We are a podcast and we love podcasts so we are very happy to have one of the co-hosts of Marketing O’Clock – Greg Finn. Recently Marketing O’Clock and this very podcast were listed on SEJ’s Top SEO Podcasts – so thanks to them for listing both of us along with some other great shows.

The final straw for Greg and the where the guys started to dig in is with the following image and tweet:

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><figcaption>Tweet by Greg in December 2020.</figcaption></figure>

The 74% score bump that set Greg off was for Google Shopping. The discussion turned to the issues with this type of recommendation.

Google Partners Badge & Status

The partners program in 2020 was to require agencies to maintain 70% scores but it has been pushed back to 2021. For Greg the issue is that to keep in the Google Partners Program agencies will need to keep a certain score but so often to do that goes against the best interests of the client.

So what are agencies to do? Help sell for Google or protect the client? The recommendations so often go against what will drive ROI

Pros to Google AI Recommendations

While it was difficult to get some Pros to the recommendations from Greg we did get a couple of suggestions and ways it can help:

• Search Partners – maybe there are times where it does make sense as something to do that you missed.
• If you are running out of budget on a campaign so raising the budget is something that makes sense.
• Missed site extensions sometimes we miss in campaign/ad group creation. Just in general it can be helpful to catch things we miss but it is so rare.
• Automated bid according to Greg maybe outdoes manual by 50-60% but to rely on the automation 100% the time just isn’t the best for most accounts either.

If nothing else the recommendations can show you things to try and test so even if you don’t hit apply, take a look and maybe test out or experiment with some of the recommendations.

Cons to Google AI Recommendations

Raise your budgets. How is that a good suggestion for a client? A company has a set budget and usually approval for an entire quarter or year – an agency or PPC Manager can’t just go and spend more in 99.99% of the times it is recommended.

Greg talks through just how bad the UI and recommendations can be where there was an instance that instead of Apply This Change, it was a button to Apply All 116 Recommendations – why would Google do that and why would someone blindly say yes to such a thing??

Many times the AI doesn’t understand the business and keywords. In one example a pest control company was told to target “computer mouse” – not sure how that would help a pest control company.

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"></figure>

Another note about the optimization scores is from Mark: I love that how a 100% optimization score when taking on a new client is usually a red flag.

Greg’s Suggestions for Google Ads

Instead of just turning something on, what if there was a button to create an experiment with a recommendation and test it with X dollars for Y days.

Use automation and AI to leverage experiments and how things react in a way that won’t tank an account, relationship, campaign or someone’s job.

Full Transcript

Matt Siltala: [00:00:00 ] Welcome to another exciting episode of the business of digital podcast, featuring your host, Matt scintilla and Dave roar. You guys excited to have everybody join us on another one of these business of digital podcast episodes. And, uh, I believe we have Dave over there. How’s it going, Dave? I am here and now today, guys, I just want to introduce a very special guest, a friend of mine, Greg Finn.

How’s it going, Greg?

Greg Finn: [00:00:27 ] Fantastic. Hey Matt. Hey Dave.

Matt Siltala: [00:00:30 ] You know, we were talking before, just before we started recording, it seems like it’s been forever since we’ve hung out in real life. And it probably has literally been a couple of years, Greg.

Greg Finn: [00:00:40 ] I know, I really miss that with the in-person conferences. It’s it’s, Twitter’s great.

You can still sort of keep in touch, but it’s just not the same as in-person.

Matt Siltala: [00:00:48 ] Yeah, absolutely. And the thing that’s even crazier is this last year, you know, 20, 20, we don’t talk about, um, the, the year that shall not be named, but, uh, um, it just was a blur [00:01:00 ] too. And so it’s like you think about like, You know?

Oh, it was a year ago since I saw someone. No, it was actually two years ago because 2020 was just this blur, but it’s just weird.

Greg Finn: [00:01:09 ] I know. It’s crazy. Well,

Matt Siltala: [00:01:10 ] anyway, I do appreciate you joining us. And before we really jump into anything, I’ll let Dave go ahead and, uh, And, and, and do the intro as far as what we’re going to talk about with you.

Well,

Dave Rohrer: [00:01:21 ] Greg can do the full intro. I mean, he does have a lot of, can I say people should be listening to

Matt Siltala: [00:01:26 ] why don’t you, you just give us a little bit of a, uh, you know, just an intro, Greg, where you want us, you know, where people can find you, how people can listen to you because. Uh, you have your own podcast as well.

And, uh, we’ll just go from there, man.

Greg Finn: [00:01:39 ] Yeah. Great. Thanks. So I’m Greg Finn. I am a partner here at Cypress North and agency in Buffalo, New York. The podcast that you so gracefully mentioned is marketing a clock. It’s actually on the search engine journal network. So if you follow a search engine journal on YouTube and you check it out, we put a podcast on once a week.

You know, you guys do a fantastic [00:02:00 ] job giving tactical information. We kind of just joke with the news. So it goes hand in hand. So people want to learn. They can listen here and if you want to laugh, we got a couple over there.

Dave Rohrer: [00:02:09 ] Well, you guys covered a lot of stuff. We just can’t cover. So like you guys cover everything that’s happened every week.

So it’s very timely. Ours is more of the, you know, evergreen, I guess the big topics. Yeah. I mean, I listened to you guys whenever I’ve had questions about, when did that come out and what was it like? I will go back and dig through your, your archives and dig into it and listen to you guys. Just talk about something.

So while I’m working and have question, sure. I can read it, but for me, it’s handy to just listen to you guys, even jokingly about it. It’s fun. But to listen to you guys, talk about, you know, whatever, whatever Google’s unleashed that day or Facebook or Instagram

Greg Finn: [00:02:52 ] or someone talk or rant and scream. Do you mean

Dave Rohrer: [00:02:56 ] we may do that from time to time too.

Like, we will literally [00:03:00 ] just have a title. Hold a placeholder. Just Matt rant. Dave rent. Yeah. Buckle up folks. Very very true. This may be a rant and I’m also on December 3rd and much, much. Thanks to Mr. Roger Monte. Both of us were listed as top 17 SEO podcasts to listen to in 2021 congrats guys. So it made sense to have you as our first guest, since I do talk to you a lot.

Greg Finn: [00:03:25 ] Awesome.

Dave Rohrer: [00:03:27 ] Um, but what we’re actually going to talk about that people might care about, um, is one of Greg’s favorite things to rant about on Twitter. And if you have no idea and you completely didn’t read the title, it’s basically Google ads and their optimization score. We’re going to talk other stuff.

But, um, I think you’re, and I already talked about it right before we said anything December of 21st, you already, you know, This is truly too much, um, 74% optimization [00:04:00 ] score, um, hit to your, you know, to your client and you, because you didn’t switch to smart shopping campaigns.

Greg Finn: [00:04:09 ] Yes. And

Dave Rohrer: [00:04:11 ] I think as like, just a perfect example of just how crazy that score is.

Greg Finn: [00:04:16 ] And there’s a lot to unravel with this because I am, I work in an agency, Cypress North as an agency. We’re also a Google partner. And back in the day, uh, having a Google partner status really sort of meant things, right? You had a directory that people could search and, and let’s say you’re just a client out there and you’re looking for a good, a good agency, like any of ours that, that could, you know, manage those spends right.

You could go to Google partners and search for. The area and find a directory of, you know, reputable agencies or partners. Right. Um, and so