We’ve been optimizing and auditing ad campaigns for years, and have looked at 100’s of accounts.

Let us take a look at your account and give you a personal report with actionable next steps you can apply for a better ROAS in the next 30 days.

Request a proposal

Role-Based PPC Reports: Owners, Managers, Account Leads

One-size-fits-all reports often fail to meet the needs of different roles within a business. Business owners, marketing managers, and PPC account managers require distinct information to make informed decisions.

Tailor your PPC reports to address the specific needs of each role, ensuring clarity, relevance, and actionable insights for everyone involved.

For business owners, provide a high-level overview with a summary of key metrics such as overall ROAS, total ad spend, and revenue generated. Use simple charts and graphs to highlight trends and performance over time, and include clear, concise recommendations for strategic decisions.

Marketing managers need detailed breakdowns of each campaign’s performance, focusing on metrics like CTR, CPC, and conversion rates. Compare performance across different channels (e.g., Google Ads, Facebook Ads) to identify the most effective platforms, and suggest adjustments to budget distribution based on campaign performance and ROI.

PPC account managers require granular data on ad groups, keywords, and individual ads. Include metrics such as Quality Score, bid adjustments, and keyword performance. Highlight areas for improvement, such as underperforming keywords or ads with low CTR, and offer insights into A/B test results, audience targeting, and bidding strategies.

Improve the effectiveness of your PPC reports by tailoring them to the specific needs of each role in your team. 

Our “Dig Deeper” Report Rhythm:
One Google Sheet, Dozens of Sub-sheets

With multiple channels, funnels, and metrics to watch, having an overview of your advertising performance plus a granular view per device, keywords or audience, the process doesn’t seem like a walk in the park.

Our “dig deeper” approach – create one Google Sheet with dozens of sub-sheets.

This way, you can keep track of the top level performance where you have an instant health check of your accounts, and dig deeper into your marketing funnel, by having access to the MOFU, BOFU, and TOFU campaigns’ performance.            

Our “Dig Deeper” Report Rhythm

Immediate Diagnosis of your PPC performance

Google Sheets are a marketer’s best friend. I’d go even further. Actually, conditional formatting and IF formulas are.

Color coding, ranking by performance, by relevance score or by ROAS target – they can give you an immediate action plan on how to optimize your PPC campaigns.

Color coding for faster decisions in optimization

You can even set up “don’t make me think” formulas that tell you what to do next.     

Ad diagnosis - to pause or not to pause

Data Should Answer Questions & Inform Actions

And that can be done in the blink of an eye. If you know your data, you know your business.

That being said, watch this week’s video for more data display goodies:

How to Use PPC Data to Drive Business Decisions

Understanding your PPC data is crucial to the success of your campaigns. By transforming raw data into actionable insights, you can make informed decisions that optimize performance and drive better results.

We’ve explored the importance of tailoring reports to different roles, emphasizing the need for data that not only answers questions but also informs immediate actions.

When you know your data, you truly know your business. This knowledge empowers you to make smarter decisions, identify opportunities, and address issues before they become problems.

Got Questions?

PPC Reporting — Answered

What should a PPC report include?

A PPC report should include the metrics that directly answer the question your audience is asking. For business owners, that means revenue, ROAS, and cost. For account managers, it means campaign-level data: impressions, clicks, CTR, CPC, conversions, and conversion rate. Every report should have a clear period-over-period comparison so performance trends are immediately visible — not just raw numbers in isolation.

How often should you report on PPC performance?

Most PPC accounts benefit from a three-tier rhythm: a daily pulse check on spend and conversion volume to catch anything breaking, a weekly review of campaign and ad group performance to guide optimizations, and a monthly strategic report that evaluates ROAS, budget pacing, and goal progress. The right cadence depends on spend level — a $500/month account doesn't need daily monitoring, but a $50,000/month account does.

What's the difference between a PPC dashboard and a report?

A dashboard is always-on and designed for monitoring — it answers "is everything okay right now?" A report is a structured snapshot designed for decision-making — it answers "what happened, why, and what do we do next?" Dashboards show live data at a glance; reports provide context, analysis, and recommendations. The best PPC setups use both: dashboards for daily visibility, reports for weekly and monthly strategy.

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The post PPC Reporting Best Practices: The Report Theory Framework appeared first on Search Scientists.

In the complex world of Google Ads, understanding and managing default settings is not just a technical detail—it’s a critical factor that directly influences how your budget is spent and how effectively your campaigns perform.

These defaults act as the backbone of your account, automatically guiding bidding strategies, targeting options, and budget allocation across campaigns.

Ignoring or misunderstanding these preset configurations can lead to inefficient spending, missed opportunities, and ultimately, a poor return on your advertising investment.

Mastering how to review and adjust your Google Ads default settings empowers advertisers to take control, optimize ad delivery, and maximize every dollar spent—turning your campaigns from a cost center into a powerful revenue driver.

In this article, we will talk about:

The Critical Role of Default Settings in Google Ads

 

Google Ads is a powerful advertising platform offering a wide array of settings to manage your campaigns effectively.

However, one often overlooked aspect is the default settings applied automatically by Google Ads when you create campaigns.

These defaults fundamentally influence how your budget is spent, who sees your ads, and how your campaigns perform.

Understanding and actively managing these default parameters is essential to maximize return on investment (ROI) and avoid unnecessary spending.

When your ads appear for searches that are irrelevant, it's annoying, we get it. You can think of universal negative keyword lists like a permanent block list.

Request a proposal and we'll take an in-depth look into your account and give you suggestions on how to improve your conversions - including negative keywords.

Request a proposal

Default Bidding Strategy

 

Google Ads often assigns automated bidding strategies by default, such as “Maximize Clicks” or “Maximize Conversions,” depending on your campaign type and goals.

These strategies utilize Google’s machine learning to optimize your campaigns toward certain outcomes without manual intervention.

• Advantages: Automation simplifies campaign setup and leverages Google’s data to optimize bids for better performance.

• Risks: Default automated bidding may not align precisely with your unique business objectives or budget limits. It can lead to aggressive spending in competitive auctions or insufficient focus on high-value conversions.

Regularly review performance data and consider switching to manual bidding or hybrid strategies for greater control and efficiency.

Setting	Google Default	Recommended	Why It Matters
Bidding Strategy	Maximize Clicks	Target CPA or Manual CPC	Maximize Clicks prioritizes volume, not conversions — you pay for traffic that doesn't convert.
Geographic Targeting	Presence & Interest	Presence only	"Interest" targets users who searched for your location but are elsewhere — wasting budget on irrelevant audiences.
Ad Scheduling	All hours, all days	Peak conversion hours only	Running ads 24/7 burns budget during low-conversion windows — especially overnight.
Keyword Match Type	Broad Match	Phrase or Exact Match	Broad match triggers ads for loosely related queries, driving unqualified traffic and inflating costs.
Ad Rotation	Optimize for clicks	Rotate evenly (for testing)	Google's optimization limits your ability to A/B test ads fairly — newer ads rarely get equal exposure.
Device Targeting	All devices equally	Custom bid adjustments by device	If mobile converts at half the rate of desktop, equal spend across devices wastes significant budget.
Search Partners	Enabled	Disable until data confirms ROI	Search partner traffic often has lower intent and quality — include only after reviewing performance data.
Display Network	Enabled (in Search campaigns)	Disable	Mixing Search and Display in one campaign muddies performance data and misallocates budget.

Default Geographic Targeting

By default, Google Ads may apply broad geographic targeting settings to maximize reach, sometimes including locations outside your core target markets.

 

• Advantages: Wider reach can uncover untapped audiences.

• Risks: Ads might be shown to users in irrelevant locations, leading to wasted budget and reduced campaign effectiveness.

Refine geographic targeting by including only relevant regions and excluding non-performing areas based on conversion data.

Ad Scheduling and Delivery Method Defaults

 

Google Ads typically sets campaigns to run ads continuously throughout the day, distributing your budget evenly over time.

• Advantages: Ensures consistent visibility across all hours.

• Risks: Budget may be spent during low-conversion periods, reducing overall efficiency.

Analyze when your audience is most active or likely to convert, then schedule your ads accordingly to focus spend during high-impact time windows.

Keyword Match Types Default

 

Google often defaults to broad match keyword targeting to capture as much relevant traffic as possible.

• Advantages: Broad match keywords drive higher volumes of traffic.

• Risks: This can result in your ads appearing for irrelevant or low-intent searches, increasing cost without proportional returns.

Utilize more precise match types like phrase match or exact match and consistently add negative keywords to exclude irrelevant queries.

Ad Rotation Settings

 

The default ad rotation setting typically optimizes for clicks, prioritizing ads that get more engagement.

• Advantages: Quickly identifies which ads attract the most attention.

• Risks: This doesn’t always translate to conversions, potentially favoring ads that drive clicks but not meaningful business outcomes.

Manually control ad rotation or select “rotate evenly” during testing phases to measure true ad effectiveness based on conversions.

Device Targeting Defaults

 

Google Ads defaults to targeting all device types—desktop, mobile, and tablet—to maximize reach.

• Advantages: Broad device targeting ensures access to the widest possible audience.

• Risks: Your budget might be spent disproportionately on devices that perform poorly for your goals.

Analyze performance by device type and adjust bids or exclude devices that underperform to better allocate budget.

Step	Setting to Fix	Where to Find It & What to Change
1	Bidding Strategy	Campaign Settings → Bidding → Switch from "Maximize Clicks" to "Manual CPC" or "Target CPA" once you have 30+ conversions.
2	Geographic Targeting	Campaign Settings → Locations → Location Options → Change "Presence or Interest" to "Presence only".
3	Ad Scheduling	Campaign Settings → Ad Schedule → Review conversion data in Reports → Exclude low-performing hours and days.
4	Keyword Match Types	Ad Group → Keywords → Add keywords in Phrase ("keyword") or Exact ([keyword]) match. Pause all Broad Match variants.
5	Ad Rotation	Campaign Settings → Additional Settings → Ad Rotation → Select "Rotate Indefinitely" during testing phases.
6	Device Targeting	Campaign Settings → Devices → Set bid adjustments based on conversion data (e.g. -30% for mobile if it underperforms desktop).
7	Search Partners	Campaign Settings → Networks → Uncheck "Include Google search partners" until you've reviewed partner performance separately.
8	Display Network	Campaign Settings → Networks → Uncheck "Include Google Display Network" for all Search campaigns.

The Hidden Risks of Relying on Google Ads Default Settings

 

Using default settings in Google Ads, while convenient for quick campaign setup, carries significant risks that can negatively impact both budget efficiency and overall campaign performance.

Relying on these presets often means relinquishing granular control over critical factors such as bidding strategies, geographic targeting, keyword matching, ad scheduling, and device preferences, which may not align perfectly with your specific business goals or audience behaviors.

For instance, automated bidding defaults can lead to overspending in highly competitive markets without guaranteeing high-quality conversions, while broad geographic targeting may cause your ads to be shown to irrelevant users who are unlikely to convert, thereby wasting valuable budget.

Similarly, default broad match keywords can trigger your ads on unrelated search queries, driving unqualified traffic that inflates costs without meaningful returns.

The standard continuous ad scheduling can result in your budget being spent during hours of low user engagement or low conversion rates, diminishing the overall effectiveness of your spend.

Moreover, the default ad rotation that optimizes for clicks rather than conversions might prioritize ads that generate traffic but fail to deliver tangible business outcomes. Device targeting set to cover all platforms indiscriminately can cause funds to be funneled toward devices that do not perform well for your product or service, further eroding ROI.

Altogether, these default settings risk turning your Google Ads campaigns into inefficient spending machines, draining budgets without delivering proportional value, which ultimately undermines your marketing objectives and reduces the potential for sustainable growth.

This underscores the importance of actively auditing and customizing every aspect of your campaign settings to align with your unique business context and maximize the impact of your advertising investment.

We live, breathe & Dream Paid Traffic

Working with Search Scientists means you’ll get a team that shows up, works hard, and focuses on long-term, predictable revenue for your company.

Find out how we can immediately improve your PPC account in the next 30 days.

Who Can Benefit from Using Google Ads Default Settings

 

Google Ads default settings can be suitable for advertisers who are just starting out and need a simple, quick way to launch their campaigns without investing significant time in complex configurations.

Small businesses or individuals with limited marketing experience may find the automated defaults helpful because they rely on Google’s machine learning to optimize bids and targeting, which can deliver decent results without manual intervention.

Those with very limited budgets or resources might prefer defaults to avoid the risk of misconfiguring their campaigns.

Additionally, advertisers running short-term or experimental campaigns where speed and ease of setup are more important than fine-tuned control may also benefit from using default settings.

In these cases, defaults act as a practical baseline that allows campaigns to begin gathering data, which can later be refined and adjusted for better performance as experience grows.

However, while default settings offer convenience, they are generally less effective for advertisers seeking advanced optimization, precise targeting, or maximized return on investment.

INCREASE THE ROAS OF YOUR CAMPAIGNS IN TWO MONTHS.

Conclusion

Default settings in Google Ads serve as a convenient starting point but are not a “set it and forget it” solution.

They can significantly impact your campaign’s success, either boosting performance or silently draining your budget if left unmanaged.

A deep understanding of these defaults—and ongoing optimization—is essential to tailor your campaigns precisely to your business needs.

By customizing these foundational parameters, advertisers gain the control needed to reduce waste, increase efficiency, and transform Google Ads from a cost center into a powerful driver of growth and revenue.

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That distinction sounds academic until you look at the numbers, and that’s where most ecommerce owners get fooled. Across the roughly 150 Google Ads accounts we audit every year at Search Scientists, Performance Max almost always reports a gorgeous 3–5x ROAS. The campaign looks like a hero. But when we pull the curtain back, a huge slice of that “performance” is your own remarketing and brand traffic being recycled: people who were already going to buy from you. PMax happily takes credit for the easy conversions and reports a vanity ROAS that has very little to do with whether you’re actually growing.

The question that matters isn’t “what’s my ROAS?” It’s “what is it costing me to acquire a genuinely new customer?” And that’s the number Performance Max is structurally designed to hide.

TL;DR: Performance Max is great at harvesting demand you already created (remarketing + brand) and dressing it up as fresh growth. Standard Shopping gives you the transparency and bid control to scale new-customer acquisition profitably. If your PMax ROAS looks strong but new-customer growth has stalled or your blended CAC keeps creeping up, it’s time to take the winners PMax found and rebuild them as Standard Shopping campaigns you actually control.

Performance Max vs. Standard Shopping: the core differences

Both campaign types can serve Google Shopping ads: the product image, price, and store name you see at the top of the results page. The difference is how much of the rest of the machine they drag along with them, and how much of it you’re allowed to see.

Does Performance Max include Shopping? Yes. Shopping is one of the placements inside PMax. When you run Performance Max with a product feed, it serves Shopping ads alongside Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail, Discover, and Maps. Running PMax doesn’t replace Standard Shopping; it absorbs Shopping into a much larger, far less transparent bundle where you lose the search-term reporting and bid control a dedicated Standard Shopping campaign gives you.

Performance Max maximizes reach. Standard Shopping maximizes transparency and profitable control. The real question is which one you should be optimizing for at this stage of your growth.

Read that “Search-term visibility” row twice. The reason PMax is comfortable for Google and uncomfortable for advertisers is the same reason: you cannot see the search terms. You’re flying blind, trusting an algorithm whose incentive is to spend your budget, not to grow your business.

The hidden problem with Performance Max

We’re not anti-automation. PMax has a real job to do. The problem is that most stores treat it as the foundation of their ecommerce account when it’s really a testing-and-data-gathering tool wearing a foundation’s costume. Here’s what we see when we audit ecommerce accounts running PMax as their whole strategy.

1. It masks inefficiency behind a vanity ROAS

Performance Max is optimized to find the cheapest conversions available, and the cheapest conversions are almost always people who already know you. Returning customers. Cart abandoners. People searching your brand name. PMax scoops those up, reports them as conversions, and posts a 4x ROAS that makes the campaign look untouchable. None of that is incremental. You’d have gotten most of those sales anyway. The headline number is real; the implication that PMax caused the growth is not.

2. It doesn’t actually scale new-customer acquisition

Here’s the test that exposes it. Take a “winning” PMax campaign and double the budget. What usually happens? ROAS sags and the extra spend doesn’t bring a proportional bump in new customers. Why? Because there’s only so much warm, brand, and remarketing demand to harvest. Once PMax has milked it, more budget just hammers the same warm audiences harder. You’re paying more to reach the same people. That’s not scaling. It’s saturation wearing a growth label.

3. It steals attribution, and keeps stealing it

Because PMax runs on Display, YouTube, and Discovery, it inserts cheap impressions all over the buyer journey and then claims data-driven credit for conversions other channels actually earned. The nastier part: this doesn’t stop cleanly when you pause it. Because data-driven attribution learns from historical behavior, a recently-paused PMax campaign can keep siphoning credit during the transition period, which is exactly why a half-measure “wean off” approach makes your data unreadable.

The reframe we give every ecommerce client: treat Performance Max as a probe, not a pillar. It’s excellent at one thing: quickly telling you which products convert. Let it do that job, then take what it learned and build something you can actually steer.

When should you switch to Standard Shopping?

The honest answer comes down to data maturity. Use PMax when you have little conversion history and you genuinely don’t yet know which products sell. Its reach is a fast, blunt way to find winners. Switch to Standard Shopping when you have enough data to stop guessing and start controlling. Concretely, it’s time to make the move when you see these symptoms:

• Your customer-acquisition cost is unsustainable despite a strong PMax ROAS. The campaign reports 4x, but new customers cost more than their first-purchase value, because PMax is recycling existing demand rather than acquiring genuinely new buyers.
• New-customer growth is flat or declining as spend rises. You’re spending more month over month but the new-customer count is flat or shrinking. That’s the clearest sign PMax has saturated your warm audience.
• Efficiency collapses every time you scale budget. Each attempt to put more money into PMax tanks the return. That’s the textbook signal of audience saturation, not a scalable channel.

To be clear, we’re not anti-PMax. Performance Max is genuinely the right starting point for most new ecommerce accounts: if you have very little product-level conversion volume, you don’t have enough signal for tROAS to work reliably, and PMax’s broad reach is the fastest way to build it. What we’re against is treating PMax as a permanent foundation when your data is screaming that it’s time to take control.

One hard requirement before you switch: you need significant historical conversion data at the Product ID level. Standard Shopping’s smart bidding (and your ability to build a winners campaign) depends on Google knowing which specific SKUs convert. If your store is brand new with no conversion history, stay on PMax a while longer to gather that data first. The transition is for accounts that have earned the data, not accounts hoping to skip the learning phase.

A worked example: the $75 cart that “looked” profitable

Based on a home goods client we ran this transition for. The before/after figures below are illustrative placeholders; swap in the real numbers before publishing to make this a genuine, named-metric case study.

Picture a home goods brand with a $75 average order value and a typical ~60% gross margin (so roughly $45 of gross profit per order). It’s spending $20,000/month and PMax is reporting a clean 4.0x ROAS. On paper, a winner. Here’s what changes when you run the transition:

Per month	Before (PMax foundation)	After (Standard Shopping, ~3 months)
Ad spend	$20,000	$20,000 (held flat)
Average order value	$75	$75
Reported / blended ROAS	4.0x (PMax headline)	~4.0x blended MER (held)
New customers	~320	~450 (+40%)
New-customer CAC	~$62	~$44 (−29%)
Branded search clicks	baseline	+25%

Look at what the vanity ROAS was hiding. Same spend, and the headline return barely moved, but the metric that actually pays the bills (new customers) jumped 40%, while the cost to acquire each one fell by nearly a third. At a $75 cart with ~$45 of gross profit, the old setup was paying ~$62 to win a new customer: losing money on the first order and betting everything on repeat purchases. The new structure brought that down to roughly break-even on the first order, with repeat revenue as pure upside. And the rising branded search? That’s the top-of-funnel reallocation working, warming the market so more people come looking for you by name.

The framework: how to transition from PMax to Standard Shopping

This is the exact sequence we run when we move an ecommerce account off Performance Max as its foundation. Don’t freelance the order; the steps depend on each other.

Step 1: Steal PMax’s homework

Before you kill anything, harvest the intelligence PMax paid for. Open the PMax campaign’s product report and sort by conversions. You’re looking for the Pareto winners: the top 10–20 SKUs driving the overwhelming majority of your sales. These products have proven themselves; they’re the seed of your new structure.

Then cross-check the demand. In Audience Manager → Data sources → ecom_prod_id, look at your biggest remarketing lists (your data segments) and confirm the most-viewed and most-added products line up with those top converters. When your highest-traffic product IDs match your top sellers, you know exactly where the proven demand lives and which SKUs deserve their own campaign and budget.

Step 2: Kill PMax properly

Do not run new Standard Shopping campaigns next to a still-active PMax campaign and try to “wean off” gradually. Running both at once contaminates your attribution: PMax keeps claiming the easy conversions and siphoning data-driven credit, so you can’t read whether your new campaigns are actually working. (Google has since changed the old behavior where PMax automatically served over Standard Shopping for the same product; Ad Rank now determines which serves. Either way, the attribution contamination is reason enough to stop.) Pause PMax fully when you make the switch.

Brace for a messy transition. Expect roughly 1–3 months where the numbers look noisy as attribution re-settles and the new campaigns exit the learning phase. During this window, ignore individual campaign ROAS and judge the account on blended metrics: MER (marketing efficiency ratio) and true CAC. Those are the only numbers honest enough to tell you the truth while everything resettles.

The three-campaign structure

We rebuild Shopping as three campaigns, each with a distinct job. The structure isolates your proven winners from your experiments and keeps your brand traffic from inflating the wrong numbers.

Critically, use tROAS rather than Manual CPC for these campaigns. The whole point of Step 1 was to gather Product-ID-level conversion history during the PMax phase, and tROAS lets smart bidding leverage that history immediately, so you’re not starting bid optimization from zero.

Advanced (optional): tiered query sculpting

If you want surgical control over which campaign answers which query, you can sculpt with campaign priorities plus negative keywords. Set the Brand campaign to low priority with high bids, and the generic campaign to high priority with brand terms added as negatives. The result: a generic search hits the high-priority generic campaign first, but a brand search gets blocked there (brand is negated) and cascades down to the low-priority brand campaign. This is most effective with Manual CPC, where you control bids directly, and it’s overkill for most accounts. Reach for it only when brand and generic traffic are bleeding into each other.

Optimizing and scaling Standard Shopping

Rebuilding the structure is the start. The ongoing edge is in how you manage it, and this is the part PMax never let you do.

• Run aggressive negatives from day one. The transparency you just unlocked is worthless if you don’t act on it. Mine the search-term report constantly and cut irrelevant, low-intent, and off-brand queries fast. This is the single biggest lever Standard Shopping hands you back.
• Manage the Catch-All as an incubator. Watch the cold campaign for SKUs that start converting consistently, then graduate them into Best Sellers where they get a lower tROAS and more budget to scale.
• Loosen tROAS as returns stabilize. Once a campaign proves it can hold efficiency, gradually lower the target to unlock more volume. Tighten the target on anything drifting unprofitable.
• Use Click Share, not Impression Share, to find headroom. Click Share tells you what proportion of available clicks you’re actually winning, a far more honest growth signal than impression share. Pair it with search-lost-to-rank metrics to see where better bids or feed quality would buy you more of the clicks that matter.
• Reallocate freed budget to top-of-funnel. The whole point of leaving PMax is to stop overpaying for warm demand. Take the savings and push them into top-of-funnel channels like Meta to actually warm the market, which creates more branded and high-intent search later, making your Standard Shopping campaigns more efficient over time. Demand generation and demand harvesting are different jobs; stop asking one campaign to do both.

How to measure success (MER, not vanity ROAS)

If you judge this transition by the same vanity ROAS that hid the problem, you’ll panic in month one and revert. Don’t. Judge it on numbers that reflect the whole business:

• Total and backend revenue growth. Is the entire account, including repeat and organic-influenced sales, growing?
• New customer count. The number PMax was quietly failing at. This should climb.
• CAC and ACOS year over year. Compare against the same period last year to strip out seasonality.
• Brand-search growth. Rising branded search volume is proof your top-of-funnel spend is warming the market.
• Blended ROAS (MER) across the whole account. The single honest scorecard: total revenue ÷ total ad spend.

One mindset shift that trips people up: under data-driven attribution, your cold / non-brand Standard Shopping campaign will often get only partial credit and may report something close to a 1x ROAS in isolation. That’s fine. Expected, even. That campaign is a first-click feeder. It introduces new customers who later come back via a branded search where the profit actually stacks. Killing it because it “only” returns 1x is how you starve the top of your own funnel. Look at the whole machine, not one gear. For a deeper breakdown of which numbers actually matter, see our guide to the PPC KPIs worth tracking.

Frequently asked questions

What’s the main difference between Performance Max and Standard Shopping?

Standard Shopping serves Shopping ads on Google Search with full search-term visibility, campaign-level negative keywords, and your choice of manual or automated bidding. You can see and steer every query. Performance Max is fully automated, runs across all of Google’s networks, and hides the search-term report. The trade-off: PMax reaches further, but you lose the transparency you need to scale new-customer acquisition profitably.

Does Performance Max include Shopping?

Yes. When you run a Performance Max campaign with a product feed, Shopping is one of its placements: it serves Shopping ads alongside Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail, Discover, and Maps. So PMax doesn’t replace Standard Shopping; it absorbs Shopping inventory into a much larger, less transparent bundle. The trade-off is that you lose the search-term reporting and bid control that a dedicated Standard Shopping campaign gives you.

When should I use Performance Max vs Standard Shopping?

The decision comes down to data maturity. Use Performance Max when you have little conversion history and don’t yet know which products sell. Its broad reach is a fast way to discover winners. Switch to Standard Shopping once you have that data and you’re seeing the warning signs: unsustainable customer-acquisition cost despite a strong reported ROAS, flat new-customer growth as spend rises, or efficiency that collapses every time you scale budget. In short: PMax to discover, Standard Shopping to scale.

Is Performance Max better than Standard Shopping?

Neither is universally better; they do different jobs. Performance Max is better for discovering which products convert when you don’t have much historical data. Standard Shopping is better for profitably scaling known winners with full transparency and bid control. Most mature ecommerce accounts are best served by Standard Shopping as their core structure, using PMax selectively as a discovery tool.

Can you run Performance Max and Standard Shopping at the same time?

Technically yes, but it undermines both. Running them together contaminates your attribution: PMax keeps claiming the easiest conversions and siphoning data-driven credit from your Shopping campaigns, so you can’t tell which is actually driving results. If you want to test or transition to Standard Shopping, pause PMax fully rather than running them side by side.

What happens to sales when you pause Performance Max?

Expect 1–3 months of noisy data as attribution re-settles and your new Standard Shopping campaigns exit the learning phase. Reported ROAS often looks worse at first because PMax was inflating it with brand and remarketing conversions. Judge the transition on blended metrics: total account revenue, new-customer count, and marketing efficiency ratio (MER), not campaign-level ROAS. Most accounts see a short-term dip followed by cleaner, more scalable growth.

What clients say

“Working with Search Scientists over the past few years has been a huge factor in increasing our leads.”
Mike Swigunski ★★★★★ (Google review)

“My experience with Search Scientists has been great.”
Michael O’Keefe ★★★★★ (Google review)

Google Ads Certified · Managing PPC for small businesses since 2011.

Want us to run this transition for you?

Moving an ecommerce account off Performance Max without torching your revenue in the process is delicate work. The wrong sequence, a premature scale, or a misread of the messy transition period can cost you a quarter of growth. It’s exactly the kind of restructure we run for ecommerce clients: stealing PMax’s homework, rebuilding into a controlled three-campaign structure, and measuring on MER instead of vanity ROAS.

If your Performance Max ROAS looks great but your new-customer growth has stalled, let us show you what’s actually happening under the hood. Grab a free Google Ads audit and we’ll tell you exactly where your spend is being recycled instead of growing your business. No obligation, just a clear read on your account.

The post Performance Max vs. Standard Shopping: When (and How) to Make the Switch appeared first on Search Scientists.

The Google Ads Optimization Score is a critical metric that shows how well your ad campaigns align with Google’s best practices. Ranging from 0% to 100%, this score helps you identify areas for improvement to enhance campaign performance.

In this article, Search Scientists delves into what the optimization score is, why it’s essential, and provides specific tips to boost your score for better results.

All that you will find in this article

Add a header to begin generating the table of contents

What is Google Ads Optimization Score

Before you start improving your Google Ads Optimization Score, it’s important to know why this score matters for your ad campaigns. The Google Ads Optimization Score ranges from 0% to 100%, with 100% meaning your account is performing at its best. This score shows how well your account is doing and points out areas that need work.

The score helps advertisers improve their campaigns with Google’s recommendations. These cover various campaign types like:

• Search
• Display
• Video auction
• Shopping

Each recommendation is weighted by how much it can improve your account. While you don’t have to follow them all, these tips can help you find ways to boost your campaigns and settings.

A score above 80% is good, and with active management, you can aim for over 90%.

The optimization score is a dynamic metric that evaluates your Google Ads account’s performance in real-time. This score ranges from 0% to 100%, with 100% indicating optimal performance. You can find this score at various levels within your account, including the campaign, account, and manager levels. It serves as a diagnostic tool, helping you pinpoint areas that need improvement.

Each level—whether a specific campaign, the entire account, or a manager account—can have different optimization scores, reflecting their unique performance and optimization needs. By regularly monitoring these scores, you can refine your ad campaigns, make the most of your advertising budget, and achieve your business goals more effectively.

Why Your Optimization Score Matters

Maintaining a high optimization score is crucial for several specific reasons:

1. A high score means your campaigns are well-optimized, which can lead to your ads being placed in more favorable positions on Google’s search results and partner sites.

2. When your campaigns are optimized, you can achieve better performance at a lower cost.

3. Optimized campaigns are more likely to reach the right audience with the right message, resulting in higher conversion rates. 

4. A high score indicates compliance with Google’s best practices. This includes relevant ad copy, appropriate keyword selection, and optimal targeting settings. Following these guidelines improves your account’s overall performance.

5.  By adhering to best practices, your ads become more relevant to users’ search queries, increasing the likelihood of engagement and conversions.

Consistently tracking and acting on these scores ensures your ad campaigns operate at their peak, allowing you to promptly address underperforming areas.

Score Range	Status	What It Means	Recommended Actions
0 – 49%	Critical	Campaign has major structural gaps: missing extensions, single ads per group, no RSAs, or unreviewed recommendations.	Run a full manual audit. Add RSAs, enable all relevant ad extensions, review keyword match types.
50 – 69%	Needs Work	Basic setup is in place but key optimizations are missing. Google is likely flagging bidding strategy or keyword gaps.	Review and selectively apply recommendations. Prioritize extensions and bidding adjustments.
70 – 84%	Good	Campaign is well-structured. Remaining recommendations may not align with your strategy.	Evaluate remaining suggestions carefully. Dismiss irrelevant ones with a reason to recalculate your score accurately.
85 – 100%	Excellent	Campaign follows Google's best practices. However, a high score does not guarantee high ROI.	Focus on actual KPIs — ROAS, CPA, conversion rate. Don't chase 100% at the cost of strategic control.

How Google Calculates Your Optimization Score

Understanding how Google calculates your optimization score is essential for improving it. The score is calculated in real-time based on several factors, including your account and campaign statistics, ad relevance, keyword selection, targeting settings, and the use of ad extensions.

Google analyzes the performance data, settings, and status of your account and campaigns. Ad relevance is assessed to ensure your ads are closely related to the search queries they target. The effectiveness and appropriateness of your chosen keywords are evaluated. Targeting settings are checked to see how well they align with your desired audience. The use and effectiveness of ad extensions, like site links and callouts, are also considered.

By following these tips, you can:

• Make sure your ads are hitting the mark with your audience.
• Choose keywords that drive better results.
• Reach the right people more effectively.
• Use extensions to enhance your ad’s visibility and appeal.

Keeping an eye on your optimization score and acting on these insights can lead to better ad placements, lower costs per click, and higher conversion rates.

How Does Real-Time Data Analysis Impact Google Ads Optimization Score

Real-time data analysis keeps your Google Ads Optimization Score up-to-date by constantly evaluating various data points. This ensures your score reflects your current ad performance, directly influencing your Ad Rank. Google’s AI and machine learning tools analyze past performance data and your account setup, providing tailored recommendations based on predicted outcomes.

These recommendations help you achieve the best performance by using historical data and forecast models.

Some recommendation types can automatically update with changing metrics, making it crucial to act quickly to maintain a high score. 

How Do You Find Your Optimization Score in Google Ads

 Finding your optimization score in Google Ads is easy and quick. To locate it, go to the Recommendations tab in the left-side menu of your Google Ads account. This tab gives you a full view of your account’s performance and shows areas needing improvement.

You can see the optimization score at the campaign, account, and manager account levels. It’s displayed in the edit panel on the right side of the data table under the Recommendations tab. Regularly checking this tab helps you stay updated on your account’s health and take timely steps to improve your optimization score.

How Do You Access the Recommendations Tab in Google Ads

Start by signing into your Google Ads account.

Once logged in, navigate to the left-hand menu and click on ‘Recommendations’. This will take you to a summary page displaying all the tailored recommendations for your Google Ads account.

The Recommendations tab offers actionable insights and suggestions to improve your campaign performance. It covers everything from enhancing bidding strategies to adding new keywords. 

Using Google Ads Editor is another efficient way to view your optimization score. In the latest version, V1.3, you can see your optimization score directly within the editor interface. This feature is available on the Recommendations summary page, with the score displayed above the data table.

To view your optimization score in Google Ads Editor, click on ‘View recommendations’. This takes you to the recommendations summary page, where you can see the score and detailed suggestions for improving your campaigns.

How Can You Improve Your Google Ads Optimization Score

Improving your Google Ads Optimization Score requires a strategic approach. Start by implementing Google’s recommendations found in the Recommendations tab.

These suggestions are tailored to enhance bids, keywords, and ads, introducing new features and improving campaign efficiency.

Refining your keyword strategy is also crucial. Regularly review and optimize your keyword list by adding relevant keywords and removing those that are underperforming.

Google’s recommendations provide insights into the potential outcomes of these changes, helping you gauge their impact. Testing these recommended changes and monitoring their effects on your campaigns is vital for continuous improvement. Prioritize the recommendations that align with your business goals and have the most significant impact on your performance.

How Can You Refine Your Keyword Strategy

Refining your keyword strategy is essential for achieving a high optimization score. Start by incorporating negative keywords to filter out irrelevant traffic, ensuring your ads reach the right audience. Removing redundant keywords can reduce internal competition, improving overall campaign performance.

Adding high-performing search queries as keywords can expand your campaign’s reach and increase traffic. Regularly update and refine your keyword list based on performance data to prevent keyword cannibalization and enhance ad relevance. Understanding the value of different keyword types in Google Ads will help you make informed decisions about which keywords to prioritize.

What Are the Benefits of a High Optimization Score

Maintaining a high Google Ads Optimization Score offers numerous benefits that can significantly enhance your advertising efforts. A high score leads to better ad placements, as Google favors well-optimized ads, placing them in more prominent positions on search results pages. This increased visibility can boost your ads’ click-through rates, driving more traffic to your website.

Moreover, a high optimization score can result in lower costs per click (CPC). Google Ads rewards well-performing campaigns by reducing CPC, making your advertising more cost-efficient. Additionally, higher conversion rates are often associated with high optimization scores, ensuring your campaigns reach their target audience effectively and achieve optimal performance.

Overall, maintaining a high optimization score provides a competitive edge over other advertisers, ensuring that your Google Ads account operates at its full potential and delivers the best possible results.

Achieving a high optimization score can significantly enhance your Ad Rank and Quality Score.

Here’s how:

• An improved Quality Score results from high ad relevance and a positive landing page experience. A high optimization score indicates that your ads are closely aligned with users’ search queries and that your landing pages provide a good user experience.
• A higher Quality Score directly contributes to a better Ad Rank. This can lead to more prominent ad placements on search results pages and potentially lower costs per click (CPC). 

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What Are the Most Common Mistakes When Acting on Your Optimization Score?

Many advertisers treat the Optimization Score as an absolute performance indicator, and that is precisely where things go wrong. This score simply reflects how well your settings align with Google’s algorithmic recommendations, not your actual return on investment. When chasing a perfect number becomes the priority, you risk draining your budget.

Here are the most common pitfalls marketers encounter and how to navigate them.

• Applying every recommendation automatically

Google’s suggestions are generated algorithmically and do not account for your specific campaign strategy, brand voice, or audience nuances. For instance, Smart Bidding recommendations may aggressively push you toward Target CPA before your campaign has collected enough conversion data, leading to erratic bids and wasted spend.

• Chasing 100% at the cost of control

A perfect score does not equal perfect performance. Accepting broad match keywords or removing negative keywords you deliberately added will inflate your score, but it will also widen your reach far beyond your target audience, flooding your account with irrelevant traffic.

• Ignoring low-score campaigns

A score below 50% usually signals structural issues rather than a need for quick fixes. These campaigns often suffer from missing ad extensions, single-ad groups, or a lack of responsive search ads. They deserve a comprehensive manual audit, not just a one-click automated solution.

• Not dismissing irrelevant recommendations

Google actually counts dismissed recommendations toward your score. If a suggestion genuinely does not fit your strategy, simply dismiss it and select a reason. This removes it from the score calculation, keeps your dashboard clean, and protects your performance without sacrificing your control.

What Are the Potential Pitfalls of Relying Solely on Optimization Score

While maintaining a high optimization score can be beneficial, relying solely on it can have drawbacks.

Over-focusing on the optimization score can lead to tunnel vision, causing you to lose sight of broader marketing goals and critical campaign KPIs. Striving for a 100% optimization score may sometimes result in increased advertising budgets and overlook important campaign metrics.

Optimization recommendations might miss the context of a campaign, leading to suboptimal keyword suggestions or changes that aren’t suitable for every specific campaign. 

Always evaluate Google’s recommendations carefully and monitor the score regularly.

Summary

The Google Ads Optimization Score is a powerful tool that offers valuable insights into the health and performance of your ad campaigns. Understanding how the score is calculated and implementing strategies to improve it can significantly enhance your advertising efforts. A high optimization score can lead to better ad placements, lower costs per click, higher conversion rates, and a competitive edge in the digital marketing landscape.

However, it’s crucial to balance optimization score improvements with your broader business objectives. Over-relying on automated recommendations and focusing solely on the score can result in missed opportunities and misaligned strategies.

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The post How Can You Improve Your Google Ads Optimization Score? appeared first on Search Scientists.

Do you need Facebook Advertiser access to your client’s account but find yourself overwhelmed when it comes time to do it? Granting the access can feel intimidating if you don’t know your way around. While it might feel like wandering around a Minecraft world, don’t panic! We’ll give you the map to requesting access to your client’s account.

How to Request Advertiser Access on Facebook

You might be desperately combing through the Facebook help files in search of a step by step guide to requesting access, but there’s no need with this easy to follow guide.

Step 1 - How to Request Advertiser Access on Facebook

First, navigate to the Business Settings.

Find Accounts and then choose Pages. Now, select Request access to Facebook Ad Account ID. You will need to enter the ad account ID to request access.

If the client is unsure of what their Account ID is, they can find it by signing into Facebook Ads Manager and selecting Settings from the dropdown menu. Next, they’ll click Share the Facebook Ad Account ID.

After you make your request, the client should receive a notification. If that doesn’t happen, they should recheck the Ad Account ID for any pending requests in the Ad Account Roles section.

After the client has granted you access, you still have a few steps left. First, you will visit Business Settings again. Look for Accounts. Click the Add People button and add yourself as the admin.

Need Access to the Facebook Page Too?

Being granted advertiser access doesn’t give you access to make edits to the Facebook Business Page itself. It’s like one of those infomercials “but WAIT, there’s more!” To have the ability to this requires a different kind of access. To start the process, your client will click Settings at the top right while logged into their business page.

Now go to the left side of the page and find Page Roles. Click it, and you’ll be brought to a new screen where you can add people to your page.

In the middle of the screen, you’ll find the Page Roles section. Be sure to provide the client with the email address you’d like added. The email needs to be typed into the Page Roles section and then they’ll have to select the person in the drop-down that appears. Click on the dropdown to the right of the box that says Editor, choose the most appropriate page role and click Add. At this point, the client will be asked to enter their password.

From here, you – the advertiser – will be sent an invite you will have to accept before you can access the page. If you’re unsure of the page role your client should assign to you, you can learn more about Facebook page roles in the help section.

Trying to figure out how to get access to an account can be a struggle if you aren't familiar with the platform. But when you have someone to show you the way it isn't so intimidating anymore.

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Step 1.5 – Requesting Advertiser Access AND Facebook Page Access (All in One Place)

Before you can successfully run ads, you don’t just need advertiser access—you also need access to the actual Facebook Page. Think of it like being given the keys to the advertising engine (Ads Manager), but still needing permission to sit in the driver’s seat (the Page itself).

The good news? You can request both access types in a streamlined process through Meta Business Settings.

How to Request Advertiser Access AND Page Access

Start by heading into Business Settings inside Meta Business Suite. Once inside, follow these steps:

1. Go to Accounts → Ad Accounts
   
   • Click Add → Request Access to an Ad Account
   • Enter the Ad Account ID provided by your client
   • Select your role (usually Advertiser or Analyst)
2. Next, go to Accounts → Pages
   
   • Click Request Access to a Page
   • Enter the Facebook Page name or URL
   • Choose the appropriate permission level (typically Advertiser access with content/ads permissions)

At this point, your client will receive a notification to approve both requests.

Once submitted:

• The client must approve access from their Business Settings → Requests tab
• You may also see pending approvals under Business Settings → Requests Sent
• After approval, both the Ad Account and Page will appear in your Business Manager dashboard

Advertiser access alone does NOT allow you to:

• Post or edit content on the Page
• Manage Page settings or messaging
• Run full-funnel campaigns that require Page-level permissions

To fully manage ads, you need both:

• Ad Account access (for running ads)
• Page access (for connecting creatives, engagement, and identity)

Without both, you’ll constantly run into restrictions—even if your ad account access is correctly set up.

Step 2 - Facebook Pixel Creation

Now that you have Facebook advertiser access, you’ll need to create the Pixel (if one doesn’t already exist). The Pixel will allow you to track a variety of actions on the client’s website including visits from users who click your links on Facebook, those who initiate checkout or complete a designated action.

Since you will be managing the client’s account, it’s best to create the Pixel through Business Manager. Remember, only account admins can create Facebook Pixels which makes completing Step 1 essential.

To create the Pixel, start by signing into Ads Manager. Next, click the gear on the top right side of the screen. This is the Business Settings.

On the left side of the screen are several bold menus with dropdowns. Click the dropdown arrow for Data Sources and select Pixels.

Click the blue +Add button next to Pixels.

A box will pop up and ask you for some information. Name your Pixel in the Pixel Name box. Then, enter the website URL in the box with the same name and click Create.

Installing the Pixel

When you click Create, you’ll be brought to a new screen with instructions to install the Facebook Pixel. You can choose from several options, such as connecting a platform like Google Tag Manager, Shopify, Big Commerce, or Wix. In addition, you can also get the code to install manually or email the code to a developer so they can install it for you.

Once you’ve installed the code, you’ll need to set up the events. They work hand in hand like runners in a relay to measure your goals and conversions. Facebook will ask you to choose the industry that best fits what you do, so they can offer you the events that are best suited to your industry. Click the dropdown and set up the events you’d like to track.

Verify the event setup by scrolling down and clicking the green button labeled Test Event Setup. When you’ve verified that your events work properly, click Done.

Pixel access

If you’ve created the Facebook Pixel yourself, then you already have access to it, and you’re covered. If someone else has created the Pixel, you’ll need to make sure you have access – if you’ve been properly added as an admin you will be able to navigate to the Pixel(s) from the Business Settings. You’ll find it under Events Manager. Here, you’ll see the Pixel and its activity.

You’ll also be able to find the Pixel ID. Make a note of the ID so that you can verify the correct Pixel is on your client’s website. Then, click Detail.

This will bring you to the Pixel and events setup where you can get the installation information for the Pixel or set up the events you’d like to track.

Facebook Pixel Helper

We suggest you get the Facebook Pixel Helper Chrome Extension. This handy little tool will assist you in confirming the Facebook Pixel is firing correctly. You can also check to see that your events are firing. You can review the custom parameters, load time, and more. It takes the guesswork out of Pixel verification.

Step 3 - Facebook Catalog Creation and Access

You’re in the home stretch now! You’ve requested and been granted Advertiser access, you’ve created a Pixel, and now you need to create the Product Catalog (if the client sells products). The first thing you should know is that the Facebook Pixel must be installed before the catalog can be set up.

You may or may not be familiar with what a product catalog is. A product catalog allows you to upload all of your products and information about them. Once you do this, you can use the product catalog to create dynamic ads, open a Facebook shop, tag products on Instagram, and generate regular Facebook ads and posts.

Product Catalog Setup Via Plugin or Integration

There are two possible ways to upload your product catalog. The way you upload your catalog depends on the platform you use for your website. If you’re using Shopify, Magento, WordPress, or another content management system, you should check to see if there is an integration that will upload your catalog for you.

Manual Facebook Catalog Setup Guide:

If a plugin or integration isn’t available for your website setup, then you’ll have to manually set up your Facebook Product Catalog. This can be done by going to the Business Settings in Ads Manager. From the dropdown menu, select Catalogs from under the Assets column.

Once you’re in the Catalog Manager, click the blue Create Catalog button.

Review the steps for creating a catalog by following the prompts. First, you’ll choose your industry – E-commerce, Travel, Real Estate, or Auto. At this point, the directions will vary slightly based upon your industry, but you’ll want to choose a manual upload since you don’t have an integration to use. When you do this, you’ll either upload individual products one at a time or add products in bulk.  

When you’ve finished, click Create Catalog. Now you’re all set!

Troubleshooting Advertiser Access and Pixel Creation

From time to time, you may run into trouble. When things don’t go as planned, the best place to start is the Facebook Business Ads Help Center. If you still can’t find an answer, or all efforts have failed, try contacting support. While things generally go smoothly, you never know what may come up.

With everything created and access granted, you’re ready to create your first ad set. Now that you have access to your client’s Facebook Ads account, you can go on and learn strategies to make your ads successful!

The post Facebook Advertiser Access: How to Grant Client Access appeared first on Search Scientists.

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You may have looked at your website’s analytics data lately and found a frustrating trend. People are visiting, but they’re not filling out your lead form, calling, or buying. On the surface, you feel like your website is compelling, helpful, and to the point, but it’s just not converting. A low website conversion rate means your site isn’t doing its job, but how do you fix it? Many digital marketers turn to the principles of conversion rate optimization; Moz suggests to identify friction points and transform passive browsers into active customers.

You need conversion rate optimization or CRO! 

Read on, we’re talking about seven valuable strategies that you can use for improving your website’s conversion rate.

What is a Conversion, after all?

As you know, a conversion is when someone performs a goal action on your site. Most of us think about conversions in terms of bottom of the funnel conversions like a purchase, phone call, or form fill. The truth of the matter is a well-rounded marketing strategy has conversions that are appropriate for every step in the funnel. They can run the gambit from a small action like a newsletter signup to a large action like a yearlong subscription.

Micro-Conversions Versus Macro-Conversions

Not all conversions carry the same weight. Just like everything else in life they come in all sorts of sizes. Conversions are measured based on intent, and micro-conversions have less importance than macro-conversions.

Think about a micro-conversion as a low commitment action. Signing up for a newsletter or watching a video on your site are great examples of this. It’s basically a step on the way to completing your primary goal – gaining a lead or customer.

A macro-conversion, on the other hand, is the whole enchilada – the thing you’re going for. A macro-conversion is a purchase, an appointment, or lead form submission. It’s a more significant commitment, a bigger ask of the user.

OKAY, So What is MY WEBSITE Conversion Rate?

Now that you know what a conversion is, you might want to know how to find your website’s Conversion Rate. You can do this by using a little math. 

Conversion Rate = Conversions ÷ Sessions/Users (number of visits/users to the site) X 100.

What is CRO: Conversion Rate Optimization?

Moz defines CRO as:

"the systematic process of increasing the percentage of website visitors who take a desired action — be that filling out a form, becoming customers, or otherwise. The CRO process involves understanding how users move through your site, what actions they take, and what's stopping them from completing your goals."

In layman’s terms, it’s figuring out why someone doesn’t do what you’d like them to do on your website. It may sound easy, but it requires systematic testing and data analysis to produce results.

Getting Started with Conversion Rate Optimization

Not seeing the numbers you’d like to see? It doesn’t matter whether you want to completely overhaul a page or your whole website or just tune up a page. 

The strategies you’ll use will be the same no matter how big, or small your job might be. The process is a lot of educated trial and error while analyzing your data, and sometimes even enlisting outside opinions to improve the user experience.

Begin by Setting a Baseline

First things first, you need a baseline before you can do anything. Much like you step on a scale before going on a diet, you should check your site’s vital stats before trying to make changes. Take a full assessment of your Google Analytics (or other tool you might use) from bounce rate to time on site. Take a peek at your attribution model as well, and make sure it’s right for your business model. It doesn’t make sense to try to improve things before you know what needs to be improved.

Now that you’re not flying blind, you can choose which metrics to focus on for your strategy and testing.

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CRO Strategy 1 - Try a Custom Landing Page

The term landing page gets thrown around a lot these days, but in essence, a landing page is the page people end up on when they click on some form of marketing. This marketing can be an email, a social media post, or some type of paid search or paid social marketing. If you’re sending your marketing traffic to a regular old page on your site, you should consider a custom landing page.

These landing pages come with many benefits. You can take away all distractions like navigation, and ensure they’re laser-focused on your campaign’s goal. There are also other fantastic options like dynamic keyword insertion, so visitors can see their queries in the page content. Customization can be used to tailor your content to the user. When it comes to paying for traffic, you should think strategically about where you send it.

A/B Test your Landing Pages

Possibly the best option afforded to you by using a landing page to improve your conversion rate is A/B testing. Using a landing page will allow you to test different page variants with a test element. For instance, no one can help but click that big red button, right? Maybe… but let’s prove with data that your big red button works better. A/B testing page elements like button color, call to action, and certain offers will allow you to uncover the best combination for the highest conversion rate.

Behind the scenes tip: Google Optimize is an awesome free tool for A/B testing your landing pages. We’re probably optimizing our SearchScientists.com pages with Google Optimize as you’re reading this sentence.

CRO Strategy 2 - Simplify Your Navigation

There are many things you can do to optimize your website for conversions. Something many people tend to overlook is the navigation. If a user can’t find what they want, then there’s no way they’ll ever convert. Simplifying the navigation can go a long way towards increasing leads or purchases.

How many levels deep does your navigation go? If your navigation feels like Dante’s Inferno, you’re doing it wrong. Sure, you don’t want to create pages that are too long, but 10-level deep navigation doesn’t serve anyone either. The best way to lay things out is to make it an intuitive, simple path.

CRO Strategy 3 - Test Colors

Don’t let anyone tell you color doesn’t matter. Could you eat in a pink dining room? How about an orange bedroom? Okay, well maybe some of us can tolerate that, but not all of us. Do you have an established color palette? If not, now is the time to establish one. Take some time to learn more about color theory.

 

Think about your Call to Action buttons too. You’ll want to make them stand out. They should say “click me!” Remember, the objective is to make someone want to perform your goal action.

CRO Strategy 4 - Try Video

Try a change of pace with video. Impactbnd offers some stats that no business can afford to ignore, like:

● 72% of businesses say video has improved their conversion rate.
● 52% of consumers say that watching product videos makes them more confident in online purchase decisions
● 65% of executives visit the marketer’s website and 39% call a vendor after viewing a video.

What all of these numbers really mean is that using video is likely to have a positive impact on your conversion rate. 

Video offers an explanation of your words and breaks up the endless sea of characters on the page. Much like images, it provides a much-needed respite as well as more information. You can show your product in use, offer additional details, show testimonials, or give product instructions. Remember, your video should remain short – 2-3 minutes – or you will have defeated the purpose of using a video.

[Speaking of video, the Search Scientists YouTube channel is full of goodies and waiting for you to subscribe ;)]

CRO Strategy 5 - Calls to Action

Are you telling your users what you’d like them to do? You’ve spent all of this time making your website look fabulous and improving your user experience, but have you told your users what you’d like them to do?

Wait! Before you say “yeah, my form says ‘Submit’,” stop yourself right there. It’s not compelling or exciting. Sure, it’s an action in the verb sense, but that’s about it. An appropriately-worded Call to Action could raise your conversion rate by more than 83%, according to Neil Patel. More importantly, it’s about psychology. We act on things because something drives us to do it. Plain and simple.

CRO Strategy 6 - Social Proof

Social proof has many forms, but we often see it as things like testimonials and product reviews. This proof connects people with your brand and instills trust. According to VWO, “70% of consumers say they trust opinions posted online.” Think about these social proofs as a form of personal referral for the modern age.

CRO Strategy 7 - Tweak Your Copy

Passive copy is boring and unengaging. Same as your ad copy, your website copy needs to have a specific structure to be effective. It should be short, easy to read, and broken up with plenty of headlines that allow for scanning. It shouldn’t contain a lot of unfamiliar jargon or complicated words. 

All of your essential should be above the fold so that someone can find what they are looking for what they need quickly. Your copy must be benefits-focused, illustrating why prospective customers need your product or service. You want to convey facts, but you’ll need to become a storyteller.

CRO Strategy 8 – Guide the Eye, Lead the Journey

Picture this: You’re browsing an art gallery. Each piece has been carefully curated, strategically placed to catch your eye, guiding you from one masterpiece to the next.

You move effortlessly through the gallery, fully immersed in the experience. The art speaks to you because the journey is seamless.

Now, imagine your website as that gallery. Every element, from headlines to images, plays a role in guiding the visitor’s eye.

 

When you think about Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), it’s easy to get caught up in technical details—A/B testing, metrics, and heatmaps. But at its heart, CRO is about storytelling. 

Start with your layout.

• Where do you want your visitors to go?
• What do you want them to do?

Each choice, from the size and color of your buttons to the placement of your calls to action, should guide the eye in a way that feels intuitive.

Think of it as setting up a trail of breadcrumbs—a gentle, almost subconscious nudge in the right direction.

The content you choose to highlight is equally important. Your most compelling offer, your strongest testimonial—these should stand out, drawing the eye just as a spotlight draws attention to a piece of art.

Conversion Rate Optimization - Constantly weigh performance against data

Strategies to increase conversions are systematic and can be done on specific pages or across a whole site. They employ a mix of creativity and data analysis. Success isn’t measured by some arbitrary number; instead, you set your own goals based on metrics that make sense to your organization.

At the end of the day, you might ask yourself, “what does CRO mean?” The answer doesn’t have to be complicated. Conversion optimisation means the design of your website or landing page isn’t set in stone. You need to always be testing it, and weighing its performance against the data. Tools like Google Analytics, UserTesting, and Hotjar are your friends. Guesses are just too costly in the CRO marketing business. If you make a user want to take an action, really crave it, they will.

Now that you’re armed with the strategies, go start optimizing your website!

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)?

CRO is the process of improving your website or landing page to increase the percentage of visitors who take a specific action, such as making a purchase or filling out a form.

Why is CRO important for my business?

CRO helps you maximize the value of your existing website traffic by converting more visitors into customers, leading to increased revenue and better business performance.

How do I know if my website needs CRO?

If you’re getting traffic to your site but not seeing enough conversions (sales, sign-ups, etc.), it’s a sign that your site may benefit from CRO.

What are common elements to optimize in CRO?

Common elements include headlines, calls to action, page layout, forms, images, and overall user experience.

How long does it take to see results from CRO?

The time to see results can vary, but many businesses start noticing improvements within a few weeks to a few months after implementing CRO strategies.

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