How to Restrict Fraudulent Traffic in Performance Max

KASIM: 00:00:11

We've been struggling with performance max campaigns, delivering

KASIM: 00:00:15

photo traffic bots, quick forms.

KASIM: 00:00:17

Then I have really good news shocked to be honest with you that Google

KASIM: 00:00:21

rolled out, but that's not necessarily a honeypot this little fly trap.

KASIM: 00:00:25

This shocks me.

KASIM: 00:00:27

If you really start to think about the strategy that would need to be

KASIM: 00:00:29

applied, this is a catastrophic error.

KASIM: 00:00:37

We've been struggling with performance max campaigns, delivering

KASIM: 00:00:40

photo traffic bots, quick forms.

KASIM: 00:00:43

Then I have really good news that I'm actually excited about and shocked to be

KASIM: 00:00:47

honest with you, that Google rolled out.

KASIM: 00:00:49

However, before I get into the meat and potatoes of it, I'd like to say that

KASIM: 00:00:52

I don't think this is a silver bullet.

KASIM: 00:00:53

I still think we're gonna be dealing with quite a bit in

KASIM: 00:00:55

the wave of relevant traffic.

KASIM: 00:00:56

And it's because performance max is so.

KASIM: 00:00:59

Reliant on display.

KASIM: 00:01:00

And I think that a lot of this traffic is coming from display.

KASIM: 00:01:03

I think that it's coming in a way that Google's not able to block or see.

KASIM: 00:01:06

And I don't really know what that means from a technical perspective.

KASIM: 00:01:08

I don't know if they're using proxy servers but for whatever reason,

KASIM: 00:01:12

a lot of the ClickFORM traffic that we're seeing is hurtling.

KASIM: 00:01:14

Other fences that we're putting up to with that said, Google just gave

KASIM: 00:01:18

us a really great tool that I've seen work really well with other campaigns.

KASIM: 00:01:22

So inside a performance match, you're gonna go to settings.

KASIM: 00:01:24

You're gonna scroll down to location, setting.

KASIM: 00:01:26

Soon as he gives it to me.

KASIM: 00:01:27

So under campaign settings, we have locations and then under the location

KASIM: 00:01:31

selection, you're gonna see location options, target presence, or interest

KASIM: 00:01:35

people in regularly in, or who've shown interest in your target locations.

KASIM: 00:01:42

This is a catastrophic error and that's not me being dramatic.

KASIM: 00:01:45

By the way, we've seen this be a catastrophic error.

KASIM: 00:01:47

Campaign types for years.

KASIM: 00:01:50

When we were running real estate investment leads, I can't begin to

KASIM: 00:01:52

tell you how often I would look at an account that was actually really

KASIM: 00:01:55

well structured, but it wasn't performing as well as it could have.

KASIM: 00:01:58

And when I opened it up, it was always this setting that was killing

KASIM: 00:02:01

it because somebody who's in Miami is very different than somebody

KASIM: 00:02:05

who's shown interest in Miami.

KASIM: 00:02:07

Whole lot of people are interested in Miami that aren't

KASIM: 00:02:09

in Miami and that's true.

KASIM: 00:02:11

Every city, especially every major MSA.

KASIM: 00:02:14

So what you wanna do is toggle down to people in or regularly

KASIM: 00:02:18

in your targeted location.

KASIM: 00:02:19

Couple of comments here, the first one is notice what Google says is recommended.

KASIM: 00:02:23

This shocks me.

KASIM: 00:02:24

If you really start to think about the strategy that would need to be applied

KASIM: 00:02:28

in order to determine which of these two targets you're choosing would have to

KASIM: 00:02:33

specific to the business and the goal.

KASIM: 00:02:35

How on earth can you offer a recommendation without knowing

KASIM: 00:02:38

the business or the goal?

KASIM: 00:02:40

This is a really good example of where Google softly stated

KASIM: 00:02:43

where Google overreaches.

KASIM: 00:02:45

And then what's interesting is.

KASIM: 00:02:46

They go on to kind of explain by default, your ads can show to

KASIM: 00:02:49

people in regularly or who've shown interest in your targeted location.

KASIM: 00:02:52

So that's default setting for performance max.

KASIM: 00:02:54

And then they explain why.

KASIM: 00:02:56

And then here we are, alternatively, you can use other location options to

KASIM: 00:02:59

limit the location types you target.

KASIM: 00:03:01

I think this is gonna be a massive help when it comes to irrelevant

KASIM: 00:03:04

traffic because some of the traffic that we're sitting inside performance

KASIM: 00:03:06

max, especially for lead gen campaigns.

KASIM: 00:03:10

Producing what looks to be viable prospects and actually have another

KASIM: 00:03:14

video on this that talks about how I don't wanna call it bot traffic, but

KASIM: 00:03:17

we'll just say fraudulent traffic is way bigger problem than we thought it was.

KASIM: 00:03:20

And I've never seen this inside a Google pre-performance max, not to say I haven't

KASIM: 00:03:23

seen fraudulent traffic just to say that I haven't seen it to this extreme.

KASIM: 00:03:26

It was unbelievable.

KASIM: 00:03:27

We were actually really excited.

KASIM: 00:03:28

We're running these, these lead generation campaigns.

KASIM: 00:03:30

The first one was for us, cause we were te testing it on our own account

KASIM: 00:03:32

internally and it was raining.

KASIM: 00:03:34

It was amazing and they looked real, real names.

KASIM: 00:03:38

, John Smith, John dot Smith, 21 gmail.com with a phone number, but then Mr.

KASIM: 00:03:44

Smith never engages, never returns a phone call, or if he answers his phone,

KASIM: 00:03:48

never remembers filling out the form.

KASIM: 00:03:50

It's weirdest thing that I still don't understand in the video that I'll link to.

KASIM: 00:03:54

I talk about how these click farms appear to be spoofing.

KASIM: 00:03:59

Real traffic in order to game Google ad sense.

KASIM: 00:04:01

And then there were some people in the description of the video that actually had

KASIM: 00:04:04

some, even better ideas than what I had.

KASIM: 00:04:06

You might say, well, the why isn't important.

KASIM: 00:04:07

And I'm gonna respond to that by saying maybe it is because maybe you can fence

KASIM: 00:04:11

around it with settings like this one.

KASIM: 00:04:13

So one of the things that I think is gonna help us is letting Google know.

KASIM: 00:04:15

We only want people inside of this targeted geography instead of allowing

KASIM: 00:04:18

Google to go out and reach for us.

KASIM: 00:04:19

This isn't as big a deal for eCommerce as it is for lead

KASIM: 00:04:22

generation because free eCommerce.

KASIM: 00:04:24

there's a gate that has a monetizable event, which means if somebody buys from

KASIM: 00:04:29

you, who cares where they are, they can be in Timbuk two that gave you money.

KASIM: 00:04:32

I realize that there's limits to that too, based off of shipping and

KASIM: 00:04:35

fulfillment, but what I'm saying?

KASIM: 00:04:36

Like, somebody in Timbuk two is not gonna buy from you if you're only offering us

KASIM: 00:04:39

or north American or European fulfillment.

KASIM: 00:04:41

It just occurred to me that I don't know where Tim book two is.

KASIM: 00:04:43

So maybe it is doesn't matter.

KASIM: 00:04:45

Lead generation has gates that are easy to hurdle.

KASIM: 00:04:50

So one of the things that we've been telling everybody

KASIM: 00:04:51

is make your gates less Hable.

KASIM: 00:04:53

And so one of the highest performing lead generation campaigns we have in set

KASIM: 00:04:56

up performance, max has 17 form fields.

KASIM: 00:04:58

What's frustrating is that alone.

KASIM: 00:05:01

Hasn't solved all of our problems.

KASIM: 00:05:02

My buddy, Ralph Burns at tier 11 has a campaign that has 15 form fields

KASIM: 00:05:06

inside a performance max, and they're still getting full conversions.

KASIM: 00:05:09

So the COFO conversions.

KASIM: 00:05:11

, it's not something that you can fix in its entirety.

KASIM: 00:05:13

Don't talk to me about click fraud software, because I, I can tell you

KASIM: 00:05:16

that we've tried it and it doesn't work.

KASIM: 00:05:17

But I do think that setting up the guardrails, like we're setting up here

KASIM: 00:05:19

instead of performance max, where we tell Google, Hey, we only want traffic

KASIM: 00:05:23

actually coming from the specific geographic regions that we're targeting.

KASIM: 00:05:26

I think this is gonna be really helpful.

KASIM: 00:05:28

It just frustrates me, look at how well this is hidden.

KASIM: 00:05:30

Y'all look at how well this is hidden.

KASIM: 00:05:32

Like you have to go into settings.

KASIM: 00:05:33

That's fine.

KASIM: 00:05:34

You have to scroll down specifically to the campaign settings.

KASIM: 00:05:37

I'm surprised it's not in additional settings actually.

KASIM: 00:05:39

And then we have to open location and then we have to choose our location and

KASIM: 00:05:42

we have to open application options.

KASIM: 00:05:44

And then we have to be smart enough to hurdle Google's recommended

KASIM: 00:05:47

option and choose people in a regularly in your targeted location.

KASIM: 00:05:51

I think it's absolutely shocking that Google thinks that they

KASIM: 00:05:53

know so much better than us.

KASIM: 00:05:54

I'd be really interested too, to know anybody who doesn't have this

KASIM: 00:05:57

setting inside of their campaign.

KASIM: 00:05:58

I'm inside of a PMAX campaign that I don't think we ever ran this, or if we

KASIM: 00:06:02

did, we didn't run it for very long.

KASIM: 00:06:03

And which means no, we ran it for a little bit.

KASIM: 00:06:05

But if they're giving my old paused campaigns, the feature set, then I have to

KASIM: 00:06:10

imagine they're gonna prioritize campaigns that are actually being utilized.

KASIM: 00:06:14

This is not a glitch.

KASIM: 00:06:15

I'm interrupting the video you're watching because I need to remind

KASIM: 00:06:17

you that I'm always looking for people to join our team.

KASIM: 00:06:19

So if you're passionate about Google ads and you wanna work with the best

KASIM: 00:06:22

Google ads agency on the planet, please go to so late.com/apply.

KASIM: 00:06:26

Speaking of working with the best Google ads agency on the planet, if you're having

KASIM: 00:06:29

trouble with Google ads and you want professional help, that's what we do.

KASIM: 00:06:32

You can go to.

KASIM: 00:06:33

So lake.com that's S O L eight.com to apply for your

KASIM: 00:06:36

free no obligation action plan.

KASIM: 00:06:38

And if I've given.

KASIM: 00:06:39

Any level of value at all.

KASIM: 00:06:40

Maybe think about giving me a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel.

KASIM: 00:06:44

That's how we choose the YouTube algorithm.

KASIM: 00:06:45

So they actually know that I know what I'm talking about.

KASIM: 00:06:47

If you have questions, comments, concerns, or confessions hit me

KASIM: 00:06:49

below in the comments and now back to your regularly scheduled program.

KASIM: 00:06:52

So let me know in the comments, if you don't have this a B, the other

KASIM: 00:06:56

thing that I'd be really interested in working with everybody on is let

KASIM: 00:07:00

me know when you choose to toggle the setting and you run a lead generation

KASIM: 00:07:03

campaign, if this solves the problem.

KASIM: 00:07:05

And if it does, it means a couple of things.

KASIM: 00:07:08

The first one is it means that Google was intentionally delivering that

KASIM: 00:07:13

traffic based off of its user engagement.

KASIM: 00:07:15

And if Google was delivering the traffic based off of user

KASIM: 00:07:17

engagement, , it gives us a sense as to how performance max is working.

KASIM: 00:07:22

It actually gives us really significant insight into how

KASIM: 00:07:24

performance max is working.

KASIM: 00:07:25

We know that it's goal driven, but that would mean that it's predictive in its

KASIM: 00:07:30

goal which kind of helps equip us in terms of how we deal with it in the future.

KASIM: 00:07:34

And then we also know that Google's gonna go where the traffic is cheap.

KASIM: 00:07:38

and that's not something that I've hopped on too much, but it's a soapbox.

KASIM: 00:07:41

I'm gonna start jumping on more and more with performance.

KASIM: 00:07:43

Max, Google is trying to maximize the value of its own inventory.

KASIM: 00:07:46

That is a soapbox.

KASIM: 00:07:47

I've jumped on a lot, but what that means among many other things is Google's

KASIM: 00:07:51

gonna go where the traffic is cheapest.

KASIM: 00:07:52

And that doesn't mean cheapest for you.

KASIM: 00:07:54

That means that Google has a bunch of traffic, that it can't sell to

KASIM: 00:07:57

anybody that's trying to monetize.

KASIM: 00:07:58

And so if it finds traffic that it's able to sell to you, that

KASIM: 00:08:02

suddenly becomes monetizable.

KASIM: 00:08:04

There's our Timbuk two lead generat.

KASIM: 00:08:06

Prospect now.

KASIM: 00:08:08

And so what that means is the more fo traffic for fo conversions, you get the

KASIM: 00:08:14

more foe conversions you're going to get.

KASIM: 00:08:16

part of me, this is bold maybe, but part of me wants to block non-essential

KASIM: 00:08:22

locations on a server side level entire.

KASIM: 00:08:26

maybe that's not that bold.

KASIM: 00:08:28

Maybe that's just the thing that we're supposed to be doing.

KASIM: 00:08:31

Like if you only sell to north America, and I know that there are some issues

KASIM: 00:08:35

here and there's quite a few depending on what your staffing looks like.

KASIM: 00:08:39

But why would you allow traffic from any other location I'd be interested

KASIM: 00:08:42

in other people's stress test.

KASIM: 00:08:44

Please for me.

KASIM: 00:08:45

And let me know if you have reasons that's violently flawed.

KASIM: 00:08:48

I know for a fact that would hurt organic.

KASIM: 00:08:50

So if you're relying really heavily on organic traffic, then Google

KASIM: 00:08:54

doesn't like it when we dictate who can and cannot see content.

KASIM: 00:08:57

But if you're not relying on organic traffic, that's a good way.

KASIM: 00:08:59

I think, to help kind of put up these guard rails too, and I'll think through

KASIM: 00:09:02

some other issues that we might run into in, in deploying a strategy like that.

KASIM: 00:09:07

But the more full conversions you're go.

KASIM: 00:09:09

You get the more full conversions you're probably going to get, because

KASIM: 00:09:11

Google's gonna try to replicate success in this particular instance,

KASIM: 00:09:14

you've pro you've proven success.

KASIM: 00:09:15

The other thing that I'd recommend doing this is an idea I came up with on one

KASIM: 00:09:18

of our YouTube lives actually is create honey pots in your conversion form.

KASIM: 00:09:23

I'll give an example.

KASIM: 00:09:23

So here's our conversion form and it's actually, it's

KASIM: 00:09:26

two part and it's long form.

KASIM: 00:09:28

So here's the solutions eight conversion form.

KASIM: 00:09:30

Now, if I wanted to create a honey pot for click forms, remember these aren't

KASIM: 00:09:34

necessarily bots they're click forms.

KASIM: 00:09:36

First name, I need phone number.

KASIM: 00:09:37

I need address website budget.

KASIM: 00:09:40

You've probably already heard me talk a little bit about this.

KASIM: 00:09:43

If you select less than $5,000, we don't work with client.

KASIM: 00:09:45

We actually don't work with clients less than $10,000 on unless they're in our

KASIM: 00:09:47

incubator program, but the less than 5,000 goes to a separate thank you page.

KASIM: 00:09:50

And I don't count that as a conversion.

KASIM: 00:09:52

Which is a pro tip, by the way, you don't have to count things as conversions,

KASIM: 00:09:55

if they're not valuable to you.

KASIM: 00:09:56

So let Google know what's actually valuable to you so it can

KASIM: 00:09:58

replicate successes, but that's not necessarily a honey pot, as

KASIM: 00:10:01

much as it is a decision tree.

KASIM: 00:10:02

And it's not something that's gonna help guard against click farms.

KASIM: 00:10:05

Per se, because we're not necessarily sure where a click farm would land here, but.

KASIM: 00:10:09

what you might wanna do is have an option here.

KASIM: 00:10:12

Like, , how did you hear about us drop down?

KASIM: 00:10:14

That's preselected and, and I'm not saying you, how did you hear about us?

KASIM: 00:10:17

I just mean pay attention to this dropdown on my computer.

KASIM: 00:10:20

Have an option here.

KASIM: 00:10:20

That's preselected that the pre selection is something that no

KASIM: 00:10:27

viable lead would actually select.

KASIM: 00:10:28

So for instance, what I might say here is what's the status of your Google ads?

KASIM: 00:10:34

And the first option is I don't want to run Google ads.

KASIM: 00:10:38

The second option is I have an active Google ads account that the third

KASIM: 00:10:41

option is I don't have a Google ads account and I need you to create one.

KASIM: 00:10:44

For me, I'm suspended.

KASIM: 00:10:45

I create a bunch of options that a real lead is gonna choose something other

KASIM: 00:10:49

than the, I don't wanna run Google ads because if you're taking the time to

KASIM: 00:10:52

fill out this form, and I'm kind of coming up with this on the fly too.

KASIM: 00:10:55

So maybe this isn't the best example, but it's good enough

KASIM: 00:10:57

to get you to where I'm going.

KASIM: 00:10:58

If you're taking the time to fill out the form, this little fly

KASIM: 00:11:00

trap M makes the first option.

KASIM: 00:11:02

Something that a reasonable logical human would look at and be

KASIM: 00:11:05

like, oh, well, that's not true.

KASIM: 00:11:06

But if it's pre-selected again, that's the key, and I'm a click form person.

KASIM: 00:11:11

I'm gonna look at this and think like, oh, okay, well, thank you.

KASIM: 00:11:13

You've I'm with the radio buttons, you're just gonna pick whatever.

KASIM: 00:11:16

And I'm, you're not necessarily gonna pick the first one

KASIM: 00:11:18

either, unless you're tapping.

KASIM: 00:11:20

But with a dropdown, if it's already pre-selected, you're gonna keep going.

KASIM: 00:11:24

That's not a full-proof plan, but it's a damn good one.

KASIM: 00:11:26

It's a damn good one.

KASIM: 00:11:27

I bet you that weeds out 60, 70% of them, especially if you make this multi variance

KASIM: 00:11:31

on your form, you have 17 fields and you have two flight traps and that gives

KASIM: 00:11:34

you the ability to let somebody off the hook if you wanted to if they missed one,

KASIM: 00:11:38

but , filtered everybody that captures two and If they get caught in the fly

KASIM: 00:11:43

trap, that leads to a thank you page.

KASIM: 00:11:45

That's not counted as a conversion.

KASIM: 00:11:46

So what you just did there is you put performance max in a position

KASIM: 00:11:49

to actually see who the real valuable leads are on the front end.

KASIM: 00:11:53

Instead of having to do like offline conversion tracking and

KASIM: 00:11:55

importing prospects, which could work on a long enough timeline, but

KASIM: 00:11:58

not all of us have that timeline.

KASIM: 00:11:59

So that's the idea.

KASIM: 00:12:01

How did I do.

KASIM: 00:12:02

I think I did.

KASIM: 00:12:03

Okay.

KASIM: 00:12:03

Would be really interested to see what y'all are seeing.

KASIM: 00:12:05

And y'all when I ask for that, by the way, I'm not just asking you

KASIM: 00:12:07

to comment so I can game YouTube, although that's part of it.

KASIM: 00:12:10

This is new.

KASIM: 00:12:10

And so the data that you provide me is actually really relevant and I

KASIM: 00:12:13

appreciate y'all's engagement and input.

KASIM: 00:12:15

Light comment, subscribe.

KASIM: 00:12:16

Let's see tomorrow.

KASIM: 00:12:18

So since we started running performance, max, we've encountered something that

KASIM: 00:12:21

is really alarming and it's nothing.

KASIM: 00:12:24

I don't think it's anything new.

KASIM: 00:12:25

I think it's something that we just never knew existed.