Performance Max with Cory Lindholm, part two: Google Analytics search-term discrepancies, where the data is heading with privacy, why Microsoft Ads is more valuable than people realise, and how to capture insights before Google takes them away.
What's covered:
- Google Analytics now showing "not set" for ad search terms in most accounts
- The custom tool I built to find variance terms between Google Ads and Analytics
- Why finding negative keywords in finance and Enterprise accounts mattered so much
- Where search-term data is heading: categories and themes, less granular
- Why Microsoft Ads still gives ugly, granular search term data
- The PMax insights tab: screenshot and export everything, it disappears
- Why landing pages and keyword-rich content matter more as data shrinks
- The shift from sniper-style Google Ads to a full marketing team approach
- Keep the experimental mindset, PMax was oversold as a magic algorithm
Chapters:
0:00 Welcome to part two
0:33 Forge community and Ed Leake context
1:04 The Google Analytics search-term gap
2:08 Why "not set" is showing up everywhere
2:38 The custom tool for finding variance terms
3:39 Are we losing more search-term data?
4:11 Search categories instead of individual queries
5:18 Legacy campaign types and brand protection
6:18 Keyword-rich pages and the quality score angle
6:48 Google Ads as part of a marketing team, not a sniper
7:51 Microsoft Ads as a search-term data source
8:22 Manual screenshots of the PMax insights tab
9:24 Why scripts and APIs may not save you
10:26 The hidden advantage is now the human strategist
10:57 Keep an experimental mindset
11:58 Sales process discovery before tactics
12:30 Wrap up
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