Google Ads Default Settings: DO’s And DON’Ts

Google Ads is an invaluable tool for many advertisers. Not only does it help drive qualified traffic to sites, but it allows advertisers to target users who are specifically looking for the service or product they offer.

However, despite its many benefits, the Google Ads costs of using default settings and configurations can result in a lot of money being spent – with zero or little return on investment (ROI).

That is if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Here, we’ll outline how to properly control your target ads and save money through these Google Ads default settings.

16 Default Settings to Focus on to Reduce Your Google Ads Spend

So, how can you minimize your expenses in Google Ads? Is it really as easy as changing some of the default settings?

The answer is yes. Let’s see how.

1. Default Network Targeting

When creating a Search Campaign in Google Ads, you have the default option to serve ads on both the Search Network and Display Network simultaneously via a single campaign.

Should you Include Search Partners or Not?

Search Partner sites can be beneficial for diversifying your ad. If you have a smaller budget, however, you may not want to opt for the Google Search Partner as adding these partners will cause a performance rate dip through lowered click-through rates (CTR). This can then have a negative impact on your quality score and increase your spend.

Search Partner Ads drive an enormous amount of clicks, which take up a lot of your budget without conversions. They also make it challenging to manage what sites are showing your ads or not, and little control over wasted ad spend or unwanted Google Ads costs.

When should you Include Search Partners?

If you have a large budget, you can consider Google Search Partners to help release your ads to a broader, global audience.

Should you include the Display Network?

Your search campaign must always be separate from display campaigns as their goals are unique.

For instance, the Display Network is explicitly used for video or image-based campaigns, which lead to fewer quality clicks. The best choice would be to keep these two campaigns separate. If you want to include it on the Display Network, use it only for an image or video-based campaigns for maximum audience reach.

2. Default End Date of Campaign

 

By default, every ad campaign doesn’t include an end date, and therefore, can run indefinitely. This is one of the main reasons for budget waste.

For instance, if you’re running a Christmas event sale and didn’t include an end date, the ad will continue to be shown to an audience after the event has passed – therefore draining your budget.

Make sure you set an end date for when you’d like your ad to stop running. In this way you will always have idea what total budget you have for the duration of your campaign.

3. Default Dynamic Search Ads Setting

 

When setting up your dynamic search ads, you’ll be provided with the default targeting source, “use Google index of my website.” This default setting will allow to get your data from Google which will be crawled from your website.

When do you select this option?

If you are sure you have to include all of your website pages to be searched for unique content for the dynamic ads creation then you can go with this option otherwise you can go other option.

4. Default Location Setting

 

In the location setting, your current location is your default setting. But there is a chance you may be managing a campaign for another country by sitting somewhere else. So don’t ignore this default selection, focus on it and if this is not your targeted location then enter your desire location explicitly.

Target Location Options:

“People in, or who show interest in, your targeted locations.” This setting allows other people from different locations to search for your brand and access your ad through Google.  For example: if you are a restaurant in New York this ad will not only show to people of New York but also to those who are recently visiting New York, or searched something online in New York. It depends on your product or services if you really want to show outside location or not because it may drain your budget because audience may see your ads without buying intentions.

Exclude Location Option:

“People in your excluded location.” By default if this option is selected then audience related to your excluded location list will not be able to see your ad. This will narrow down your results. It is only useful if you are not offering your services in that particular location which is in excluded list.

5. Default Language Setting

 

 
This setting allows you to target potential customers who use Google products and websites in the same language as your ad. For U.S. advertisers, the default language setting is English.

The language setting can lead to a missed opportunity for potential traffic gain if your location is bilingual, for example, Florida in the United States (English and Spanish). Conversely, if your target location doesn’t have English-speaking people, most users won’t understand your ad.

Aim to reach the maximum amount of prospects by targeting language strategically.

6. Default Audience Targeting Setting

 

You won’t get this option for display campaigns, but for search campaign this option is available and you must have knowledge about it. “Observation” is your default setting for audience targeting. This is always increase and broader your audience which might be not of your interest. When you select some audience based on in-market, demographic etc. and you keep this option “Observation” as it is , there still chances audience whose search term matches with your keyword can still see your Ad. It is only useful if you don’t have idea exactly about your audience but make sure it will drain your budget. Otherwise you should select “targeting” and always narrow your audience based on the interest and categories you selected.

7. Default Conversion Setting

 

 
Conversion settings are all set at an account level by default. Here, you can choose whether you want to include these conversions in your reporting column.

Try using this setting to control your bids and to customize report data. Keep in mind that all campaigns don’t have the same goals.

Should you Select Account in Conversion Settings?

If you’re looking to fine-tune your conversions column for a single campaign so that you only see relevant data for conversion actions, and conversion tracking for multiple campaigns, this setting helps you group conversions that have a similar intent.

8. Default Ad Schedule Setting

 

 
Your default ad schedule setting is set to “All day” by default. Doing this means all your ads can appear throughout each calendar day, which will quickly drain your budget.
 

 
Narrow your searches by specifying which hours or days of the week you wish your ads to show to avoid unwanted Google Ads costs and improve your targets.

9. Default Ad Rotation Setting

 

 
Another default setting that helps you optimize your best performing ads are those with higher CTR.

When do you need to select this option?

You need to have at least 3 ads to best perform with Ad Rotation.

If one ad has a higher click-through-rate (CTR), Google Ads will automatically favor this ad. However, a higher CTR doesn’t mean increased performance — which is why focusing on CTR doesn’t guarantee success. It depends on your campaign goal if you are only interested in CTR or conversion as well.

Paying for an ad that attracts your audience but doesn’t drive conversions will waste your budget quickly.

10. Keyword Match Type Setting

 

 
When entering target keywords, you’ll have different options available that will determine your keyword match type. Google Ad’s default is “Broad Match Type.”

Do you have to Select Broad Match Type?

This type will offer the most extensive reach and attract the highest amount of traffic. However, broad match can lead to wasted money on irrelevant clicks, as well. Let’s look at it this way: If you were selling jeans for men, and chose “branded jeans,” and “best jeans” as your keywords, a broad match type default will drain your budget. The reason for this is because you attract a lot of irrelevant clicks from users who may be looking for women’s jeans.

When should you Use Broad Match Keywords?

This setting can be a great choice if you are new to campaign management and don’t have enough knowledge to target audience based on keywords and would like to test what’s working for you as you’ll generate a high impression rate. Therefore, with this setting you’ll get a lot of data to help you discover potential new keywords but make sure budget drainage is high for this.

11. Default Negative Keyword Match Type

 

 
If you want to block a query and add it to your negative keyword list, Google Ads will set this term by default to “exact match” within the same ad group so in above example female jeans, jeans for girls, women jeans if exactly type for search term, they will never trigger the ad.

This setting is limiting and will surely block the least amount of traffic, as using exact match negatives doesn’t account for plurals, misspellings, or close variants.  

12. Default Display Subtype Settings

 

 
You will have different default setting for display network based on campaign goal, but if your campaign goal is Sales and you select Display type then you will see default selection as Smart Display Campaign.

You cannot go with smart display campaign if you have not previously manage your campaign.

To set up a Smart Display campaign, you need to have gotten at least 50 conversions on the Display Network across your standard display campaigns, or at least 100 conversions across your search campaigns in the last 30 days otherwise go with standard display campaign.

13. Default Device Setting for Display Campaigns

 

 
Your default setting for Display Campaigns will be the Device Targeting option that targets all devices for displaying your ads. For example: if your landing page is not mobile friendly then you must not select this all option as this will definitely annoy your customer and will waste your money.

To avoid this, show your ads on specific devices where you know you’re getting more potential audiences. Device based analysis of your data will help you later to decide which is performing well and which device needs more attention to spend on. But at this stage you must aware which devices you are going to set for your campaign by default.

14. Default Frequency Capping Setting in Display Campaigns

 

 
Within your Display Network Campaign, you’ll see the option to set a limit on how many times your ads display to the same potential customer.

Make sure you use frequency capping in order to avoid annoying any of these potential customers – especially when you’re remarketing.

Do you have to Select Default Setting of Frequency Capping?

As the default is set to allow Google to optimize how often your ads show, someone interacting with your ads over and over again with no conversion will lead to Google blocking the user.

Frequency capping is very important if you use remarketing as user can realize he has been tracked. So You can set a lower capping for remarketing campaigns.

15. Default Count Setting in Video Ads

 

 
While Conversion Counts don’t have a direct impact on your campaign budget, counting choices may provide a better idea of your campaign performance while helping you refine bids.

Do you have to Select Every Conversion Tracking?

Let’s say you’re running a hotel business that includes rental cars, and you’re curious to see how your ads are driving each booking. If you choose to count each conversion and someone reserves one hotel and three cars, the conversion setting will count four conversions. It all depends on your conversion goals and later you can analyze your report for conversion performance.

16. Ad Suggestions Default Setting

Ad suggestions are text ad variations that can increase Search Network campaign performance º however, these variations can be wrong.

The default setting is, “ad suggestions will automatically apply 14 days,” unless you manually apply, dismiss or edit the settings beforehand.
 

 
Once a new ad suggestion is set to auto-apply, Google will notify you in a few ways:

• An email with a link to review ad suggestions
• An alert notification in your Google Ads account, inviting you to review the ad suggestions.
• Any suggestions that become auto-applied after 14 days will appear as an auto-applied ad suggestion in the Ads and Extensions Page.

 
Don’t’ use this default option if you are now make sure you focus on ad suggestions as these can lead to unwanted Google Ads costs and a drained budget as your ads will be shown by an irrelevant headings.

Wrap Up

While default settings may seem like the easier and better choice for advertisers who are just starting, they’re not ideal in every situation.

It’s essential to understand how your Google Ads costs will be affected by your settings, not only for the sake of your budget but for how well your ad performs in front of your ideal audience.

This challenge may seem daunting at first, but the results will be worth it – every time. If you want to understand more about your campaigns so you can drive optimal campaign results, consider using our user-friendly PPC reports.