With AI being all the rage, lately, a lot of advertisers are looking for ways to incorporate new AI tools into their marketing machines. The truth is, AI is already at work and well qualified campaign managers know explicitly where to engage it, and where to disable it. There’s AI influence on the publisher-side, for sure, but our focus is adveritiser-side. That’s an important distinction, and one that has us reminding clients repeatedly that Google isn’t just an advertiser-side tool, it’s primary focus is monetizing the content they own and represent. That’s a lot like asking someone for help finding the right car for you and decide how much you’ll spend, only to find that this same person is also a car salesman.

I’m not suggesting impropriety, I’ll leave that to the Federal government in the coming years. I’m only suggesting that this perspective is an important one to keep in mind, particularly when it comes to the advice that pours-in from Google reps that seem to email and call at an intense pace. What’s best for the advertiser isn’t necessarily what’s best for Google, and that’s OK.

What most clients need is Math and clean data to work with. That means accurate conversion tracking, an eye on GA4 as your sole source of truth (de-duped where 1 conversion might record in multiple ad platforms), and a focus on results. Also, consider the weighting or scoring of conversion events based on value, making available some ROI and ROAS bidding options that might perform well. The math we need doesn’t have to be our own, let Google’s algorithms do the leg work, with campaign experts to guide and control that machine.