Google Ads Accounts Hit Targets Without Boosting Business Growth
Google Ads accounts may hit targets without growing the business due to a disconnect between ad metrics and business reality. This discrepancy can occur when targets are not revisited over time.
Original reporting · searchenginejournal.com
Original: “Your Google Ads Account Is Hitting Its Targets, So Why Isn’t The Business Growing?”
Read “Your Google Ads Account Is Hitting Its Targets, So Why Isn’t The Business Growing?” at Search Engine Journal →
How this was written. Awesome B2B wrote this article with a language model from Search Engine Journal’s reporting (model: @cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast); it describes that reporting rather than adding to it. The original, linked above, is the full story.
Key points from Search Engine Journal’s report
- Smart Bidding is optimized to achieve its targets, not to grow the business.
- Targets, such as ROAS and CPA, are often set once and forgotten.
- Hitting targets does not necessarily mean the business is growing.
Google Ads accounts can consistently hit their targets, such as Target CPA or Target ROAS, without leading to business growth, according to Search Engine Journal. This is because Smart Bidding is optimized to achieve its targets, not necessarily to grow the business. The algorithm keeps optimizing toward the goal it was given, even when that goal is no longer the bottleneck to growth.
A disconnect between advertising metrics and business reality may be the cause of this issue. Targets, such as ROAS and CPA, are often set once and forgotten, without being revisited as costs and product mix shift over time.
This can lead to a situation where hitting targets means breaking even or acquiring customers at a loss, while the ad account reports a win.
Questions and answers
Why can Google Ads accounts hit targets without growing the business?
This can occur due to a disconnect between advertising metrics and business reality, as targets are not revisited over time.
What happens when targets are not revisited over time?
Targets, such as ROAS and CPA, may not reflect current unit economics, leading to a situation where hitting targets means breaking even or acquiring customers at a loss.
