Talked to a guy who's been doing PPC since 2008 and it changed how I look at optimization

I was at a coffee shop in Portland last week and this older guy overheard me complaining about Google Ads. He's been running campaigns since the early days and told me he still manually checks search terms every single day instead of relying on automated rules. Said he caught a 40% waste in one campaign just by reading actual queries. Made me realize I've been trusting smart bidding way too much without looking under the hood. Has anyone else gone back to manual checks after leaning hard on automation?

2 comments

2 Comments

iris_green8427d ago

Wait did he say what specific search term patterns tipped him off to that waste?

taylor.jessica27d ago

He mentioned some long-tail keywords like "how to hide my Microsoft Teams status from my boss" mixed with "filing for disability leave." Honestly, those are the kind of searches I'd probably make after a particularly rough Monday. So maybe I'm the one who needs to be audited.