The Paid Search Podcast – Episode 484: Huge Q&A: 5 Questions + SPECIAL BONUS!

Host: Chris Schaeffer, Certified Google Ads Specialist
Guest: Joey Bidner
Date: October 20, 2025

Overview

In this packed Q&A episode, Chris answers five listener-submitted Google Ads questions, offering deep-dive advice on campaign structure, account management, and troubleshooting. The episode features a special segment from e-commerce advertising expert Joey Bidner, who shares advanced tips for maximizing holiday sales season effectiveness on Google Ads. Listeners get practical tactics on Shopping campaigns, change tracking, leveraging new and classic Google Ads features, and managing increasingly automated campaign types like AI Max.

1. Controlling Search Terms in Shopping Campaigns

Listener Question (Casey)
Timestamp: 01:27

Key Points

• Challenge: Shopping campaigns are driving clicks from unrelated keywords/products, even those excluded from the campaign.
• Core Solution:
  • Product Titles: Most critical; put the most important, specific keywords first.
  • Descriptions: Support Google’s understanding but less visible to users.
  • Product Type & GTIN/MPN: Assign correct identifiers for greater precision and to help Google match products against its catalog, leveraging a crowdsourced system.
• Campaign Structure:
  • Prefer Standard Shopping over Performance Max for greater control (manual bidding, more granular exclusions, ad groups by product/category/ID).
  • Exclude products at the ad group or campaign level for tighter targeting.

Notable Quote

"The most important things to communicate – that’s in the product title and the description. The beginning of [the product title] is what's going to show first and most likely all that shows in Shopping results."
— Chris Schaeffer (03:16)

2. Tracking Optimizations and Change History

Listener Question (Cash)
Timestamp: 09:20

Key Points

• Use Notes in Google Ads:
  • Notes can be added to the campaign screen’s graph for any date, capturing actions like bid increases or budget changes for future reference.
  • Essential, as official Google Ads change history only retains two years of data.
• Productivity Tools:
  • Chris recommends a daily to-do app–specifically, Things (Mac)–for reviewing client and campaign tasks with attached notes describing context and goals.
  • Avoids using loose notes or Notepad due to lack of accountability.

Notable Quote

"What was my mindset two weeks ago, two months ago, two years ago? ...If you haven’t noticed, [Google] change history...past two years? It’s gone. You know what’s not deleted? Those notes."
— Chris Schaeffer (11:33)

3. [Special Segment] Holiday Sales Strategy for Google Ads E-commerce

Guest: Joey Bidner
Timestamp: 15:04

Key Points

Budget & Timing Strategy

• Don’t crank up budgets only during the sale:
  • Pre-sale period is prime for acquiring new, cold traffic.
  • Bulk of increased budget should be spent ahead of time (double your conversion lag) to fill the pipeline for when the sale goes live.
  • Avoid exclusively serving sale prices to current or remarketing audiences at a higher cost.
• Conversion Lag:
  • Use Google’s time-series chart to determine average conversion lag.
  • Scale budget leading up to the sale based on this lag.

Tools & Campaign Features

• Search Campaigns:
  • Use headline and description assets (formerly ad extensions) at the account or campaign level; can be scheduled for automated start/end times.
  • Promotional assets: Another scheduleable extension for sale info (e.g., Black Friday discounts, promo codes).
• Shopping Campaigns:
  • Compare at Price ("sale" price visible vs. slashed regular price) is recommended over promo code setups, which often run into approval/rejection issues in Merchant Center.
• Display & Remarketing:
  • Dynamic remarketing picks up "compare at price" data to create enticing display ads.
  • Supplement with custom static display banners for strong branding.

Optimization Tips

• Don’t do “baby discounts”: Go bigger or bundle to drive true new business.
• Use Seasonality Adjustments in Google Ads to signal expected conversion rate spikes (by % and timing), aiding the algorithm’s pacing both during and after the sale.
• New Feature Alert: Google is launching Promotion Mode for direct sale signaling—improving on current seasonality adjustments (Think Retail 2025 event).

Notable Quotes

"The idea of running a sale is to create a pipeline of new traffic to your site, and to use the sale as the carrot on the stick to close this new business... not just serve sale price to your existing customers at the most expensive time."
— Joey Bidner (16:15)

"My key takeaway: scale before the sale, not during the sale. And look at your conversion lag to establish how far out you should increase your budget."
— Joey Bidner (31:29)

4. Dealing with Search Term Crossover and “AI Max”

Listener Question (Gavin, Victoria, BC, via Video)
Timestamp: 32:44

Key Points

• The Issue: Campaigns receiving conversion-positive but off-target search terms (e.g., generic terms in specific campaigns), driven by new “AI Max” match types.
• Risks of Losing Control:
  • Short-term: results can look positive (CPA down for AI Max search terms vs. keywords).
  • Long-term: the lack of control can cause leads to decline in quality, management confusion, and a slide to chaos and campaign failure.
• Best Practices:
  • Gradually restore structure: use the scientific method (hypothesis, experiment, analyze, conclude, adjust).
  • Avoid “AI Max” in multi-service or multi-product accounts where control matters.
  • For expansion, favor Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) at the ad group level—they provide fresh queries but allow bid and content controls.

Notable Quotes

"Lack of control in Google Ads will lead to failure... Chaos in an account leads to confusion in your management process. Confusion leads to poor decision making...and now all your success is starting to fail."
— Chris Schaeffer (34:24)

"The success and confusion you're seeing is from AI Max. ...It blew up the campaign, overspent. It was working, but what if it doesn't?"
— Chris Schaeffer (41:21)

5. A Hidden Threat: Automated Assets

Listener Comment (Jeff, via Video)
Timestamp: 45:45

Key Points

• Action Item:
  • Turn off automated assets in Google Ads at the account level, especially dynamic sitelinks.
  • Dynamic site links can promote irrelevant or low-performing pages (About, Testimonials) and waste budget.
• How To:
  • Go to Assets tab → "More" (three dots) → Account Level Automated Assets → Advanced Settings.

Notable Quote

"I hate dynamic site links. It pulls in stupid pages like my About Us page…for [clients], which are stupid pages for them to spend money for people to come to."
— Chris Schaeffer (47:02)

Memorable Moments

• Chris’s recurring “send me a video” call: Inspired by how direct screen videos lead to vastly better advice, as seen in Gavin and Jeff’s questions.
• Holiday tips from Joey Bidner: Timely and actionable for e-commerce listeners preparing for Q4.
• Chris’s mini rant on the perils of AI Max: Colorful warnings against overreliance on Google’s most automated systems.
• Hidden UI features: Step-by-step guidance on obscure but vital settings (notes, automated assets) that impact account performance and reporting.

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [01:27] – Shopping campaign keyword control (Casey)
• [09:20] – Tracking changes and using notes (Cash)
• [15:04] – Joey Bidner on E-commerce sales strategies for Google Ads
• [32:44] – Search term crossover and AI Max (Gavin)
• [45:45] – Disabling automated assets (Jeff)

Conclusion

Chris offers listeners a blend of deep technical guidance and practical campaign advice, with a strong emphasis on long-term control and sustainable success in Google Ads, particularly as automation features expand. The special guest session from Joey Bidner delivers a timely, expert deep-dive into e-commerce sale strategies, arming merchants and advertisers with actionable tools for the holiday season and beyond.

Connect and ask more questions at www.paidsearchpodcast.com
Contact Chris for consulting at chrisschaeffer.com