ads? NO...But Maybe?
TL;DR from FirmPilot:
- "PMax" Ads offer little-to-no control, but Google is now releasing negative keyword exclusion functionality for performance max ads
- Law Firms can test for brand recognition, but don't bet big on them just because they're easy to run and cover so many channels at once.
- If you are going to test them: (1) use a small play budget, (2) clicks are not conversions, and (3) measure attribution through mediums your ads show on, not just overall campaign performance
More details in the full article: https://lnkd.in/gxskGWjM#lawfirm#lawfirmmarketing#legalmarketing#SEO#PPC
So a big update from Google ads which were excited about, not sure at all affect anyone in the legal world, but it's pretty cool. Google's performance Max and that was now allows negative keywords. What is performance Max? Just a quick background click a button and your advertising everywhere. Tons of channels, YouTube in Gmail inboxes almost everywhere. Great if you're casting a wide, wide net like an Adidas or Nike who can sell sneakers to almost anyone. But if you're a law firm. You know injury, criminal defense, you know exactly what kind of clients you know you want, and you find them based off their search intent. Performance Max campaigns. We used to call them budget wasters. Now should you do them with this negative keyword feature? Short answer, probably not. But if you have the time and a small amount of play money to test with, it's worth experimenting because if it ends up bringing in conversions in an ROI, then awesome, you discover another channel. To drive clients that's great so if you can do this without taking away from your core advertising budget and especially the time and resources you put into refining those go for it so how can you easily test this one set of super small budget that you know you wouldn't feel pain if it was just wasted set very specific conversion goals form fills and phone calls don't count clicks in the website business as a conversion here three monitor the ad placements and if you do get. Conversions, attribution to the ad placement, Is it from YouTube, Gmail, inboxes, whatever it is. So if it actually works, great, you can double up on it. You wrote a whole article with way more detail, feel free to check it out, thanks.
Great article, Jake!
While PMax offers broad reach and AI-driven optimization, it also brings some inherent risks. Google's AI has been criticized for poor judgment before, not to mention the ongoing lack of transparency, that erodes trust among media buyers.
When it comes to lead gen, PMax campaigns can certainly help with volumes if the manager can keep up with the CPAs. But when it comes to quality, for some reason, this particular advertising format seems more prone than others to bot and generally poor quality traffic. Not sure if that's connected to AI or not, but as applications gain wider spread I hear concerns about other channels as well - Facebook more recently. Which seems to be pushing media buyers to explore alternative networks and formats in order to maintain campaign performance and profitability, especially at scale.
Creative Technologist | Revenue-Focused Product Builder | Startup and SME Growth Strategist
3moGreat article, Jake! While PMax offers broad reach and AI-driven optimization, it also brings some inherent risks. Google's AI has been criticized for poor judgment before, not to mention the ongoing lack of transparency, that erodes trust among media buyers. When it comes to lead gen, PMax campaigns can certainly help with volumes if the manager can keep up with the CPAs. But when it comes to quality, for some reason, this particular advertising format seems more prone than others to bot and generally poor quality traffic. Not sure if that's connected to AI or not, but as applications gain wider spread I hear concerns about other channels as well - Facebook more recently. Which seems to be pushing media buyers to explore alternative networks and formats in order to maintain campaign performance and profitability, especially at scale.