Paid Search & PPC

Expert Tips, Insights, and Analysis

PPC experts Anna Borchert, Emily Martin and Steve Kroll at conference

Welcome to your hub for Paid Search & PPC know-how. Uncover actionable tips and strategic insights, all scrutinized by industry experts. Navigate the intricacies of cost-per-click, ad auctions, and keyword targeting. Our goal is to turn the complex PPC landscape into a stroll through a well-lit park.

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Competitor Brand Terms

The Temptation of Bidding on Another Company’s Brand Terms in Google Is it wise to bid on a competitor’s brand keywords in Google Ads? For anyone with experience utilizing strategy, it can feel a bit like taking a blow torch to your money when done poorly. But it’s hard to blame anyone for coming to[…]

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Getting Global: MacKenzie’s Slovenian Sabbatical

As an avid travel enthusiast, one of the benefits I was most excited about when I started at Granular was the 1 month-paid sabbatical earned after 3 years with the company. I was so excited to finally earn my sabbatical in early 2020, so you can imagine my disappointment when traveling had almost completely stopped.[…]

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four easy steps for communication between agency and client

Four Easy Steps for Successful Communication Between an Agency & Client

Successful communication is a skill that can be hard to learn and harder to teach but is extremely valuable. Good communication between two parties can help make tough situations easier and good situations great. This is especially important when communicating between an agency, like Granular, and a client. Both parties have different backgrounds and different levels of knowledge of digital advertising and the client’s business.

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GA4 Webinar: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Your current Google Analytics is going away – but don’t fret, GA4 experts from Granular hosted a webinar to share all of the relevant information you need to know about the switch from Google Analytics to GA4. Check out the webinar below, followed by more in-depth information on key slides and helpful resources. If you[…]

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Six TikTok Ad Limitations & How To Get Around Them

Six TikTok Ad Limitations & How To Get Around Them

TikTok has exploded in popularity in recent years and advertising on the platform is constantly changing and being updated to meet regulations. With all of the different types of audiences on TikTok you can target, marketers should be aware of some limitations to using TikTok. So to help answer the common question of “What’s the[…]

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Google Premier Partnership

MILWAUKEE, WI – FEBRUARY 23 – Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based Granular, one of the nation’s leaders in paid digital marketing, today announced it has achieved Google Premier Partner status for the eighth year in a row. This exclusive designation places them among the top 3% of Google Partners that meet the new, more rigorous program requirements across[…]

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B2B Industrial CPC Trends

Industrial B2B Conversion Rate and CPC Trends

When reporting on campaign data, especially with newer clients, we often get some form of the question “Are these numbers good?” or “How does this performance stack up compared to other people in my industry?” These clients, while all in the industrial/manufacturing space, vary greatly in account size & scope. Their ad spend ranges from[…]

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How Brands Leverage Digital Advertising To Give Their 2023 Super Bowl Ad Extra Yards

I enjoy watching football and consider myself semi-knowledgeable about the sport (cough cough, 2021 Granular Fantasy Football Champion talking here) but I couldn’t have cared less who won the Super Bowl this year. So, if you’re anything like me, you watched the Super Bowl for one or all of these three reasons: #1 – The[…]

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AI for PPC

ChatGPT, OpenAI’s latest space-and-time bending artificial intelligence program, is a free-use dialogue tool allowing one to submit a series of variables or questions, from which the machine will source its seemingly limitless knowledge base for an answer. Ask it anything from the mundane (“what’s the best chicken parmesan recipe?”) to the outlandish (“give me a[…]

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How Scale Modeling Made Me a Better Marketer

It’s no secret that having and holding onto hobbies can bring an insane amount of joy and fulfillment, albeit sometimes with stress. Hobbies allow you to unlock your creative potential, with the skills and creativity you bring to your hobbies helping you in other areas of your life. Scale modeling, at least in hobby terms,[…]

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What We See For PPC In 2023

Granular’s Top PPC Predictions for 2023 Anna – eCommerce & Programmatic Advertising: I’m looking forward to seeing how much OTT/CTV advertising grows in the next year. We’ve already seen massive growth in the space since 2020, and with more people expanding their paid subscriptions to platforms like Netflix, I am excited to test out more[…]

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Artificial Intelligence

5 Things You Need to Know Before Using Artificial Intelligence for Ad Copy

AI chatbots, such as Chat GPT and deep learning image models like DALL-E, have recently created a lot of hype surrounding artificial intelligence services online. I believe these are game-changing tools that will alter how we live and work, but it’s essential to consider the potential downsides before using AI for your company or product.[…]

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Duplicate Snapchat Ads The Easy Way!

I love Snapchat as an ads platform, but I’ve always been annoyed and slightly confused about the “clone” feature. Cloning is useful if you want to reuse everything exactly as it is, such as if you want to move unchanged assets across campaigns or ad sets. But, it does not work if you simply want[…]

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View Competitor Google Ads

See Competing Google Ads For Free

A Quick Overview: JUMP TO DETAILED STEPS Good to know: Countless hours have been spent by marketers and business owners across the world trying to figure out how to see the digital ads their competitors are running. When it comes to seeing ads in the Google Ads ecosystem, users have had to rely on 3rd[…]

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Getting Started With Amazon Ads: Ad Types

As technology becomes more advanced, it has been easier than ever before to shop online. If your client is selling products online, they need to be on Amazon. Over 70% of consumers in 2022 use Amazon for their online shopping over any other eCommerce site so now it’s more important than ever to establish your[…]

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amazon coupons and deals

Increase Conversions With Amazon Coupons, Deals and Promotions

If you sell products or run ads on Amazon you’ll quickly notice it’s hard to stand out in this busy marketplace. Luckily, there are a few ways to boost sales and conversion rates while decreasing inventory. The best and most popular options are Coupons, Deals, Promotions, and Prime Exclusive Discounts. Coupons Coupons are the most[…]

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"This small meta commerce manager update will help save time"

This Small Meta Commerce Manager Update Will Help Save Time

It feels like every Meta change over the past few months has made advertisers’ lives harder. Whether it’s requiring increased security or completely changing the Business Manager’s format, I know I’m not alone when I say it’s been a constant headache. But, as of last week (or that’s at least when I became aware of[…]

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"Important Update: Don't get locked out of your Facebook Account"

Important Update: Don’t Get Locked Out of Your Facebook Account

We all hate articles or spam emails with clickbait titles claiming “you need to take action on your account because you’re in danger of losing access.” This is not one of those posts. In the last few months, we’ve seen three different clients locked out of their Facebook accounts due to Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) issues.[…]

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"Common Facebook Ad Creative Mistakes & How to Fix Them (Part 1)

Common Facebook Ad Creative Mistakes & How To Fix Them (Part 1)

Do you know what hurts me more than my face ID not recognizing me in the morning…? Putting money behind poor Facebook ad creative and messaging. It crushes my digital marketing soul when I see campaigns perfectly set up with the right budget, bid, placements, and audiences only for poor ad copy creative and incorrect[…]

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"A simple guide to setting up a snapchat business manager"

A Simple Guide to Setting Up a Snapchat Business Manager

Snapchat Ads now offers a business manager akin to what you’re used to in other large ad platforms. This enables an advertising agency to seamlessly link multiple client ad accounts. Here we’ll break down the steps to set up your agency Business Manager, as well as how to link client ad accounts. Creating a New[…]

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"Why your business needs to pay attention to blended ROAS (MER)"

Why Your Business Needs to Pay Attention to Blended ROAS (MER)

With the rise of user privacy, conversion tracking ain’t what it used to be! As most advertisers know by now, you need users’ permission to track on Apple devices running IOS14.5+. This is causing a noticeable decrease in attributed conversions to most digital advertising efforts including all social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter,[…]

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"Granular Team Q & A: Work From Home 2 years later"

Granular Team Q&A: WFH 2 Years Later

It’s hard to believe we published this blog more than two years ago, many of us naive to the fact the pandemic would last even more than a few weeks at that point. The months passed, remote working became the standard, and we collectively learned so much about ourselves in the process. In a COVID/lockdown/quarantine[…]

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"@elonmusk: Here's how to improve Twitter Ads"

@elonmusk Here’s How To Improve Twitter Ads

If you’ve ever run Twitter Ads then I can almost guarantee that you’ve experienced some sort of frustration with the Ads Platform. Whether you struggled with the wonky ad creation process, were disappointed by limited targeting, or were confused about where to start with their data, I hear you and have been there. Full disclosure,[…]

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"3 simple Google Ads editor tasks that will save you hours"

3 Simple Google Ads Editor Tasks That Will Save You Hours

Early in my PPC career, I was tasked with changing out over 50 ads that contained inaccurate copy. I logged into the Google Ads account and painstakingly changed them one-by-one. I knew there had to be a better way. Next time, I tried downloading the ads, editing them in a spreadsheet, and then uploaded the[…]

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"Launch a new product feed on Google Shopping with Granular"

Launch a New Product Feed on Google Shopping

So You’ve Got a New Product Feed Feeds are crucial when it comes to online advertising. Google Shopping is one of the top revenue drivers for e-commerce accounts, and when your feed goes down or issues occur, it can be rather disastrous for your advertising and business. A data feed management platform can be a[…]

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"Navigating Google's double-edge Optiscore Sword: The best and worst of their recommendations"

Navigating Google’s Double-edge Optiscore Sword: The Best and Worst of Their Recommendations

I’ve been working in Google Ads since 2015, so I’ve seen many new Google innovations in the space. The shift away from manual bidding to Google’s (IMO – far superior in many situations) automated bidding was landscape changing. In 2019, Google introduced its optiscore that was essentially a ranking system to determine how “compliant” and[…]

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