Feb. 12, 2025

Essential Google Ads Settings for 2025

As innovative as Google Ads can be, success hinges on getting the fundamentals right.

In this post, I’ll address five critical settings for individual campaigns. I won’t cover account-level settings, such as conversion tracking. Others, such as negative keywords and URL tracking templates, generally apply holistically to accounts and campaigns.

Networks

Channel-specific campaigns should show ads only for those networks. Search campaigns should show only on the Search Network, and Display campaigns on the Display Network. When advertisers create new Search campaigns, Google includes them in its search partners and the Display Network.

Uncheck both options.

Google search partners are third-party sites that show ads from Google. The partners include other search engines such as Ask.com and ecommerce sites such as Target. I used to enable this option but recently encountered poor traffic and lead quality. Plus, search partners drain much of the budget away from more profitable traffic on Google.com.

Campaigns on the Search Network and Display Network operate differently. Goals, metrics, ad creative, and strategy differ by the network.

Read article >

‘Helpful Content’ per Google’s Latest Guidelines

Google's core search algorithm includes a "helpful content" component, making its definition of the term critical. Read article >

AI Is Changing Buying Behavior, Study Finds

A new Capgemini report focuses on how consumers discover products, how they shop, and why they switch brands. Read article >

7 Ways to Promote Content in 2025

Even the best blog posts or podcasts sometimes go unnoticed. The problem is not quality but lack of visibility. Read article >

From the Archive: February 2023

Profit from Paid Acquisition Key for Ecom Owner

Zach Stuck buys and launches ecommerce brands. His top lesson? A customer from paid acquisition has to be profitable on the first sale. Read article >

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