Hi Amit. Welcome back everyone to the paid search girls podcast. Gals paid search girls podcast. A meet and I have been working in paid search for 30 years combined. We've managed millions and millions of dollars of ad spend. I think we added it all up. We had have no idea at this point it's that many millions. And we also got invited to a Google news announcement. And so we want to make some some content here around the new information we got. We will link to the blog post below and talk about some things that we would really all be excited about that are finally here. I would say how long has been around? 5 years now. Four years. I thought it was like three. Three years. Three two three two jez time flies. But it's all coming to PMAX. So today we're going to talk about it because they made a lot of announcements and we were like I said very privy to them. A lot of them have to do with really enhanced visibility in performance max which we've all been dying for. And so I mean really when I look at this announcement, Google is giving us significant improvements they are to the reporting. I think that that is absolutely huge. I think anytime we're given information, we as advertisers learn how to manipulate that information and either pull back spend or increase spend. Now, with all of it, you know, you and I could talk in here about what we're going to be getting, but we can also talk about what we will not be getting. And I probably have an interesting take on this. I probably would say that I don't care what we're not getting because beggars can't be choosers and what we are getting I feel like is so good that at least that will make a difference for advertisers. But we can talk about it. Yeah. I think for me it was just kind of nice to see like for for so long we've been sitting around going oh Google doesn't listen Google doesn't listen Google doesn't listen and the getting to be on this call was kind of really cool cuz it was this moment of just getting confirmation from them where they said we take notes we hear it sometimes things take a little while to get done cuz obviously they're a massive company and I think that's something that we kind of have a tendency to forget I know that I do for sure is that sometimes I'm like well why can't you just change it like it's so easy just change it but like we actually have to understand that this is a massive platform that they're making changes to. It's going to maybe take a year or two. So, it's just kind of really cool to be able to see the things that we've been asking for finally kind of starting to come our way cuz I think that'll build a little bit more trust especially with Performance Max cuz I think Google's lost a lot of trust from advertisers because of the the way that they had presented it. And now, you know, with all of the increased visibility that we're going to be able to get, I think that's going to help kind of bridge that gap a little bit better for advertisers and and Google now. Yeah, I would agree. So, you know, obviously one of the things when they're saying we're getting more information, it's going to be this new channel reporting report in performance maps and we're going to have a campaign level summary is what they're saying across search, YouTube, discovery, Gmail, display, search partners, and maps. I think I got them all. Did I Did you say shopping? Everything. Yeah, shopping. I probably didn't say search, YouTube, Discovery, Gmail, Display, Search, Maps, and Shopping. There's just so many now. It's just hard to keep remember all those. But this basically is going to allow us as marketers and advertisers to see which channels are the ones that are engaging customers and contributing to the goals. Now, I think the biggest thing there is we're not going to be able to take ourselves out. We're not going to be able to control goals at the channel level. We're not going to be able to say, "Oh, we don't want that maps." I think those things are key. However, I think just the ability to read is really really awesome because as sort of coming into our evolution as strategists and not lever pullers, a strategist should be able to say, "Oh, wait. We increased spend over here on Amazon or we did a PR press release or we did a TV ad and now all of a sudden XYZ is going up." And be able to make those correlations. I think it puts us in a role a little bit more as marketers and knowing what else is going on with our brand and in the marketing ecosystem and then being able to tie that back to what's happening in our Google campaigns. So, I'm okay with it. I I know on the call there's always push back. It's like you're giving us this information but we can't control it. We can't set a row goal at these levels. We can't turn it off. Okay. But you can use what you know about how Google's automation is leaning into XYZ based on other things you're doing to feed what you're doing in other media. That's my take on fair. What else did it say? It did. I believe they said we're going to be able to drill down, right, and identify areas for improvement. So they said something like placement reports for display on YouTube. I find that one interesting because they're saying we can have data, but can you take yourself off of certain YouTube channels? If I look at my performance max and I see a placement report and it's all kids channels, am I going to be able to do anything about that? Yes or no? I would assume absolutely not, but I would also assume Google wouldn't want to show me that they're placing me all over kids channels. What's your thought on that? I I feel like they did say I remember Jenny saying something along those lines, but I don't want to be quoted on that one cuz it's a feel. It's not a a very like I don't remember exactly, but I feel like somebody had asked that question. I just don't remember who it was. We are leaving this all in and Google never invite us back to their very good information. Those girls, you guys aren't even listening, man. What are you doing? Exactly. But yeah, no, I like the channel reporting side of things. I think like having that campaign level summary is going to be really cool. I think having the placement reports is going to be great. There's going to be visualization. So, we saw that on LinkedIn. Whoever leaked those images. Honestly, I don't know. I don't I mean, I get it for the clout, but like at the same time, like now you've been basically banned. So, like Yeah, that's true. Right. Was it worth it? I don't think so. Especially when those weren't even the final screenshots. It's just kind of funny to me. But then also having that format level breakdown, I think it's going to be kind of cool just to be able to see what's happening on shopping, search, that whole stuff and be able to do that comparison. I think we'll I mean even if we're not able to make a lot of changes, I think being able to see what's happening will help us kind of just dictate how we need to go, right? So like if we're just noticing that maybe shopping isn't actually working the way that we thought it was because we didn't have that visibility before, maybe we start like removing products from the feed and realize that search is the one that's driving everything. Like that'll actually help us like reallocate the budget even though we're not able to I guess physically do it. So I think that'll be really really cool. They did say that the beta enrollment for this will be in a couple weeks I think right in Mar like GML May 21 or after May 21 something like that. So the people will be able to kind of join that beta if they really really want to check it out but it's not going to be rolled out anytime soon. It's just something that's coming down the pipeline. Obviously the the search reporting side of things is still coming through. So we're going to be able to see search terms from PMAX which I think is like pretty freaking huge. You'll be able to add negatives from the report directly like we have been able to in search which also I think is freaking amazing. And then in the columns as well you'll be able to tell what search, what's shopping, what's Pmax as well. So you can make that differentiation as well. So I think I for me out of all of the things that they're giving us. I think that was the one that I'm the most excited about cuz like it's always just been like what are we actually showing up for? What keywords are we actually truly targeting? Correct. Those have always been those questions of like what what's reality? So, I think being able to see that on the search side cuz I mean I'm a search girl. I think we'll be really really cool and very excited about that one. That one was like a pretty great move. And then they also did do that increase a couple weeks, months, possibly a month, possibly two months where they went from 100 negatives to I think it's 10,000 now. So, I think that'll also help us rein in some of that wasted spend or that suspected wasted spend. So yeah, I'm like really I'm really really looking forward to that. Especially from like a a brand what's the word that I'm looking for? Like a brand safety standpoint. Like now we'll actually have a little bit more control on like what we're actually showing up for cuz that's always constantly like a big thing. It's just like what are we actually showing up for? Like what is our brand being shown shown up for? So now it's just going to be able to give us a little bit more control on that front. So I think a lot of brands who are very much like very concerned about their visibility and their own brand safety, I think this is going to help them quite a bit. Not even. I think we're we know it's going to help them quite a bit. No, I agree. I think having worked in healthcare on on major healthcare brands, this is something that they're going to enjoy. But just to play devil's advocate, so one thing that I think about with all this, I spent so much time training my clients on Performance Max, like you cannot touch it. It is what it is. This is the risks. These are the pros. These are the cons. This is why we're going to run it. Blah blah blah. And now I think to be able to get the control to put in negatives or to take your brand out of it, I'm like, "Oh man, I spent so much time coaching them that you couldn't do that." So there's a part of me that's like I hate to go back in time. And then also like I believed and maybe it was me just like gaslighting myself because I didn't have control and I was I was using performance max. I really did believe from the bottom of my heart that Performance Max was meant to operate in that lack of control environment. And so having the controls now, I'm like I almost feel like I'd be very hesitant to use them because I've spent the years thinking like this is a cutting edge campaign type that is meant to operate with this fluidity that we're now, you know, adding negatives to. I don't know. Back in the day, I would have added my brand as a negative. Now I'm like, that's how people search. And then I also, sorry, I'm probably going off on a bit of a tangent on this one because I just So I think about like a brand search that shows cuz like pretend you are a major retail brand, which is going to be the bulk of Performance Max because of that shopping component. So you're a major retailer, you sell everywhere. If you search your brand name in that product feed, it can be your brand name with multiple different stores that also sell your brand that have their feed showing up. It could be your distri, I guess you would call that your distributors, you know, and but then also your competitors will show up under your brand name and vice versa. And so I got used to kind of thinking about search differently and brand differently within the context of that product feed being up top. And so I guess I again sort of accepted that. And you could also be shown in the product feed and the search ad below it. There's just I don't know ma'am. Yeah. But my counterargument is you could just have a branded campaign in search. And I always did I would run a brand campaign and I would run a PMAX campaign and I would allow and accept the fact that my brand campaign was no longer pure because a lot of times what would happen is they would want to know well did branded search go up like in search volume? Because for me working with larger clients, the clients really wanted to know, was their marketing working? Were people coming back and searching brand? Did they see a growth in the brand searches? And I said, now that we've rolled out performance max, I'm sorry, but I can't answer that because performance max is absorbing a lot of your brand traffic. So, your brand traffic doesn't look like it's growing if we're just looking at the measurement of your brand traffic using your own brand campaign. Now I could go back to Google and ask Google to pull reports and and I can pull stuff like that but yeah I mean that was I couldn't use brand as a barometer like I used to after performance max was sorted out. Yeah. So then doesn't isn't having the the exclusions kind of the better scenario so that way we can I spent three years training my clients and my own brain that this was working this way because it was supposed to. And so I was one of the very few when Nava like how many people are going to be putting negatives in in in performance packs. I think like it was something like 85% were like me and I'm like no I I didn't like I would probably be reluctant to do it cuz I would feel like I was breaking the product. For me I don't I don't see it that way. I think the one thing that I've maintained for a really really long time is being the girl who keeps on saying yeah AI is amazing but humans need to be watching over it. And this is just another example of that. like we let PMAX run wild for however many years it's been around now at this point. We've seen what it can do, but what I think that Google's now allowing us is to really unlock it like completely. AI obviously is there for the efficiency and being able to spot those patterns better than we can. But like we're the ones who are going to be able to see that whole story much clearer better than the AI is going to be able to see it. So for me, I'm sitting there going, "Okay, well, if now I'm getting metrics like impressions, clicks, cost, and conversions, which is also coming up with that new update. I'm going to be able to make better decisions now where we're going to be able to see where PMAX has been allocating all the money. Has it actually been driving for only conversions or has it been kind of like floating around being like, okay, well, because you don't have to see what's under the hood, I don't have to show you, so I can do whatever I want." And now we're going to be able to kind of confirm that a little bit better. But now kind of this the thing that I had said before, if we're noticing that shopping is not really working very well, then we can just kind of start taking products off that shopping feed and hopefully some of that more that money will allocate itself to like something better and that'll give us a little bit more control. I do understand the the hesitance and being like, "Okay, it's I've I've got it fine-tuned. This is how it's working. Wonderful. Great. I don't want to mess with it." And I totally understand that. But like the whole purpose of AI is for it to identify the pattern. So if I give it abrupt ending in one side, it needs to go find the pattern somewhere else and I'm just redirecting it in my mind. So for me, I think yeah, honestly for me and my team, I'm going to encourage them quite a bit to to make those changes. Obviously not all at once. Obviously incrementally, like very much like anything else that I do, small steps before I actually take that full-on leap, but 100% on my end, I'm I'm camp. Make the changes. Go for it. Run for the wind. Let's see what happens because the worst thing that happens is that it breaks a little bit then we just turn it off. Yeah. Yeah. My hesitance absolutely perfectly and it just sort of gave me deja vu and reminded me that I do tell my clients all the time when I'm working with them. I'm like I am a very conservative account manager. I am not the account manager that makes a lot of changes. Now, that being said, if I were onboarding a brand new client who had never run Google ads before, I would start using these exceptions from the get-go based on this this data that Google was giving me. I would basically build it in a, you know, performance max/ oldchool way, embedding those negatives that I didn't want from the get-go and a brand and keep that a pure brand. But no, I mean, you're exactly right. They're giving us the metrics. That is what they've announced. They're giving us, you know, to your point down to the impressions cost keywords. I mean, they're they're negative conversions. Yeah. The ability. And then I think that other layer there that we probably didn't talk about, but I think it is really important is the asset level reporting as well, right? So the impressions, clicks, performance, and it gives us the ability to look at ad strength and our assets from, you know, a little bit more granular of a position. And they're also giving us diagnostics for each channel as well, which is another thing which is going to be really really cool. So like I wrote a couple examples over here. So there's one example, if you're not serving on maps, you may be missing store locations and it'll be able to identify that for you. Search limitations might be due to irrelevant landing page or irrelevant landing pages. And then the suggestion might be turn on final URL expansion. So, we're getting like they're not auto applied, but we're getting the the airs in a sense or just the R, I guess Rs, recommendations on the ch the channel level as well, which I think will be kind of cool just to sit there and be look at it and be, you know, take it with a grain of salt very much like anything else when we get suggestions is does this make sense for my client? Does it make sense for my account? Yes, the AI has identified this as a problem, but is it actually a problem? Those are the things that I kind of want everybody thinking about when they're looking at that those diagnostics is and this is the same thing with a ars right like we want you to sit there and think about it not just go yeah apply go for it go nuts we don't want that we want you guys to sit there and think about these things and be like does this actually make sense for my business or my client or whatever else and then kind of just keep on moving forward from there yeah I think these I just I don't know it's just kind of cool to me that this is finally happening this is just really cool to me that's finally happening but there are a couple other things that like I took notes from the meeting that I don't think are going to be covered in the blog post or they're not going to be covered in the blog post. Not even I don't think I've read them. We've read the blog post. So, in regards to like search partner controls, those aren't going to be happening in this feature update. It might be something that happens in the future, but right now it's just not it's just not it's not happening. And I mean annoying a little bit, but at the same time, like looking at everything that they're giving us, I'm kind of not like I'm not bothered by it. There won't be any historical data. So, we won't be able to look backwards, but we'll be looking from that day on forward. So, like when we're looking at what the changes are and what things are happening, literally just do like don't make the changes right off the bat. Let the the campaign run for like a week or two, collect your information and then start making those decisions cuz I know a lot of people are going to see it on day one and they're going to be like, "Yeah, I'm going to want to do like this exclusion and that over here and I'm going to change this up." And then suddenly you don't know what was actually like the benchmark and we want to get those benchmarks in. So, I know that I also have this tendency to like kind of run towards like the next coolest thing sometimes. So, I just want everyone to manage their expectations a little bit and I kind of just want to give word to caution there is just take it a little bit slowly. We don't know what these changes are going to look like. This is new for literally everybody. So, yeah, just take it a day at a time. Let the campaigns run for a little bit longer so you can at least collect that data and then go back in and and start making those changes. They are not sharing all interactions at this current moment like in the the platform, but essentially in the blog post when you go look at it, you'll be able to see a couple gifts in there where you'll be able to like hover over a channel name or a certain metric or something and it'll actually give you the full insight and explanation on that. And that's not something that's new to Google, but I just think it's kind of cool that they're adding it into the PMAC side of things. and they want to do that just so they can help more novice or new advertisers kind of navigate their way through PMAX because it is it can get very very complicated. And then the last thing that I had in here is that the reporting is expected to be better. The initial it may not initially answer all the questions but the toggling of the time frames will help you better understand what's happening in PMAC. So then you'll have like a period where you won't have that data and you'll have a period where you will have that data and you can still kind of do the comparison. So even though we're not getting historical data back, this is still good, right? Like the last thing that I want to hear, frankly, is just people getting mad about this. I think this is a really great thing that they're doing. They're wanting to work with us or actually listening to us. Yes, it's been years of us screaming about it, but at the same time, like I think it's time for us to really understand that like sometimes with corporations this large, it does take a little while for things to happen. So just because we're not seeing it doesn't mean it's not happening. obviously still continue to hold Google accountable, but like I think that's my biggest realization after that call was like, "Oh yeah, actually it's not like it's a 10erson team at Hopskit Media where we could do it tomorrow." You know, it's just it's not it doesn't work that way. And I for whatever reason kind of forgot that and and that call kind of brought me back to that moment of going like, "Oh, yeah, actually, yeah, that makes logical sense." I'm the one who's being a slightly unreasonable right now. So yeah, I'm very happy about all of this. I'm I'm looking forward to hearing about everybody else's hesitations and what they're really really excited about. I want to hear the questions that we might have not been able to ask them. That's what I'm really really because I just like I want to explore this even further. But obviously I don't know what I don't know or my mind is only going to go so far. So I'm really excited for this to be opened up to everybody else and just see what everybody else is thinking and what their questions are and really just kind of get involved in that in that conversation. I'm very excited for that. Yeah. No, I would agree. I think it was a great a great beginning and I agree. We're not going to listen to the complainers. I think we got we got a lot in this last round. And yeah, we'll find out too about the ability to exclude on those channels and and things like that cuz I do think that's obviously important just as important as negatives. Being able to sort of whack-a-ole when when your display ads and your YouTube ads are showing up on Kids Pop TV or worse. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, that's it on my end. That's all I kind of wanted to talk about today. Awesome. Well, hopefully you guys enjoyed this. Like, comment, subscribe, share, and follow along for for more. Bye, guys.