Surfside PPC Podcast Episode 6 - Do You Use AI Max Yet? — Transcript

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1. 0:00Welcome to the Surfside PPC podcast.
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6. 0:11What's up everyone? Welcome to episode 6
7. 0:13of the Surfside PPC podcast. So,
8. 0:17announcing that my new 2026 Google Ads
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23. 0:49everything. That is the the sponsor of
24. 0:50the Surfside PPC podcast. if you want to
25. 0:52get in your questions or anything like
26. 0:53that. No major things to really my goal
27. 0:57is to start on the beginning of these
28. 0:58episodes talk about, you know, trends I
29. 1:00see and things like that. Not really a
30. 1:02major trend episode, but I do think this
31. 1:05episode will be helpful for anybody who
32. 1:07is running ads for somewhere that gets
33. 1:10local store traffic or foot traffic or
34. 1:13things like that. So, what I want to
35. 1:14talk about today is I got a question
36. 1:16from somebody in my email and pretty
37. 1:18detailed question. So, I'm going to put
38. 1:21it in here. I I changed a couple of
39. 1:24things just because I don't want to
40. 1:25mention specific stores and things like
41. 1:27that, but ultimately it's a consignment
42. 1:29shop and they want to know, should I run
43. 1:32ads for my consignment shop? So, we are
44. 1:35going to put in question number one
45. 1:37here.
46. 1:38[music]
47. 1:39>> I own a consignment shop and I have a
48. 1:41lot of competition where I am located in
49. 1:43Florida. Should I try to run Google ads
50. 1:46for my consignment shop? I don't want to
51. 1:48waste the money, but I want to make sure
52. 1:50it is profitable. Or if you think it
53. 1:52could be profitable.
54. 1:53>> Okay, so this is a good question. So
55. 1:55basically, if you run a local store,
56. 1:56this could apply for really any local
57. 1:58store where you know you're getting
58. 2:00people that are coming to visit your
59. 2:01your local store. And let's just say you
60. 2:03have other competitors in the market.
61. 2:05Like if you're the only type of store in
62. 2:08your market and you do a search of, you
63. 2:10know, sporting goods, you know, sporting
64. 2:13goods, Myrtle Beach, and you you're the
65. 2:14top at everything and there's not really
66. 2:16another real competitor there, then, you
67. 2:18know, it's one of those things where
68. 2:19running ads if it it may be worth it,
69. 2:21but it also might be something where
70. 2:23you're just kind of paying for people
71. 2:24that are already going to be visiting
72. 2:26you anyway. That's one of the things you
73. 2:27have to balance. But truthfully, I know
74. 2:29I'm probably very pro- Google ads
75. 2:32compared to most people cuz that's just
76. 2:34what I do for a living and what I see.
77. 2:36But I do think there's a competitive
78. 2:37advantage to running ads. Even if you
79. 2:39decide, I'm going to run a $1,000 budget
80. 2:41or I'm going to run a small budget. If
81. 2:43you've never run Google ads before, you
82. 2:45should reach out to a professional.
83. 2:46Reach out to Surfside PPC and you know,
84. 2:48we we could figure something out if it's
85. 2:50a small budget. Large budget, obviously,
86. 2:52reach out. But basically to answer the
87. 2:54question, I generally say I am pro
88. 2:57running ads to your local store,
89. 3:00especially if there's a lot of
90. 3:01competition in the area. For this one
91. 3:03specifically, a consignment shop, I know
92. 3:05near me and I just did a quick search.
93. 3:07There's like four or five that come up.
94. 3:09So, it's one of those where with a
95. 3:10consignment shop, you can get more
96. 3:12people that are potentially going in and
97. 3:14selling things to you where you now you
98. 3:16have more things that you're able to
99. 3:18sell. And in addition, you can also get
100. 3:20more foot traffic to sell more of those
101. 3:23products to people. So to me, it's one
102. 3:25of those things where I if you're if you
103. 3:27have an advertising marketing budget,
104. 3:29let's just say you want to spend an
105. 3:30additional $500, $1,000, $2,000, you
106. 3:33know, maybe more depending on what you
107. 3:35know, what size store you have, how many
108. 3:37locations you have, I do think it's
109. 3:39worth running Google ads. I think
110. 3:40running a mix of search campaigns, just
111. 3:43really targeting your your main keyword,
112. 3:45you know, consignment shop near me.
113. 3:47consignment shop, you know, what
114. 3:49whatever location you're in. Last
115. 3:50episode I kept saying De Moine, but you
116. 3:52know, we'll use Myrtle Beach this
117. 3:54episode. So, consignment shop, Myrtle
118. 3:55Beach. So, essentially what you're
119. 3:57trying to do is you're trying to target
120. 3:58here are the keywords that people are
121. 4:00going to be typing in near me. Now,
122. 4:02there's a lot more to it, actually
123. 4:04running your ads. You know, negative
124. 4:05keywords, conversion tracking. What you
125. 4:07want to do is you want to connect your
126. 4:09Google business profile directly to your
127. 4:11Google Ads account. So, that is going to
128. 4:13be run as a location asset. You can set
129. 4:15up a call asset. So it's going to
130. 4:17increase the number of phone calls
131. 4:18you're getting. Uh and I would run a mix
132. 4:20of search campaigns and performance max.
133. 4:22Now there's a certain strategy I tend to
134. 4:25use for this for local stores. So
135. 4:27running Google ads for a local store,
136. 4:29local business that you know where you
137. 4:30are getting traffic in in your actual
138. 4:33physical shop, you know, a blind store,
139. 4:35something like that, there is there is
140. 4:37kind of a a strategy to it. And
141. 4:39ultimately what you can actually do over
142. 4:41time is you can optimize for store
143. 4:44visits. So you can actually get enough
144. 4:46data of people visiting your store after
145. 4:48they click on Google ads. You know, I've
146. 4:51worked with a client that would sold
147. 4:54gold and people would go into their
148. 4:56store and we would get hundreds of store
149. 4:58visits tracked through Google ads every
150. 4:59month with not a whole lot of spend. So
151. 5:02there's a lot of ways to do this and
152. 5:04really it's targeting the right keywords
153. 5:06and setting up your your strategy the
154. 5:08right way and conversion tracking. So,
155. 5:10there's a lot to it obviously to to make
156. 5:12it successful. But really, for me, it's
157. 5:14it's worth running ads for your local
158. 5:16store unless it's one of those scenarios
159. 5:18where your local store just happens to
160. 5:21be in a market where you're kind of the
161. 5:23main you're the main, you know, if it's
162. 5:25consignment store and you're number one
163. 5:28pretty clearly, you know, is it worth
164. 5:30running ads? I don't know. I I tend to
165. 5:32kind of say no. If it's one of those
166. 5:33where you have a couple locations and
167. 5:36you're looking to increase foot traffic,
168. 5:38you're looking to get more people in and
169. 5:40out of the store, which is, you know,
170. 5:41it's always a goal. Obviously, you're
171. 5:42trying to increase revenue. It's worth
172. 5:44at least starting with a I would say a
173. 5:46threemonth test budget just to say we're
174. 5:49going to spend this and we're going to
175. 5:50kind of monitor what's happening in our
176. 5:52store with our foot traffic, with our
177. 5:54overall revenue. Now, you can't just
178. 5:56give it like a twoe period and say,
179. 5:57"Okay, let's see if this is working."
180. 5:58It's going to be one of those things
181. 5:59where give it three, four, five months.
182. 6:01Give it an investment. I always say at
183. 6:04the very least, Google ads, you're
184. 6:05probably going to make your money back
185. 6:06if you set it up pretty well. At the
186. 6:08very least, you're running ads in your
187. 6:09local markets, people that are searching
188. 6:11for exactly what you're selling. But
189. 6:13what's really interesting about Google
190. 6:14Ads is in some scenarios, and it's like
191. 6:17it always interests me, but in some
192. 6:20scenarios, somebody might search
193. 6:22consignment shop near me. They click on
194. 6:24a a $5 ad. They have a $1,000 couch that
195. 6:27they're like, "Yep, I have a couch that
196. 6:29I would like to consign with you."
197. 6:31Great. You know, you sell that couch for
198. 6:33$900. Now, this company spent on a $4
199. 6:36click. You know, there's a a $450 check
200. 6:39going both to the consignment shop and
201. 6:41to the couch owner. So, it's one of
202. 6:43those things where, you know, very cheap
203. 6:45clicks can turn into huge business. And
204. 6:48you know, one person I I know me
205. 6:50personally, that's actually I did
206. 6:52conside a couch that I just didn't feel
207. 6:54like selling on my own. And that's
208. 6:56basically what happened. Like I end up
209. 6:58getting a check, you know, we kind of
210. 6:59split what it was. We did sell it for
211. 7:01around $900 and, you know, I got a check
212. 7:03for like $450 and for the consignment
213. 7:06shop. Now I had a really good experience
214. 7:08with them. So if I'm going to consign
215. 7:10again, I'll do it there. And I've also
216. 7:12walked through the shop since then. I
217. 7:14just didn't purchase anything, but it
218. 7:15it's a nice they have nice stuff. So,
219. 7:17it's one of those things where a
220. 7:19combination of Google ads and even meta
221. 7:20ads for your local store. I'm all about
222. 7:23it and you know just getting getting
223. 7:25more foot traffic using audience data on
224. 7:28search engines to reach more people that
225. 7:30you know potentially may have gone to a
226. 7:31competitor. So, I am a yes to running
227. 7:35Google ads for your local store. I and
228. 7:37it's one of those things at the very
229. 7:38least you should test it. If you have a
230. 7:40lot of competition, then it's something
231. 7:42that absolutely you should be doing.
232. 7:44Especially if it's like you're getting a
233. 7:46lot of customers in your stores. If
234. 7:48you're somewhere where somebody, you
235. 7:49know, one or two people walk in a day,
236. 7:50then, you know, it's one of those maybe,
237. 7:53maybe not, you know, if you're like some
238. 7:55specialized computer repair and, you
239. 7:56know, you get a few customers a day, you
240. 7:59know, which is really all you need, then
241. 8:01then really it's one of those things
242. 8:02where, you know, maybe it's worth
243. 8:03running ads, but it just depends on
244. 8:05overall competition in my opinion. So
245. 8:07that that's how I'd answer that
246. 8:08question. running ads for your local
247. 8:11consignment shop. All right, so let's
248. 8:13get to our question number two. So
249. 8:15question number two is going to deal
250. 8:17with AIAX. So somebody asked me a
251. 8:20question like, do you use AIAX? Well,
252. 8:22you know, what would I kind of
253. 8:23recommend? So here is question number
254. 8:25two.
255. 8:27[music]
256. 8:28>> Do you use AIAX yet? Do you have any
257. 8:31recommendations with AI Max? Okay, so
258. 8:34AIAX as of and this is going to change
259. 8:37because it's like one of those AIAX
260. 8:39isn't going to be the same thing forever
261. 8:41and I think it, you know, things start a
262. 8:43certain way in Google ads and and I
263. 8:45think they end up a certain way and it's
264. 8:47just understanding how they work and how
265. 8:49to use them effectively. So AIAX is a
266. 8:51feature within your search campaigns. To
267. 8:54me, it's one of those where yes, we are
268. 8:56all going to be using Amax eventually.
269. 8:58Maybe not all of us. It might be one of
270. 9:00those things where, you know, larger
271. 9:02budgets, bigger volume, kind of
272. 9:04interested in going after more
273. 9:05customers. I would say a AI max is
274. 9:08definitely going to be something that I
275. 9:09have implemented in a lot of my
276. 9:11accounts. So far, I have only used it in
277. 9:13a few accounts. I've used it basically
278. 9:16by itself in its own campaign and just
279. 9:18bid separately than I did for some of
280. 9:21the other campaigns just to kind of see
281. 9:22a test. It's more of one of those things
282. 9:24where I have clients who are interested
283. 9:26in expanding their campaigns, getting
284. 9:29more volume, and that's one of the ways
285. 9:30to do it. So, do I like it? Do I like
286. 9:33the search terms that come in? It's very
287. 9:35similar to broad match for me. So, when
288. 9:36I when it first came out, I kind of
289. 9:38called it broad match on steroids. I
290. 9:40don't know if that's necessarily the
291. 9:42right way to put it, but it's, you know,
292. 9:43it's one of those things where I think
293. 9:45if you're feeding good data into your
294. 9:47Google Ads account and you're really
295. 9:49optimizing for qualified leads, then
296. 9:50AMAX can definitely work. if you are a a
297. 9:54very niche, you know, you're doing a
298. 9:57very niche type of service, it's, you
299. 9:59know, it's I think last episode I
300. 10:02mentioned pediatric dentist, like
301. 10:04something like that where it's you're
302. 10:05not, you know, you're targeting a
303. 10:07specific person and you're not really
304. 10:09this this massive, you know, it's like
305. 10:11somebody who's a landscaper, but it's
306. 10:13like, oh yeah, we do landscape design,
307. 10:15but really our specialty is, you know,
308. 10:18some some other, you know, pavers or
309. 10:19something like that within it, you know,
310. 10:21some type
311. 10:22doing doing some type of luxury pavers
312. 10:25like travertine tiles or something like
313. 10:26that. So, it's one of those where the
314. 10:29more niche down you get, the more that I
315. 10:31think AIAX doesn't work as well because
316. 10:34it's just there's if you're in a niche
317. 10:36down service, there's only so many leads
318. 10:38to go around and ultimately it's very
319. 10:40reliant on conversion data. So, can you
320. 10:43feed it enough good conversion data to
321. 10:45actually work? That's one of the big
322. 10:46questions that, you know, I kind of have
323. 10:48with Google Ads right now. It's like,
324. 10:50can I just always have enough conversion
325. 10:52data for all my different clients?
326. 10:54Certain industries, like it's just easy
327. 10:56to get conversion data. In certain
328. 10:57industries, it can be very difficult.
329. 10:59Just expensive clicks. You know, you
330. 11:01really have to spend thousands and
331. 11:03thousands of dollars. It's like what I
332. 11:04always say with like HVAC. My first HVAC
333. 11:06client up came to me with like a $1,000
334. 11:09budget years ago, and I was like, "Oh,
335. 11:11this works." And we we got some leads
336. 11:13from it. We we got enough that it was
337. 11:14like, "Oh, this this is good." And I I
338. 11:16build them a decent amount. Then, you
339. 11:19know, sever years later when we got into
340. 11:21like AI, I my a track client was like,
341. 11:24"Yes, we want to run immediately heating
342. 11:26repair type keywords." I'm like, "All
343. 11:28right, heating repair keywords." So,
344. 11:30basically what ended up happening was
345. 11:33they had a $2,000 budget and a couple
346. 11:35the first click is like $50. I'm like,
347. 11:37"All right." And they're like, "Well,
348. 11:38then that's way too expensive." I'm
349. 11:40like, "I think this is what you know
350. 11:41it's going to cost to get our initial
351. 11:42date because it's a good click." We got
352. 11:44a few of those clicks in and our first
353. 11:46conversion is like $200 300 something
354. 11:48dollars. So basically what's difficult
355. 11:51is if you're not, you know, if you're
356. 11:52paying $300, $400 per conversion, the
357. 11:55client has to be really open to saying,
358. 11:57"Yeah, I'm willing to test. I'm willing
359. 11:58to spend a little bit more than I need
360. 12:00to." And bringing this back to AI Max
361. 12:03are is it worth spending that additional
362. 12:05money if you're not actually seeing good
363. 12:08conversion results that come from it?
364. 12:10And this was a big question with
365. 12:11performance max for a while. I almost
366. 12:13think AI max should become its own type
367. 12:16of campaign where I think I think search
368. 12:19should still be something where it's
369. 12:20like yes you can run search campaigns
370. 12:22targeting broad match phrase match exact
371. 12:24match you still have search terms you
372. 12:26still have the ability to you know
373. 12:27target keywords and bid up on keywords
374. 12:29and target the right people. I don't
375. 12:32think that should ever really go away. I
376. 12:34know we have local service ads now, but
377. 12:36like I don't think a local dentist
378. 12:37should write up oh, you know, you're
379. 12:39either running AI max or performance max
380. 12:41and you're just kind of running these
381. 12:42automated campaigns because ultimately
382. 12:44then Google ads is just built for the
383. 12:46biggest largest spenders which it
384. 12:48already is but there is a skill to it.
385. 12:51So basically going back to AIAX long way
386. 12:54of saying am I using it? What are best
387. 12:57practices for it? I think it's worth
388. 12:59testing in accounts where you do have a
389. 13:00lot of qualified lead data where you are
390. 13:02spending a lot of money where your
391. 13:04client is opening open to getting more
392. 13:06volume and and trying to expand on you
393. 13:10know what they're currently getting in
394. 13:11the local market. That's really my
395. 13:13thought on it is it's worth it in the
396. 13:16sense of large clients need more volume.
397. 13:19Is it something I use in an account
398. 13:20where, you know, a plumber reaches out
399. 13:22to me and says, you know, "Hey, Corey, I
400. 13:24want to run ads for, you know, you know,
401. 13:26for plumbing repair and and for plumbing
402. 13:28keywords." Does it make sense for them
403. 13:31to then, you know, run AIAX? Probably
404. 13:34not. I generally don't even run too much
405. 13:36broad match keywords for clients like
406. 13:38that unless they're really large clients
407. 13:39and they're and they're again looking
408. 13:41for all the volume in the world. Just
409. 13:43clicks are really expensive with AI Max.
410. 13:45It's not like your clicks are somehow
411. 13:47just all of a sudden cheaper. And you
412. 13:50know, is it worth still spending a
413. 13:52really high cost per click when some of
414. 13:53the search terms coming in aren't the
415. 13:55greatest? I mean, AIAX broad match, it's
416. 13:58it drives good results. I mean, it's
417. 14:00going to go after really good searches,
418. 14:01but there's just crap that comes in, you
419. 14:04know, in with all of that. And it's like
420. 14:06sometimes just using phrase match and
421. 14:07just bidding up a little bit on it is,
422. 14:09you know, sometimes the best strategy I
423. 14:11found. But it is one of those things
424. 14:12where you know who knows how that's
425. 14:14going to change over the next you know
426. 14:16year, two years, three years down the
427. 14:18road. So that is my thoughts on Google
428. 14:21Ads AI Max and running Google Ads for
429. 14:24your local store. So this is going to
430. 14:26conclude episode number six of the
431. 14:28Surfside PPC podcast. Again, you can get
432. 14:31my Google Ads course. My 2026 Google Ads
433. 14:33course should be available. It'll be
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435. 14:38will be the release date. I believe
436. 14:40that's correct. So, if you see it, you
437. 14:43can join. $34.99 a year. So, I will see
438. 14:46you on the next episode. And remember,
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447. 15:01that's kind of what our our goal is as
448. 15:04we move forward this year. So, hopefully
449. 15:06everybody uh learned a little bit this
450. 15:08episode and I'll see you next time.
451. 15:09Thanks for listening to the Surfside PPC
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