Start 2025 strong with data-driven strategies for retail success by Edna Chavira

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Join our experts for this live panel discussion.
Join our experts for this live panel discussion.

The new year is the perfect time to sharpen your strategies and set the foundation for success. Join Data-Driven Strategies for Retail Success and learn how to harness the power of data and technology to elevate your marketing efforts.

Learn how leading brands are using cutting-edge techniques to drive results—and how you can apply these insights to your own strategy. Our expert panel will cover:

  • Optimizing shopper journeys with actionable data.
  • Using A/B testing to make impactful decisions.
  • Delivering personalized experiences at scale with AI.
  • Lessons from the past peak season to inform your 2025 plans.

Whether you’re a digital marketer, merchandiser, or executive, this webinar is your chance to start the year with a strategy that drives measurable growth. Save your spot here!

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Google Search faces new UK probe

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The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) opened an investigation into Google’s search dominance, marking the first major probe under new digital market rules.

The investigation could force changes to Google’s search business in the UK, where it controls over 90% of general search queries and serves 200,000+ advertisers.

The big picture. This probe follows the U.S. Department of Justice’s recent move to break up Google’s search monopoly and comes as AI reshapes online search.

Key details:

  • The investigation falls under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCC).
  • CMA will assess if Google has “strategic market status.” Such a designation would give regulators the power to mandate changes.
  • The agency is concerned about Google’s impact on news publishers and emerging AI search competitors.

Why we care. This investigation could change how Google displays and ranks ads in search results, potentially affecting ad costs and visibility. If regulators force Google to be more transparent or alter its search algorithms, it could impact ad targeting capabilities and ROI on search advertising spend.

What they’re saying. “We want to ensure there is a level playing field for all businesses, large and small, to succeed,” said Sarah Cardell, CMA chief executive.

Google “looks forward to engaging constructively and laying out how our services benefit UK consumers and also businesses, as well as the trade-offs inherent in any new regulations”, the company responded in a statement today.

What’s next. If designated with strategic market status, Google could face new restrictions on how it operates search and handles user data in the UK.

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LTV:CAC explained: Why you shouldn’t rely on this KPI

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LTV:CAC explained: Why it isn't the ultimate KPI

Savvy PPC marketers often praise LTV:CAC as a superior KPI for measuring profitability and guiding budget decisions. 

While insightful, correctly leveraging LTV:CAC is far more complex than it seems – and certainly not as straightforward as ROAS, which itself can be misleading.

To avoid missteps, it’s crucial to understand when LTV:CAC is useful, its limitations, and how a poorly calculated metric can lead you to the wrong north star. 

If your agency recommends increasing your PPC budget based on a “great” LTV:CAC ratio, be cautious. There may be critical nuances (or even conflicts of interest) at play.

This article breaks down the fundamentals of LTV:CAC, including:

  • What LTV:CAC is and why it’s important.
  • Common pitfalls when using the metric.
  • How to refine LTV:CAC, plus alternative KPIs.

What is LTV:CAC?

LTV:CAC (customer lifetime value to customer acquisition cost) measures the relationship between the value a customer brings to a business over time and the cost of acquiring that customer. It’s calculated as:

  • LTV:CAC = LTV / CAC

This ratio helps businesses assess whether their customer acquisition efforts are profitable. 

A higher LTV:CAC indicates that customers generate more revenue than their acquisition cost, while a lower ratio could signal inefficiency or unprofitable marketing.

Breaking down the components

LTV (customer lifetime value) represents the total revenue a customer generates throughout their relationship with a business.

Formula: 

  • LTV = (Average order value x Total transactions) / Unique customers

CAC (customer acquisition cost) is the average cost incurred to acquire a new customer within a specific period.

Formula: 

  • CAC = Total marketing costs / Number of new customers

Note: Always calculate both metrics using the same time period to avoid skewed results.

Why is LTV:CAC important – and how can it be dangerous?

LTV:CAC serves one core purpose: ensuring profitability. 

This KPI is critical for a company’s future because it measures whether the value generated from newly acquired customers justifies the cost of acquiring them.

It’s often compared to return on ad spend, or ROAS, (revenue generated by ads / ad costs) but goes a step further. 

While ROAS focuses on immediate returns, LTV:CAC considers the long-term revenue potential of a customer. 

This broader view can encourage marketers to lower ROAS targets and increase budgets, assuming future revenue will balance acquisition costs over time.

For example, imagine a marketer spends $30 to acquire a new customer who generates $30 in immediate revenue (100% ROAS). 

Based on historical data, the finance team predicts that this customer will make three additional purchases of $30 each, totaling $120 in revenue over their lifetime.

  • Total revenue = $30 (initial purchase) + 3 x $30 = $120
  • LTV = $120
  • CAC = $30
  • LTV:CAC = $120 / $30 or 4:1

This 4:1 ratio might suggest strong profitability and justify increased spending.

However, it can be dangerous.

Profitability metrics like LTV:CAC often require deeper financial oversight, yet marketers may lack visibility into key cost components, such as payback periods, retention variability, and operational costs. 

Misunderstanding these factors can lead to overestimations of profitability and misguided budget increases.

Let’s break down some of the common traps that make LTV:CAC a potentially misleading metric.

Dig deeper: 5 KPIs to measure paid media success and 5 to measure business success

7 common pitfalls of using the LTV:CAC ratio

1. Ignoring the impact of customer retention

LTV:CAC is often praised by top marketers as a superior KPI, which might tempt you to adopt it too. 

While it can be valuable in scenarios with high retention and repeat purchase rates (like SaaS), it’s not always reliable.

Before using LTV:CAC, run a retention analysis to answer: “How many times do my customers purchase on average over a set period?”

In ecommerce, customer retention is typically around 30% at best. 

Using the earlier ROAS example, if you spend $30 to generate $120 in revenue (400% ROAS), you might assume retention will increase total revenue by 30%, raising it to $156. This would suggest a higher 520% ROAS.

While appealing, it’s far from transformative enough to justify dramatically increasing your budget. 

2. Overlooking payback period and cash flow

Even if your retention is strong enough to justify using LTV:CAC as your north star metric and your ratio slightly exceeds the standard 3:1, increasing your PPC budget blindly can be risky.

Why? Because LTV:CAC doesn’t account for the payback period – the time required to recover CAC expenses, or how long it takes for revenue to break even with acquisition costs.

If your payback period is 12 months, customers won’t become profitable until the 12-month mark. 

During that time, your balance sheet remains negative, putting strain on cash flow and limiting your ability to reinvest in PPC campaigns or other growth strategies.

To scale faster, you need cash on hand since existing funds are already tied up in customer acquisition. 

Options include raising capital or improving fundamentals (e.g., lowering CAC, raising prices, or encouraging prepayment).

Bottom line: A positive LTV:CAC doesn’t guarantee you can safely scale your budget.

3. Misunderstanding marketing LTV vs. finance LTV

Marketers often calculate LTV using basic metrics like revenue – sometimes even pre-tax figures – resulting in inflated and misleading values. 

Naturally, both LTV and CAC should accurately reflect the balance sheet, but this is where many marketers go wrong.

Finance teams often step in to correct these calculations, which can lead to uncomfortable conversations if marketers lack financial literacy. 

To avoid this, marketers need to understand finance-level metrics and how their stakeholders calculate profitability.

LTV is fundamentally a finance KPI. Some finance teams calculate it using gross profit margin (COGS), while others factor in operating expenses (OPEX), making it closer to an EBIT-based KPI.

Ultimately, it’s not about challenging their process but aligning with it. 

To collaborate effectively, marketers should understand key cost components like:

  • Support.
  • Infrastructure.
  • Materials (for physical products).
  • Sales and marketing expenses.
  • Development costs.
  • Other operational expenses.

By aligning with finance teams and using accurate metrics, LTV:CAC can become a far more reliable KPI.

Dig deeper: 3 PPC KPIs to track and measure success

4. Miscalculating CAC by ignoring non-marketing customer sources

PPC, marketing, and other customer sources are critical when assessing CAC and its impact on LTV:CAC. 

Lowering CAC is an obvious way to improve the LTV:CAC ratio, but it can complicate calculating CAC accurately.

A common issue is calculating CAC by dividing total marketing costs by total new customers, disregarding other customer sources. 

In some businesses, where marketing drives about 95% of customer acquisition, this approach might not significantly affect the LTV:CAC ratio and simplifies the calculation.

However, this often overlooks non-marketing customer sources like word of mouth, viral organic content, or baseline growth.

This inflates the customer count, artificially lowering CAC and boosting LTV:CAC, creating a misleading impression of growth.

In the long run, this can lead to structural issues.

While some argue that word of mouth stems from branding or top-of-funnel campaigns, this is only sometimes true.

Many customer sources, such as referral programs, sales initiatives, or product-driven growth, are independent of traditional marketing or PPC efforts.

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5. Assuming all customers are equal

Assuming all customers are equal can lead to inflated LTV:CAC ratios and dangerous strategies. 

You might attempt to boost LTV and make LTV:CAC look better quickly, but this approach can be misleading.

A common mistake is calculating LTV as total revenue divided by total customers over a period, creating an average that hides differences between customer segments. 

Not all customers contribute equally in terms of revenue and retention.

For instance, if the average LTV is $480, it likely doesn’t reflect the actual distribution of customer value:

  • 60% of customers spend around $280.
  • 30% of customers spend around $600.
  • 10% of customers spend around $1,300.

If you aim for a 3:1 LTV:CAC ratio based on the $480 average LTV, you would set a target CAC of $160. 

However, for 60% of your customers, who only generate $280 in LTV, the sustainable CAC should be $93 ($280/3). 

This highlights a significant gap, as the average target would be too high for most customers.

Additionally, the top 10% of customers with a $1,300 LTV likely aren’t acquired through marketing, which complicates the calculation further.

Bottom line: Targeting a $160 CAC could be harmful. Focus on increasing LTV through targeted PPC efforts.

6. Disregarding changes in LTV fundamentals

The purpose of LTV:CAC is to validate marketing investments, assuming that both CAC and LTV are accurately predictable. 

However, these metrics can fluctuate significantly.

Consider a more advanced formula for LTV:

  • LTV = Monthly recurring revenue x Growth profit margin / Monthly cancellation rate

Each of these components is dynamic and depends on the company’s ability to maintain or improve its fundamentals:

  • MRR: Can you cross-sell or upsell effectively?
  • GPM: Can you enhance overall efficiency?
  • Cancellation rate: Are new competitors entering the market? Is the market shrinking?

For example, HubSpot reportedly tripled its LTV in just 18 months. Now, imagine a smaller company experiencing the opposite trend.

Bottom line: LTV is a forecast, not a certainty. Don’t place too much confidence in LTV or your LTV:CAC ratio.

7. Treating LTV as a strategy

While this might seem slightly off-topic for PPC practitioners, it’s crucial to grasp when collaborating with stakeholders.

Holding the LTV flag high without fully engaging with others can lead to issues.

Imagine you secure additional budget for performance marketing – great news! 

But as spending increases, CAC rises, making the LTV:CAC ratio worse. 

In response, you might raise prices to boost LTV.

Problem solved?

Not quite.

Higher prices may lead to increased monthly cancellations. Even worse, the new customers acquired with that extra budget might be of lower quality, spending less and churning faster.

The customer support team steps in, confident they can resolve these issues by expanding their efforts, which increases costs and strains cash flow.

This scenario highlights how LTV is deeply interconnected with various aspects of the business. 

Mistaking this metric for a stand-alone strategy can lead to missteps. It’s essential to use LTV as a tool, not a strategy in itself, to ensure sustainable growth.

How to ‘fix’ LTV:CAC, plus alternative KPIs

LTV:CAC can be a useful metric, but its complexity and potential for misinterpretation mean it requires careful handling. 

To make the most of this KPI and ensure it accurately reflects your business’s health, consider the following tips.

Low retention? Don’t use LTV:CAC

In ecommerce, if your repeat purchase rate is around 30%, LTV may not be a relevant metric from a marketing perspective. 

Instead, focus on CAC alone and aim to be profitable from the first order. 

This approach, though tougher, is more sustainable and reflective of genuine growth – think ROAS.

Improve retention through upselling, cross-selling, customer support, or product enhancements.

Dig deeper: How to analyze PPC performance metrics

Collaborate with finance

If using LTV makes sense, build a strong relationship with your finance team. 

Understanding their perspective will help you grasp why certain LTV targets are set. 

To achieve this:

  • Learn key financial terms.
  • Schedule regular alignment meetings.
  • Use agreed-upon data sources to avoid conflicts.

Never report on LTV:CAC alone

Because LTV:CAC encompasses multiple variables, it’s not a standalone metric. 

Include core components like cancellation rate and MRR in your reports. 

This clarity will help identify which components have shifted and guide your next steps. 

Remember, LTV and CAC are dynamic, not fixed.

Segment by customer groups

Segmenting your customer base allows you to pinpoint areas for improvement and identify which customers to exclude. Consider:

  • Calculating LTV over different timeframes (30 days, 90 days, 12 months).
  • Segmenting customers by cohorts, behavior, and profitability.
  • Differentiating between PPC, organic, and non-marketing customers.

Use LTV:CAC wisely

LTV:CAC is valuable for comparing PPC channels and marketing programs, but it’s a complex measurement tool. 

To avoid potential pitfalls, make sure to:

  • Conduct a retention analysis before relying on LTV:CAC.
  • Partner with your finance team to align on metrics.
  • Always segment customers, sources, and micro-KPIs.

Dig deeper: The fallacy of CTR as a KPI: Redefining PPC ad success

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Amazon’s 2025 title policy update: Key changes and implementation guide

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Amazon logo on building facade

Amazon recently announced significant changes to its product title policy, set to take effect Jan. 21. This update marks a shift in how sellers approach product listing titles on the Amazon platform. 

Amazon product title requirements

Titles have long been considered the most important piece of structured data on a product detail page for Amazon SEO.

This is especially true as the title appears not only on the search engine results page (SERP) and product detail page but also as the advertising copy for most ad types. 

In the private label Amazon spaces, in particular, title construction has prioritized exact keyword phrase matches in titles, leading to an increase in lengthy and unclear titles as sellers try to squeeze in as many keyword phrases as possible – a practice Amazon now aims to address through these policy changes. 

The policy makes the following changes: 

  • 200-character limit (or less) for titles. 
  • Disallowing special characters. 
  • Keyword repetition restrictions. 

Character length restrictions 

Amazon has progressively tightened character limitations across various listing fields in recent years. 

The new policy establishes a universal 200-character limit for most product categories, with some apparel categories facing even stricter constraints of 125 characters. 

Character length restrictions 

Amazon has always said it wanted concise titles. However, most sellers have found that longer titles can help with indexing and ranking. 

Amazon’s policy limits titles to 80 characters. (We usually recommend 100-200 characters.) 

This new restriction is not entirely unforeseen, as we have seen Amazon more aggressively enforce the existing 200-character title length in several categories in 2024. 

Disallowing special characters

Amazon has never been a fan of emojis in titles or decorative symbols, and they are now getting even stricter by only allowing a handful of special characters. 

“The special characters !, $, ?, _, {, }, ^, ¬, and ¦ are not allowed, unless they are part of the brand name.” 

You can still use pipes “|” and dashes “-” to break up your title, but most other special characters are being restricted with this new policy. 

The exception for this new policy for special characters is if the special character is part of the brand name. 

This will likely mean that the brand used in the Brand Registry and the trademark would include that special character. 

For example, if your brand was trademarked and registered as “TaDa!” Then you could include that in your title as it is part of your brand name. 

Amazon also says that some special characters will only be allowed in specific contexts: 

“Other special characters, such as ~, #, <, >, and *, are allowed only in specific contexts. For example, you may use these symbols as product identifiers (“Style #4301”) or measurements (“<10 lb”).” 

They also make sure to highlight that special characters are not to be used as decoration. 

 “Decorative usage of special characters is not allowed. For example, the title “Paradise Towel Wear Co. Beach Coverup << Size Kids XXS >>” is non-compliant because of the excessive use of symbols around the size.” 

Keyword repetition restrictions 

The most significant change addresses keyword repetition in titles. 

The new policy limits the use of the same word to no more than twice, with exceptions for prepositions, articles, and conjunctions. 

In practice, this means a word can appear twice but not three times. 

This change poses a challenge for sellers with traditionally repeated keywords to incorporate as many keyword phrases as possible into their titles. 

During Amazon’s AMA on Jan. 8, it was clarified that plurals and different forms of the same word will also count as repeated usage.

Amazon AMA - Repeated words
Amazon AMA - Duplicate words

Exceptions for brand names 

The policy makes an important distinction regarding brand names. Words appearing within brand names are treated separately from their use in product descriptions. 

“The brand name is also not allowed more than twice. If part of the brand name appears in the title in different context, then it is not considered a duplicate. For example, in ‘Old Navy and Navy Blue,’ the word ‘Navy’ is not considered a duplicate.”

One issue with this is how Amazon will determine where the line is if a keyword is used in a separate context. 

Amazon has also clarified that they will consider titles that repeat words, such as “loaf pan, muffin pan, baking pan,” to be duplicates. 

It looks like they will be looking for duplicates with a much wider net than anticipated when this was first announced. 

Implementation timeline and process 

Amazon will begin notifying sellers of non-compliant titles after Jan. 21, providing a 14-day window for resolution.

Non-compliant titles can be identified and managed through the Manage All Inventory tab in Seller Central.

If you have a brand with special characters or your primary purpose in your brand name, you will want to check for alerts as soon as the policy goes into effect in Seller Central in the Manage Inventory page. 

If you think you were flagged in error, you should submit a case to Seller Support as quickly as possible. This will allow you time to escalate the issue as needed before your 14-day compliance window is up. 

Changing titles in bulk

If you need to change multiple titles it is always best to do that with a flat file (.csv upload). To do this, you would take the following steps: 

Download category listing reports
  • Use the downloaded file to update titles. You can then use this file to update many listings all at once. You may be able to use find and replace within Excel to speed up title changes. 
  • Upload the files to Amazon. After the file processes, check for errors. It is also a good practice to wait 24 hours and visually check all updated listings to ensure the title changes are reflected in the system. Make sure you understand how flat file updates work and that you have the field that indicates full or partial updates completed correctly. 
  • Schedule time on Jan. 21 to review any recommended changes from Amazon. If you believe you should have an exception or if your listing was flagged in error, you may need to submit a ticket. 

Future implications 

This is a fundamental change in how sellers will approach titles (and, in turn, their ad copy). Amazon changes policies often, so it could be that they relax these requirements. 

However, I think these restrictions could help us enter a new era of more thoughtful and meticulously crafted titles that are ultimately more focused on catering to the customer than search algorithms. 

After all, clear, helpful titles are what turn browsers into buyers. 

Note: Links to Amazon Seller Central pages are generally accessible only to registered sellers who have an active Amazon Seller account.

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Google Ads launches new promo code formats for Promotion Assets

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How to use the new customer acquisition goal in Google Ads

Google Ads expanded its Promotion Assets with new barcode and QR code options, giving advertisers more ways to share promotional offers.

These new formats make it easier for customers to redeem online and in-store offers, bridging digital and physical shopping experiences.

Details:

  • Barcode option supports multiple formats, including Aztec, Data Matrix, and EAN-8.
  • QR codes can contain up to 720 characters of text.
  • Links are not supported in QR codes.
  • Advertisers must provide valid barcode numbers for barcode format.

How it works. Advertisers can select either barcode or QR code options when creating Promotion Assets, then input their specific promotional information within the format constraints.

Why we care. These new promo code options provide more flexibility in running cross-channel promotions and can improve redemption tracking. The barcode format enables better in-store integration, while QR codes make it easier for customers to claim offers on mobile devices, potentially increasing conversion rates.

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First seen. This update first came to our attention when Google Ads Strategist Thomas Eccel posted it on LinkedIn:

Bottom line. This update gives advertisers more flexibility in how they present promotional codes, potentially increasing redemption rates through easier customer access.

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Supreme Court lets $7 billion Meta ad fraud case proceed

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B2B audience targeting: Meta Ads as an alternative to LinkedIn

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear Meta’s appeal in a massive class action lawsuit that claimed Facebook and Instagram inflated their advertising reach metrics.

The decision could expose Meta to billions in damages. It raised questions about the accuracy of metrics advertisers rely on when spending money on social platforms.

The big picture. Advertisers allege Meta fraudulently inflated its “potential reach” numbers by up to 400% by counting multiple accounts belonging to the same users.

By the numbers:

  • The class action could exceed $7 billion in damages.
  • The case covers ads purchased since Aug. 15, 2014.
  • Meta generated $116.1 billion in ad revenue in the first 9 months of 2024.
  • Millions of individuals and businesses could be part of the class.

Why we care. This lawsuit could expose Meta’s potential overstatement of ad reach by up to 400%. If successful, you could be one of many advertisers compensated as well as the government enforcing more transparent reporting standards across social media platforms.

Additionally, it raises important questions about the reliability of Meta’s measurement metrics that advertisers use to make budget decisions.

Between the lines. The Supreme Court’s decision lets stand a March 2024 ruling from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which said advertisers could pursue damages as a group since Meta’s alleged misrepresentation was consistent across all affected parties.

Meta’s argument. The tech giant claimed that different advertisers may have valued or relied on the reach metrics differently, thus leading to the inflation they see.

Meta also said that the 9th Circuit’s “common course of conduct” test conflicts with other federal courts.

What’s next. The case will now proceed as a class action, potentially affecting millions of Meta advertisers who bought ads over the past decade.

Go deeper. Advertising revenue remains Meta’s primary business driver, making the outcome of this case particularly significant for the company’s future.

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Google’s search market share drops below 90% for first time since 2015

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Bing vs Google

Google’s share of the global search engine market fell below 90% for the first time since 2015, according to Statcounter. Google’s global search market share was under 90% during each of the final three months of 2024.

The data. Here’s a screenshot of the 2024 search market share, showing Google dipping below 90% – to 89.34% in October; 89.99% in November; and 89.73% in December:

Search engine market share worldwide January to December 2024

And here’s the last three-month stretch where Google’s search market share was under 90%, in 2015: 89.62% in January; 89.47% in February; 89.52% in March:

Search engine market share worldwide 2015

Why we care. As the old saying goes, one’s a dot, two’s a line, and three’s a trend. Cleary, we’re seeing a trend here with Google losing search market share.

Where’s the drop? Google’s search market share appeared to be fairly consistent in most regions except Asia, which appears to have been a big reason for Google’s overall drop.

U.S. drop? Google’s U.S. search market share peaked at 90.37% in November, but fell to 87.39% in December. In the other months of 2024, Google’s U.S. search market share was fairly consistent, varying between 86-88%.

The big picture. Google has been under attack for nearly two years over the growing unhelpfulness of its search results despite dominating thanks to its illegal monopoly status with a commanding and consistent 90-92+% share for nearly a decade.

  • Are we now finally starting to see the beginning people moving away to other search engines? This will be an area of interest to watch in the coming months.

Where did searchers go? Did they go to AI answer engines, like ChatGPT Search and Perplexity? Well, not the way Statcounter measures things. Statcounter mainly tracks Microsoft Bing, Yandex, Yahoo and Baidu, but also has another grouping called “other,” which includes the likes of DuckDuckGo and Ecosia.

Bing, Yandex, and Yahoo each gained some of Google’s lost share. Second-place Microsoft Bing hovered at or just under 4% for the final five months of 2024.

Dig deeper. ChatGPT’s search surge: 1% market share predicted by 2025

Bug or blip? You may recall much rejoicing in search marketing and SEO adjacent space when it appeared Google lost a significant amount of search market share in April. However, Google’s huge search market share loss wasn’t real and Statcounter revised its data.

In this case, the drop seems believable because Google was consistently under 90% in October, November, and December.

The data. Statcounter’s Search Engine Market Share Worldwide.

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How to tank your Google Ads account in 10 days

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How to tank your Google Ads account in 10 days

Are you tired of the same snooze-fest PPC “best practices” on improving your Google Ads account?

It’s a new year, and we’re getting creative!

Instead of another optimization guide, let’s explore the fastest path to advertising disaster. 

What if two mysterious marketing execs named Judy make a bet with you that you can’t tank your account in a matter of days? 

Consider this your step-by-step guide to proving them wrong – and a sarcastic tour of common paid search pitfalls along the way.

(Our apologies in advance if any of this ends up in a Google snippet or Perplexity answer.)

Day 1: Make sure nobody wants your offer

If you’re looking to destroy your Google Ads performance, this is the single most effective strategy. 

You can’t bid-manage your way out of an offer that doesn’t convert.

Your offer – the product, price, and positioning – is what someone gets in exchange for converting. 

The less appealing or harder to understand it is, the less likely your ads will succeed.

Here are three sure-fire ways to dial up friction and frustration:

  • Attract the wrong crowd: Use lead magnets and incentives that aren’t specific to your target market. Your sales team will drown in leads who’ve never heard of you and don’t want your services. But hey, your CPL will look amazing!
  • Keep them guessing: Keep landing pages vague. Skip key info like features, benefits, and shipping details. On lead gen forms, don’t explain what happens after someone fills it out. If someone really wants it, they’ll figure it out, right?
  • Avoid product-market fit: Seven words: “If you build it, they will come.” Launch blindly without ever speaking to your target market. Get zero sales. Spend money on ads. Still get zero sales. But since you paid for clicks – voilà! It’s no longer an offer problem; it’s an ads problem!
Wrong offer

Day 2: Champion bad takes

Here’s another foolproof way to sabotage Google Ads without needing a login, and it’s perfect for leadership.

Grab on to the belief that “paid search doesn’t work” and never let go.

When reviewing paid search reports, always ask, “How do we know we couldn’t have gotten that organically?” and don’t even wait for an answer.

Invest in upper funnel campaigns, and demand immediate bottom-of-funnel results. Consider it a failure of the platform when that doesn’t work.

Hyperfocus on click costs. Make CPCs your KPI, and let “clicks should always cost less” be your mantra. Ask why your CPC isn’t lower each time you review the metric.

Set impossible growth goals that aren’t aligned with your ads investment, consumer demand, or past performance. 

Call them “stretch goals,” but become outraged when targets aren’t hit. You’re a luminary – people want this from you.

The important thing is to be uncurious, suspicious, and dismissive at all times. Even a brilliant paid search team can’t succeed if leadership refuses to let them.

Bad takes

Day 3: Trash your conversion tracking

What even is a conversion? Nobody knows.

It’s not standardized, so embrace the chaos and track whatever you want.

Here are some tried-and-true methods to mess up your data:

  • If it fires, it counts. Skip debugging and de-duping. Double the tags, double the sources, double the fun!
  • No judgment. Treat “scroll 50% for 30 seconds” the same as “purchase complete.” Give all actions equal weight, make them primary conversions, and stick to aggregate reporting.
  • What happens offline stays offline.
  • Keep it casual. Use names like “Event 1” or “Test Conversion,” so no one really knows what’s being tracked.
  • Trust, but don’t verify. Use platform data as your source of truth and never compare it to your CRM or actual sales numbers.

Not only will you have no idea what’s working, but Google won’t either, so it’ll optimize for all the wrong outcomes.

Bonus tip: If your conversion tracking breaks, don’t bother with the data exclusions feature. Always forward, never back.

What happens offline, stays offline

Day 4: Say ‘yes’ to every Google Ads recommendation

You’ve spent your whole life playing it safe – proceeding with caution, carefully analyzing, and looking both ways before crossing a busy street. 

It’s time to step into your main character energy and say “yes”… to Google.

Don’t overthink it. Actually, don’t think at all. Just say “yes” to every recommendation that comes your way. 

Broad match keywords? Sure, why not?

Raise your budget? Only one question: How high?

Auto-applied suggestions? Go ahead, Google, live your truth. 

Every word from your account rep is now a mandate. Every low optimization score or ad strength is now your top priority to address.

Watch your account do a complete 180. Because it was never really about the destination, it was about the journey.

Burn your permission slip to say no to Google. This is your moment of “yes.”

Say yes

Day 5: Use AI and ML to overcomplicate everything

“It’s not about refining your workflow; it’s about deploying generative AI at scale without a strategy.” 

Sure, there are smart ways to use AI to learn about your audience, create messaging, and process large data sets. 

But let’s be honest: narrowing in on appropriate use cases takes effort, and effort is so 2015.

Today’s hottest companies are blowing six figures a month on ChatGPT-generated ads with no sales to show for it. But you don’t need those budgets to get the same results!

And why stop at ad generation? 

You can use ML-driven algorithms to overcomplicate your account structure, automate decisions with zero context, and remove humans from tasks that desperately need human oversight. 

You’ll know you’re on the fast track to ruin when someone suggests prioritizing strategy over scaling, and your only response is, “But we’ve already invested so much in the tool!”

Because nothing says “visionary” like being so focused on the future that you let your account implode before you even get there.

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Day 6: Un-structure your account

Your Google Ads account likely includes multiple campaign types, segments, networks, bid strategies, and initiatives. 

Very confusing. Very complicated.

Why not throw it all into one giant, cozy, messy campaign? 

Call it “Campaign 1” for good measure.

Search + Display Network? Combine ‘em!

Top of funnel, competitor and brand terms? Put ‘em all in the same ad group with a DKI ad – let Google sort ‘em out.

There’s no better way to throttle the performance of high-intent, high-converting keywords than to mash them together with high-volume, low-converting keywords into a campaign that’s “limited by budget.”

Your chaotic structure will make it impossible to tell what’s working and what’s not. 

Reporting becomes a beautiful nightmare, and budget optimization is now rightfully impossible.

It’s not disorganized, it’s “hagakure*!”

(*Of course, accounts can also suffer from being overly granular. Hagakure, as a principle, isn’t inherently bad. It’s the blanket permission to abandon structure that turns it into a problem.)

Structure

Day 7: Turn the user journey into a maze

At its core, the paid search conversion sequence is pretty simple:

  • The keyword reflects the user’s intent (“I have a problem”).
  • The ad connects the problem of the keyword to the solution of the offer.
  • The landing page delivers the solution with a clear call to action, inviting a conversion.

Boooooring.

Paid search conversion sequence

Still, it’s a simple path. So how could anyone possibly mess it up? 

The answer is just as simple: misalignment. 

Whether you ignore the user entirely or overcomplicate every step, the result is the same: a chaotic journey that guarantees missed conversions. 

Here are two popular ways to get it wrong.

Option 1: The passive approach

Here’s where you don’t really think about the person behind the search. 

You just throw a bunch of unrelated keywords and ads into the system and hope that Google will serve the “right” message to the “right” audience. 

It’s a beautiful dream!

Option 2: The overcomplexity approach

This one requires a bit more effort and, more importantly, many more buzzwords. It sounds like this:

“Advertising used to be simple: see ad, buy product. But today’s sophisticated consumers need 50+ touchpoints, and the user journey takes a team of PhDs to track.”

Spoiler: Advertising has never succeeded without alignment. 

When you replace a basic understanding of your audience’s motivations with marketing mix models (MMM) and convoluted attribution tools, you end up just as lost as your audience.

Here’s the thing: whether you’re too passive or overly complex, both paths lead to the same questions when performance tanks:

  • Was it the keyword?
  • The ad copy?
  • The landing page?
  • Or just Mercury in retrograde again?

When your user journey becomes a maze, the answer doesn’t matter. Your customer is already gone.

Day 8: Madlib your way to ad copy

Why do your customers choose you over your competitors? 

If you don’t know – or better yet, don’t care – it’s time to throw together a bland word scramble that quietly vanishes into the SERP. Here’s how:

  • Write some cookie-cutter headlines filled with vague superlatives and uninspired CTAs. If that’s too much, let Google Ads auto-create them or get an AI tool to do it for you.
  • Leave your headlines unpinned, since the key to an effective headline is that it delivers the same message backward, forward, and in any random order.
  • Now let Google Ads work its magic by optimizing your headlines for clicks. Google’s revenue model depends on clicks, so it’ll prioritize ad combinations that drive the most clicks, not necessarily those that bring you qualified clicks or …(gross)… conversions.
  • Only measure ad success using metrics like clicks and CTR. These numbers are trending up across Google Ads accounts anyway, so you’ll feel accomplished watching the graph climb, even as your conversions plummet.

It’s a bit of a long game, but this system ensures your ads stay vague, attract untargeted clicks, and burn through your budget without reaching your ideal customers. 

Because really… who needs ‘em?

Madlibs

Day 9: Change everything, all the time

Want to master the art of campaign chaos? Here’s your step-by-step guide: 

  • Try something new.
  • If it doesn’t deliver instant results, panic and immediately reverse it. 
  • When that change doesn’t magically fix things either, try something totally different. 
  • Still no immediate success? Perfect! Pause or delete the campaign entirely. 

Bonus: this approach will keep your bid strategies in an indefinite “learning period.” 

Learning mode is Google’s way of saying, “Let’s experiment with your budget!” 

Expect sky-high CPCs, random placements, and risky behavior any brand manager would faint over as Google flails around trying to make sense of your constant changes.

This roller coaster guarantees maximum frustration, minimum ROI, and a campaign that never, ever stabilizes.

Who needs stability when you can chase the thrill of constant reinvention and keep your results unpredictable?

Shifting gears

Day 10: Expand, expand, expand

Success in Google Ads depends on qualifying, targeting, and speaking directly to your ideal audience.

Achieving the opposite effect is actually pretty easy: Go broad, baby!

Do whatever it takes to get the most impressions – qualified or not. After all, if 100% of the global population sees your ad, and even 0.01% take action, you’ll sell millions! 

  • Don’t limit location targeting to areas where you do business or see results. Be sure to use the default “Presence or Interest” to pay for clicks from locations you’re not actually targeting.
  • Don’t limit languages to the language your ads and offers are written in.
  • Don’t keep your ads from running on irrelevant apps or YouTube videos for minors.
  • Don’t exclude audience segments that are unlikely to convert.

Assume that all views and clicks are equally valuable, even if they’re generated accidentally, in bad faith, or by two-year-olds through the “suitable for families” content loophole.

If reach is the name of your paid search game, you’re definitely playing a losing game.

Expand, expand, expand

There are plenty of other ways to mess with your Google Ads account, but these 10 guarantee a disaster worse than an ad-libbed karaoke duet. Happy failing!

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How to avoid 10 common SEO interview mistakes and land your next job 

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How to avoid 10 common SEO interview mistakes and land your next job

Over the past decade, I’ve reviewed hundreds of CVs, conducted countless interviews, and led numerous technical tests for SEO candidates. 

Along the way, I’ve met many exceptional professionals – but I’ve also noticed a recurring pattern of common interview mistakes that can hold even the most talented candidates back.

Below are 10 common mistakes I’ve observed in SEO interviews – and how you can easily avoid them.

1. Projecting arrogance instead of confidence 

Confidence is great! While imposter syndrome is common in SEO, it’s important to stay realistically confident in your skills and experience.

However, there is a fine line between projecting confidence and appearing arrogant.

For example, talk about your successes, such as:

  • Complicated projects you navigated.
  • Great results you achieved.
  • Buy-in you gained. 

Be articulate in what you achieved and how.

Show off your theoretical knowledge. Discuss ideas and theories with your interviewer. 

Don’t assume they will agree with you, though. This can be arrogance.

SEO is not a “one-size-fits-all” practice. 

You may have different experiences from your interviewer’s, which may have led you both to opposing conclusions. This is fine. It happens in SEO all the time.

Some people make the mistake of thinking it’s OK to argue and dismiss others’ opinions. 

This rarely works well in any workplace and can be especially harmful during an interview.

When I interview, I look for team players – confident in their knowledge yet humble and open to learning. 

They embrace new evidence and contribute to discussions that elevate the entire team’s understanding, including their own.

If you stray too far into arrogance during an interview, you may come across as difficult to teach or lead and not open to feedback.

2. Giving hazy details about projects and successes

Interviews are your time to shine. They allow you to show off some of your best work. 

Another mistake I’ve seen in interviews is assuming interviewers can fill in the gaps.

Candidates talk about a project or website they have worked on but fail to convey its significance. 

They mention website migrations, expecting non-SEO interviewers to understand the complexities involved.

They discuss turning around a traffic slump without giving any data. Avoid this. 

Make sure to give the specifics.

There’s a good acronym for constructing interview answers called STAR. It stands for:

  • Situation: What was the issue or opportunity you were facing?
  • Task: What was your role or responsibility in this and the goal you were working toward?
  • Action: What did you do to address the situation?
  • Result: What happened because of your actions? What successes, learnings, or results can you share?

Using this method, you may find it easier to hit all the salient points that give the interviewers clarity and perspective. 

Try to choose examples that have an outcome that you’re proud of or can at least explain what made it fall short.

Dig deeper: How to become exceptional at SEO

3. Ignoring the question

Candidates sometimes don’t have time to think of an answer to the question or feel they don’t have one. 

They try to talk around the question and bring it back to something they feel more comfortable discussing.

If an interviewer asks, “Talk about a time when you faced a complex website migration and what did you do?” or “How would you handle a stakeholder not signing off on your recommendations?” that’s exactly what they want to know. 

Avoid going off on a tangent and ensure you address the question directly.

Oftentimes, interviewers will have a list of questions they are asking each candidate.

They may even use these to compare candidates against each other. If you’re not directly answering them, you put yourself at a disadvantage.

Instead, take some time to think about the answer. 

Explain that you want to answer well and need a minute to organize your thoughts. 

If you don’t have an experience relevant to a question or have not encountered something before, explain that to the interviewer. 

Tell them you haven’t “migrated a website before,” but mention what you would do in that situation. 

If you make something up, passing it off as a situation you faced, you risk being exposed. 

You may be asked for details you can’t provide, or you may realize that a savvy interviewer has been researching the company or website as you talk about it. 

4. Not addressing your audience well

Building rapport with interviewers is key to a successful interview. 

Answer their questions clearly, making it easy for them to recognize your knowledge and experience.

To do that well, you need to understand your audience. 

You should address their questions using the language and tone they are addressing you and gauge their level of SEO knowledge. 

It may be tempting to impress non-SEO stakeholders with industry jargon, but if they don’t know what it means, they won’t understand the impact of what you’ve done.

Similarly, if you’re being interviewed by the head of SEO, relying on jargon or complex-sounding projects without substance can risk being seen as insincere or unqualified.

5. Being disrespectful of the progress of the site(s)

If you are talking to another SEO at the company or agency, don’t assume they are negligent in not addressing that JavaScript issue you’ve noticed on their site. 

Don’t think their approach to SEO is basic because there is still an obvious area of expansion. 

Be respectful. It’s OK to acknowledge that you noticed these issues with their sites, but assume you aren’t telling them anything they don’t already know.

Chances are some procedural or technical blocks are stopping them from fixing it. Enquire about that instead.

It will give you some insight into what challenges you may face if you do go on to work there. 

Dig deeper: The SEO career crisis is coming: Are you ready?

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6. Being unprepared for the types of questions asked

Interviews are nerve-wracking! 

It’s understandable if your mind goes blank when asked to share specific examples of your work or knowledge.

One of the most frustrating mistakes I see in interviews (and have made myself!) is not being able to remember the details of the perfect example of a project that would have answered an interviewer’s question.

A good way to avoid this is to come prepared with projects or challenges that exemplify some core areas of SEO that you are likely to face in the role. 

Look at the job listing again and see what experience they hope candidates will have. 

Given the scope, seniority, and complexity of the sites, consider the situations and tasks you may face in that role.

For example, if you are interviewing for a senior technical SEO role, you may want to prepare examples of projects you’ve worked on that included:

  • A challenging crawling, indexing, parsing, or rendering issue.
  • A large, complicated technical SEO project that you needed to gain buy-in from stakeholders for.
  • A sudden drop in traffic or rankings that needed to be investigated.
  • A website migration that you had a leading role in.

If you are interviewing for an SEO account manager at an agency, you may want to prepare times when:

  • You had to explain to stakeholders a drop in performance and any remedial action planned.
  • Present an SEO proposal to a group of people with varying SEO literacy and explain how you helped them get on board with the plan.
  • You presented at a client pitch, the work you put into the pitch, and how you onboarded that client.

Come prepared with example projects you can adapt. 

  • Think of a successful project and how you made it work. 
  • Give an example of an unsuccessful project and what you would do differently. 

This may mean writing notes about these projects and key points, such as tasks and results, to jog your memory. 

Essentially, you want to have a few well-detailed and thought-out examples that you can adapt using the STAR method on the fly at the interview.

7. All talk, no substance

Waffle. Meandering. Stalling for time out loud. 

Whatever you want to call it, this I possibly one of the most common mistakes I’ve seen in interviews.

Starting to answer the question before knowing what you are going to say. 

Again, it’s understandable. We feel like we need to answer the question as soon as it is asked. 

In reality, though, it’s OK to take some time to think it through first. 

Listen to the question and address that directly. 

Consider it a school assignment where you get a mark for every point you hit.

Structure your answers clearly to help interviewers find the information they’re looking for.

Sometimes the waffling comes because the question wasn’t asked well. Perhaps it isn’t entirely clear what the interviewer is asking. 

Don’t fall into the trap of trying to answer a question you don’t fully understand.

It’s OK to ask clarifying questions.

If you still don’t have an answer, you can explain that it isn’t something you have encountered or even heard of.

However, this gives you something to go away and look into.

You could even ask the interviewers what they think about the topic or what they would do in the situation they asked about.

Most interviewers will seek team members willing to learn and expand their knowledge.

In the best case, they will see your willingness to learn and grow from others around you.

Worst case, you have another side of SEO or interviewing techniques to study for the next role you apply for!

Did deeper: What to do if you lose your SEO job: The emergency handbook

8. Trying to bribe or threaten interviewers

This should probably go without saying, but as I’ve encountered it in interviews before, I guess it needs to be said.

Please don’t threaten or try to bribe your interviewers.

It is highly unlikely that if an interview is going badly, the promise of a link from your friend’s blog to their company’s website will turn it around. 

Don’t promise them that if they hire you, they will get access to the secrets to your “guaranteed SEO approach” if you have not been able to demonstrate your competency through the questions they’ve asked. 

Don’t threaten a negative SEO attack on them or their competitors. 

Avoid suggesting they only wanted to interview you to steal your ideas. 

Just don’t be rude or dishonest. You won’t get the job, and you won’t be kept in the database of possible future candidates.

9. Contacting everyone in the company to get an ‘in’

Another mistake I’ve seen is a candidate getting too enthusiastic about standing out from the crowd. 

In doing so, they contact anyone in the company they can to make themselves known.

It is great to show that you are interested in the company and the role. 

If the interviewers have said it’s OK for you to contact them after the interview, it is absolutely fine. 

However, be considerate when you contact interviewers outside of the interview process.

It may come across as keen, but do it too much, and it can become difficult for people to respond, especially if they aren’t directly involved in the interviewing process.

It’s OK to follow up sparingly and with the right people, but be mindful of how busy interviewers are when running hiring processes. 

Your keen attitude may be too much to handle if not appropriate. 

10. Being dishonest about the level of involvement had in the project

Be truthful about your level of involvement in a project. 

Don’t claim you worked on a project just because it happened at your agency at the same time you were working there. 

As soon as interviewers start asking in-depth questions about the project, your lack of knowledge will be apparent.

Instead of it sounding impressive, you’ll come across as lacking knowledge and depth in your answer.

Ace your SEO interview and leave a lasting impression

By avoiding these common mistakes, you can present yourself as a confident, prepared, and team-oriented candidate.

With the right approach, you’ll be better positioned to impress interviewers and land your next SEO role.

Dig deeper: The latest jobs in search marketing

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Google quietly updated the News and Discover manual action policies

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Google has updated its manual actions for Google News and Google Discover a few months back, where they removed the adult-theme and artificial freshening sections, updated the hateful content section and added five new deceptive practices sections.

This change was spotted by Gagan Ghotra who wrote, “last year somewhere between 10th Oct and 27 Nov Google updated Manual Actions for News and Discovers to add some specific policy violations for Deceptive Practices.”

What changed. Google removed two sections:

  • Adult-themed content (Discover)
  • Artificial freshening (News and Discover)

Google updated one section:

  • “News and Discover policy violation: Hateful content” is now “Hateful content (News and Discover)”

Google added five sections on deceptive practices including:

  • Deceptive practices: Coordinated deceptive practices (News and Discover): Google has detected content on your site that appears to conceal or misrepresent the site ownership or purpose.
  • Deceptive practices: Good neighbor policy (News and Discover): Google has detected content on your site that impersonates or conceals the organization that created the content.
  • Deceptive practices: Impersonation (News and Discover): Google has detected content on your site that misrepresents the person or organization that provided the content.
  • Deceptive practices: Misrepresentation of affiliation (News and Discover): Google has detected content on your site that seems to misrepresent or conceal the financial or editorial relationships of the content producers.
  • Deceptive practices: Misrepresentation of location (News and Discover): Google has detected content on your site that seems to misrepresent or conceal the country of origin of the website.

Here is an image I created showing the side-by-side changes:

Why we care. If you are in the business of creating and publishing content, you will want to review these updated manual actions. Now, while these have been out for a few months now, it is still important to review these changes and scan through the manual action policy violations list every now and then.

Receiving a manual action can be very harmful to your site’s performance both in Google Search, Google News and Google Discover.

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