Where and when your ads show. Read against where you sell and when you answer.
11 checks compare the account's targeting with the business: people outside the country, languages nobody reads, hours when nobody answers the phone, and the places and days that take money and return nothing.
- 11 checks
- Questions where the business decides
- Seven days, not 168 hours
The 11 checks in this area. As the app names them.
11Checks listed here
Structure
How it is built and set
A country targeted in a language it does not speak
A country where people search in several languages, targeted in only one, such as a Belgian campaign in French that never reaches people who search in Dutch. Asked as a question, since one language can be a choice.
A country targeted in a language it does not speak: How it decides and what to doBuying clicks from people who are not in the country
Location set to people 'in or interested in' a place, Google's default. Someone abroad reading about your city counts as your market, and with no location at all a campaign serves worldwide.
Buying clicks from people who are not in the country: How it decides and what to doCounting walk-ins while no ad shows an address
The account counts store visits or directions, yet no ad shows an address. Linking the Business Profile as a location asset is the missing half.
Counting walk-ins while no ad shows an address: How it decides and what to doCounting walk-ins without a radius round the shop
An account that counts walk-ins while its campaigns target a country, a city or a postcode rather than a radius round the shop. A radius is the clearest way to say 'people near us'. Asked, since many shops also ship nationally.
Counting walk-ins without a radius round the shop: How it decides and what to doLocal Services and Search running side by side
Local Services ads and Search campaigns running together, with both spends side by side. They can compete for the same search, and which should win is a business decision, since one is paid per lead.
Local Services and Search running side by side: How it decides and what to doNo language chosen, so every language is chosen
A campaign with no language set serves to every language Google has an audience for, so you can pay for clicks from people who cannot read the ad.
No language chosen, so every language is chosen: How it decides and what to doServing around the clock
A campaign serving around the clock for a business that answers a phone. The unanswered call costs its click and teaches the bidding that the keyword does not work.
Serving around the clock: How it decides and what to do
Spend
Where the money goes
A day of the week costing much more than the rest
A weekday costing much more per conversion than the others. Judged by day, not by hour, and only on days with enough conversions of their own.
A day of the week costing much more than the rest: How it decides and what to doA device paying much more per conversion than the rest of its campaign
A device paying much more per conversion than the rest of its own campaign. The fix is a bid adjustment, not an exclusion, so the traffic and its measurement stay.
A device paying much more per conversion than the rest of its campaign: How it decides and what to doHours of the day that take money and return nothing
Hours of the day that take money and return nothing, on accounts with enough conversions to read hour by hour.
Hours of the day that take money and return nothing: How it decides and what to doPlaces taking money and returning nothing
Countries that took real money across enough clicks to judge and returned nothing, inside campaigns that convert elsewhere. Same arithmetic as the keyword waste check.
Places taking money and returning nothing: How it decides and what to do
Day of week, not hour of day.
Hour-of-day analysis is what most tools offer and what almost no account can support. Twenty-four hours across seven days is 168 buckets, and an account with two hundred conversions a month has about one in each. Every pattern found in one-conversion buckets is noise.
So the audit reads days of the week first, and only judges a day once it has enough conversions of its own. Hours that take money and return nothing are flagged too, but only once enough time has passed for them to convert.
Questions, not verdicts. The right answer depends on the business.
Presence or interest
Wrong for a plumber, often right for a hotel. The audit names the setting and what share of clicks came from outside your locations.
One language in a bilingual country
A Belgian campaign in French never reaches people who search in Dutch. Sometimes deliberate, so the audit asks.
A whole country for a shop
Counting walk-ins while targeting a country may mean a missing radius, or a shop that also ships everywhere.
Devices, compared within each campaign.
A brand conversion costs a fraction of a generic one, so comparing devices across the whole account makes every generic campaign look expensive. The audit compares each device with the rest of its own campaign.
On campaigns whose bidding still uses one, the fix it proposes is a bid adjustment, not an exclusion: the traffic and its measurement stay, so next month can show whether the change was right. On Smart Bidding, it points at the cause instead, a page or ads that do not suit the device.
Questions about location and scheduling.
Anything else? Ask Oppy in the product, or write to the team.
What is 'presence or interest'?
Google's default location option. It shows ads to people in your locations and to people who showed interest in them, wherever they are. 'Presence' limits ads to people in or regularly in your locations.
Can Oppy change my ad schedule?
Yes, with your approval. It can replace a campaign's schedule with your real opening hours, to the quarter hour, and exclude locations that take money and return nothing.
Why not optimise by hour of day?
Most accounts do not have enough conversions per hour for the numbers to mean anything. Days of the week are judged first, and hours only once they have had time to convert.
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