How to Solve Non-Linear Thinking Challenges While Managing a Successful Google Ads Campaign?

Managing a successful Google Ads campaign is not easy. It requires a lot of tangible skills, and some intangible ones. Having a strong intuition is an excellent asset for digital marketers and PPC campaign managers.

People often rely on their intuition to solve problems that appear straightforward or easy to solve.

Making decisions on intuition means you can quickly reach a decision, which can be an asset in Google Ads management, where time is always in short supply.

You don’t have to spend a lot of time analyzing the options. You simply go with what you believe to be true. Many people rely on their intuition to solve problems for this exact reason.

That said, intuition-based decisions are not always the most accurate. These gut-feeling decisions are typically based on opinions and past experiences, instead of data.

Later in this blog you will learn about a tool which help you in highlighting good and bad performance parameters in your PPC campaigns.

However, strictly logic-based decisions also have their limitations. By nature, PPC marketing is dynamic and even chaotic at times. It involves a lot of difficult decisions to be made repeatedly.

In these cases, PPC marketers need to shift to a non-linear approach to thinking. While this will help resolve the chaos, this mindset has its own challenges that need to be overcome.

This discussion will look at the differences between these two approaches to problem solving and how overcoming the obstacles of non-linear thinking can help you while managing a successful Google Ads campaign.

What Is Linear Thinking?

Linear thinking follows a straight line. This means that you start at a beginning point, follow several connected steps and reach an endpoint conclusion. There are a few qualities of linear thinking:

• Thinking that whatever starts must have an endpoint and not persist past that end.
• Information learned from one situation or step can be applied to the next.
• A rule, formula or pattern is typically applied to further understanding.

Essentially, linear thinking has a definite start and an end, with several steps between the two points. You start at A and you end at Z, with steps B, C, D, etc. happening in between.

Non-Linear Thinking

Linear thinking is 100% logical and orderly. However, not all decisions or problems follow a straight path. For these occurrences, we need a non-linear approach to thinking and problem-solving.

Non-linear thinking is best used when there is more than one possible premise. From there, you make multiple inferences and deductions. You may discover numerous reasons why something is happening, instead of just one.

In other words, there may be multiple starting points, several paths in the middle and no clear end.

Non-linear thinking involves some of the following activities:

• Asking and answering open-ended questions.
• Taking an out-of-the-box approach to the problem.
• Invoking abstract concepts in problem-solving.
• Brainstorming and combining creative ideas from multiple sources.

COVID-19 Pandemic: An Excellent Example Of Linear And Non-Linear Thinking

The COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in the early days, is a prime example of how linear and non-linear thinking relate to one another.

In the pandemic’s infancy, patients would arrive at their doctor with a fever, throat pain, runny nose and all of the usual suspects of a typical cold or flu.

Using their linear thinking, doctors would recommend the standard treatment options for these maladies. After all, if it looks like the flu and acts like the flu, the logical and linear conclusion is that it is most likely the flu.

When these patients returned with no reaction from the initial treatment, these healthcare professionals needed to adjust. They needed to shift into a non-linear mindset.

By thinking outside the usual spectrum of symptoms, illnesses and treatments, doctors could begin to explore other possible options. Testing, observing and analyzing patients through this non-linear approach eventually led to the COVID-19 diagnosis.

It required doctors to abandon their traditional, straight-line thinking and the normal sequence of procedures, while also collaborating with other professionals from different fields, backgrounds and areas.

Linear And Non-Linear Thinking In The World Of Advertising

Before the dawn of the Digital Age, linear conversion paths and funnels were the norm for marketers and advertisers. There was a logical, straight path that customers would take when interacting with a brand. Every customer’s journey had a beginning, middle and an end.

While linear thinking worked for a long time, it is a dangerous approach to marketing and advertising in the Digital Age.

There are three key factors why this is:

1. Customers are unique: Every person interacting with your brand is unique; they have their own set of needs, wants, preferences, behaviors, attitudes, etc. In the Digital Age, customers expect that you can identify and cater to these personal preferences. If you have a linear and rigid approach to the marketing process, you’ll have difficulty building meaningful relationships with customers.
2. Digital marketing is perpetual: The linear mindset establishes an end, but modern marketing has no end. It is an ongoing and endless process, with much of the power and control in the hands of the customer. If you aren’t persistently accommodating to the audience’s latest needs/behaviors, then you’ll be losing their business to your competitors.
3. The world is omnichannel: The Internet opened a floodgate of marketing channels. This doesn’t simply add more steps between the start and the finish line. Instead, it creates nearly infinite possibilities of paths that a customer can take to reach the same point in your funnel. Every customer’s needs are unique, but so is the journey they take to engage and convert with your brand.

If you’re struggling in the Digital Age to attract customers, it may be because you’re still relying on linear thinking. This approach can’t attract today’s distracted, hyper-connected customers that are bombarded by thousands of marketing messages in a single day.

The blunt truth is that you can’t approach today’s customers with linear, straight-thinking strategies.

Customers don’t want traditional. They want new, exciting and personalized.

Failure to adapt isn’t just a matter of struggling to keep up with the times. To customers, it is a sign that you’re unwilling to listen to their needs.

The Challenges Of Non-Linear Thinking In PPC Marketing And Data Analysis

While managing a successful Google Ads campaign is possible with non-linear thinking, it does present some notable challenges.

Non-Linear Thinking Can Be Chaotic

By definition, non-linear thinking doesn’t occur in a straight line or sequential manner. It comes from different and often contrasting angles. This means that you’re drawing conclusions from concepts and ideas that seem unrelated or distanced.

That’s not easy.

In many ways, non-linear thinking asks advertisers to connect dots that are dramatically displaced from one another. It’s not always A, to B, to C; the non-linear “path” (if you can call it that) may start with A, jump to T, go to E, another jump to 11, then move to # and so on.

This chaos can quickly be a detriment.

In terms of Google Ads campaigns, this chaos manifests itself every time you begin looking at your analytics and performance reports. With all of the various metrics associated with your campaigns (all in a constant state of change), it can be overwhelming to the point of paralysis.

Advertisers need to find creative and cost-efficient strategies to manage this chaos and discover ways to optimize their campaigns and customer journeys.

Non-Linear Thinking Has No Definite End

The irregular, non-sequence mentioned above will go on continuously. Linear thinkers strive for an end result, but non-linear thinking doesn’t have an ultimate conclusion. It’s an ongoing process, which is exactly why it is the must-use approach to decision-making in Google Ads.

PPC marketing is also a continuous process that shouldn’t be set and left alone. Your Google Ads campaign requires constant attention and maintenance to ensure performance is at its peak.

That’s also not easy.

Not only do you need to spend a substantial amount of time monitoring your metrics and identifying shifts in your campaigns, but you also need to then analyze those changes and determine the best way to proceed.

This can cause PPC marketers to slip into their linear way of thinking without realizing it. They begin looking for the best next-step and trying to find the perfect sequence of changes to enact the biggest changes.

However, that’s not how PPC optimization really works. While some changes definitely take priority over others, there is no straight “best” path. Every positive change you make to your campaigns.

Non-Linear Thinking Requires Outside Help

One of the staples of non-linear thinking is collaborating and bringing in ideas and concepts from multiple sources.

When you only rely on your own thinking, experiences, intuition, etc., it becomes very easy to slip back into linear thinking without even realizing it.

It would be best if you had other opinions and thoughts to ensure that you’re exploring all possible outcomes and considering every available path.

This presents yet another challenge when working with PPC campaigns. If you don’t have a team working alongside you, then who do you collaborate with? How do you know if you’re paying attention to the right metrics or exploring every avenue at your disposal?

Investing in a PPC data analysis and management tool is a great solution. This sophisticated software will present all of the paths that you didn’t think to take, as well as save you time in finding that next-step in your optimization efforts.

PPC Signal’s Automated Tool Will Solve Your Non-Linear Thinking Problems

Managing a successful Google Ads campaign is a marathon, not a sprint. It can be difficult to maintain the non-linear mindset the longer you continue, especially with the challenges mentioned in the last section.

PPC Signal is a great solution. Not only do you get a sophisticated Google Ads management tool that will offer those alternate, out-of-the-box suggestions on improving your campaigns, but you also have an alert system to notify you whenever a notable change occurs in your data.

The primary advantage of using PPC Signal is receiving timely signals for your campaign that lead to actionable insights on how to improve your ad strategies.

An Example Of PPC Signal In Action

To understand what PPC Signal offers to your Google Ads campaigns, here is a mock scenario of how to take advantage of this tool.

Clickthrough rates for a particular campaign are consistently trending down. Due to your Google Ads account’s complexity and the amount of data you have to navigate, you don’t notice this shift on your own.

With struggling CTR, Google Ads sees your campaign as less relevant, which causes you to receive a lower Quality Score. This negatively impacts your ad ranks and can also cause your costs to rise.

That’s definitely not what you want!

Luckily, you’re using PPC Signal. The machine learning algorithm that drives PPC Signal identifies this change in performance just as it begins. Then, it sends you a signal that includes all of the data and information you need to assess the pattern for yourself.

You’re even given the option to explore the signal further.

Once you click explore, you can see an even more detailed chart of the change that PPC Signal has identified. You can also select to view the data as a table.

After you analyze the signal for yourself, you can save even more time by choosing to follow PPC Signal’s recommended action on resolving the alert. Or, you can adopt your own approach to solving the signal!

Wrap Up

While managing a successful Google Ads campaign is wrought with many obstacles, PPC Signal offers a non-linear way of overcoming these challenges.

Even if you’re a solo Google Ads manager, PPC Signal can offer you the non-linear thought-process needed to make the correct changes to your campaigns.

You’ll be perfectly equipped to handle the ongoing, chaotic and often overwhelming nature of PPC marketing!