The Paid Search Podcast | Episode 480

Title: Huge Q&A About Google Ads
Host: Chris Schaeffer
Date: September 21, 2025

Episode Overview

In this episode, Chris Schaeffer hosts a multi-question Q&A session, tackling Google Ads certifications, audience reporting, Google Autocomplete ("Suggest"), and the evolving challenges of PPC account management in an AI-driven ad ecosystem. The episode is focused, candid, and filled with actionable insights for business owners, agency pros, and freelancers navigating modern Google Ads.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Are Google Ads Certifications Worth It?

(Starts ~02:00)

• Chris’s Experience: Chris confirms he maintains certification annually but is far less nervous about the exams than in the past.
• Value Assessment: Certification helps establish trust and credibility—if clients ask. "Most of the time people don't ask. ...They care if you're good at it or not." (Chris, 06:45)
• Partner Program Realities:
  • Being certified is required to be eligible as a Google Partner, but the practical business advantages (like access to betas or specialized support) are overstated.
  • Chris challenges the notion that Partner status translates into better support or campaign performance. "Having a dedicated support manager on the Google side...is probably the least valuable of all of the advantages of being a partner." (Chris, 09:20)
  • The Partner badge and listing are only as valuable as client awareness, which is usually minimal.
• Conclusion: Certification is only "worth it" if clients care or you want minor perks. It's not a requirement for effective account management.

2. How to Report on Audiences in Google Ads

(Starts ~12:10)

• Data Visibility: Individual audience data is available on the Audiences tab in Google Ads, showing rows for each assigned audience with associated metrics.
• Metrics That Matter: Chris emphasizes conversion data is by far the most actionable audience metric—not clicks or impressions.
• Practical Advice:
  • Avoid bloating campaigns with irrelevant audiences ("mothers with newborn babies" for a business sign company as an example of irrelevant targeting).
  • Build strategic, relevant lists: "Your audiences need to be associated with the people that are going to be coming to your website." (Chris, 17:25)
  • Test and optimize based on surprising or high-performing segments, but ignore "standard top-level metrics" unless linked directly to conversions.
• Optimization Mindset: Focus on refining with insight, prune irrelevant data, and use conversion data to drive tests.

3. Getting Into Google Autocomplete (Google Suggest)

(Starts ~20:24)

• Clarification: Google Autocomplete/Suggest is entirely organic; there's no paid method to influence these suggestions.
• How It Works:
  • Driven by aggregate search volume, user history, trending events/news, location, and language.
• Chris’s Take: "There is no solution. You cannot engineer Google suggest to happen through paid ads." (Chris, 22:10)
• Marketing Attempts: Viral/grassroots campaigns could potentially trigger trends, but it's unpredictable, likely curated by Google, and not a recommended (or reliable) marketing tactic.

4. Is Google Ads Management Getting Harder? (The “AI Era” and Loss of Control)

(Starts ~24:13)

• Listener Background: Ali, a 20+ year Google Ads manager, expresses concern about AI takeover, loss of advertiser trust, declining control, and Google pushing broad automated solutions.
• Chris’s Response:
  • Change Is Real: The mechanics of keywords and campaigns have changed—the old, granular precision is impossible. "The reason things don't work the same way is because keywords have changed...we have had to completely change the way that we build campaigns." (Chris, 25:50)
  • Industry Disappearance: Some verticals, especially "highly technical" B2B areas like managed IT, are now effectively unworkable through Google Ads due to low volume and broad targeting. "I firmly believe that some industries are gone forever…of being able to be successful on Google Ads." (Chris, 29:50)
  • Loss of Data: Search term blindness is widespread ("I've seen accounts that suffer from about 80% search term blindness..."), loss of precise location data, and the end of modified broad match.
  • When to Quit?: Sometimes, it’s right to advise clients to leave Google Ads if the platform isn't viable, but it's not universally true.
  • Mainstream “Google Narrative”:
    • Many managers/agencies uncritically follow "optimization scores" and automated recommendations ("probably around 75%...largely, if not fully, swallow the Google narrative." 37:30)
    • Chris values independent, critical management that questions Google's self-serving narrative: "If there's anything this podcast is designed to do, it is designed to help you see past the Google narrative..." (48:22)
  • Encouragement: Success is still possible—the platform isn’t dead, but the path is more challenging and nuanced.

Memorable Quotes

• On Certification’s Real-World Impact
  "Being certified on Google is only worth it if someone cares. If your client cares, that's the only reason that it would be worth it. Most of the time people don't ask." — Chris (06:45)

• On Google Partner Perks
  "Having a dedicated support manager on the Google side is probably the least valuable of all the advantages of being a partner...their priorities are very different from what you'd have for your client." — Chris (09:20)

• On Audience Metrics
  "There is no value to getting an audience with hundreds, thousands of impressions...You have not actually done anything. All audiences represent is segmentation…What you actually care about is if that audience has a very high conversion rate." — Chris (16:00)

• On Gaming Google Suggest
  "There is no solution. You cannot engineer Google suggest to happen through paid ads. The only route would be to create your own trend, your own popular viral search—some way outside of the paid realm." — Chris (22:10)

• On Industry Shifts and Platform Evolution
  "I firmly believe that some industries are gone forever of being able to be successful on Google Ads." — Chris (29:50)

• On the Prevalence of Google’s “Best Practices”
  "Probably around 75% of the people out there…largely, if not fully, swallow the Google narrative. They believe that the proper way to manage their Google Ads is through the suggestions, the optimization score, automated bidding, performance max..." — Chris (37:30)

• On Seeing Past the Google Narrative
  "If there's anything this podcast is designed to do, it is designed to help you see past the Google narrative, to help you see past all of the stuff that we're supposed to do and really get into what we should do." — Chris (48:22)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:30 — Introduction and sponsor mention
• 02:00 — Google Ads certifications: worth it or not?
• 12:10 — Reporting on individual audience performance in Google Ads
• 20:24 — Can you influence Google Autocomplete (Google Suggest)?
• 24:13 — The impact of AI and changing Google Ads landscape; is traditional management dying?
• 29:50 — Disappearance of industries from Google Ads
• 37:30 — Mainstream adoption of Google’s automation and optimization recommendations
• 48:22 — Chris’s mission: “seeing past the matrix” of Google Ads recommendations

Summary Takeaways

• Certifications/Partner status are badges of credibility but offer limited real-world advantage for most practitioners.
• Audience reporting should focus on conversion metrics, not vanity data points; prune your audiences to only relevant segments.
• Autocomplete/Suggest is organic and cannot be paid for or reliably gamed—the only avenue is organic popularity/trends.
• The evolving AI-driven Google Ads world has made many practices obsolete, rendered some verticals unviable, and caused widespread practitioner anxiety. However, opportunity remains for those willing to think independently and challenge the default advice.

Closing Thoughts

Chris’s tone is honest, reassuring, occasionally wry, but always practical: he advocates for skepticism, informed testing, and client-focused management, while acknowledging the real pressures and uncertainties of today’s PPC environment.

Contact:
Chris Schaeffer
chrisschaeffer.com | Google Ads consulting and training

For more listener Q&A and no-nonsense Google Ads advice, tune in next week to the Paid Search Podcast.