Bill Ross: Today I have with us Petra Manos, who is the owner and director of the Quantified Web, a Google Ads agency focused on measurable profit, not just clicks. With 9 years of Google Ad experience and a background in military computer science, Petra brings a results-driven approach to online advertising.

Petra and her team work with e-commerce, services, and trade businesses, sharing strategy openly and focusing on what drives growth through high-performing Google Ads campaigns.

Petra, welcome to our expert interview series.

Petra Manos: Thanks, Bill, I really appreciate you having me today.

Bill Ross: Good deal. Well, listen, the whole point of this interview series is to really cut straight to the point for the listeners and get strategies that they can implement right away. So I'm going to jump straight in and ask you the main question that is the primary issue that we're trying to resolve at this point. And that is, what is the effective strategy, the most effective strategy, you recommend for business owners to increase sales while also strengthening their company's reputation?

Petra Manos: Yeah, so I'd like to unpack that, because really there's two different points there, and when it comes to Google Ads advertising, which is where my expertise is, there's a couple of different areas that are going to be impacted in that question, but if we focus first on the sales side of things.

The number one tip that I would suggest for anyone who's running Google advertising is to make sure that their conversion tracking is set up really well, so that they can use AI bidding.

And, I'm happy to unpack what that means, because we're already starting to use jargony words. So, would you like me to describe what conversion tracking is?

Bill Ross: I would, I would. I think, obviously, some of the bigger businesses that are in place might, you know, have agencies or whatnot to sort of handle some of these things, and then some of the smaller businesses, you know, are going to be doing it themselves. But I think it's really important that people do understand what conversion tracking is. You know, having a background in performance marketing myself, I completely get what you're saying, but it is the foundation to actually having success.

So, yeah, if you'll unpack that and explain it in, I guess, the simplest lay terms, that would be fantastic.

Petra Manos: Sure, yep. Well, the simplest way that I can describe conversion tracking is actually training a puppy. So we don't even have to talk about jargon there. If you imagine you've got a brand new puppy, and you tell the puppy to sit. and then you give it a treat, it's probably not going to sit the first time. It might take many times before your puppy does that action, but the main thing is, you're giving the instruction, and then you're giving it a treat.

You're giving an instruction, giving a treat, and then eventually, that puppy learns when you give that instruction, then that's, you know, what you want them to do. And then you can, you know, train that puppy to, you know, do a range of different things, but… You would never expect a puppy to… To just get it? after you've given it one command once, and then said, that's you, I've trained my puppy for life, I've now got this amazing puppy that…

always knows what I'm talking about. It just doesn't work like that. And so, Google Ads is exactly the same as that, and so when we're talking about conversions, we're essentially talking about giving the right instruction to the Google Ads puppy. and then giving a reward for, doing the right thing. So, when we're talking about a business setting, what we're trying to do is give Google a reward if Google brings you a lead or brings you a sale.

And the more that you can do that. the more that you're actually training Google to go and fetch you more leads and more sales.

And the rule of thumb for any business is that you want to be having at least 30 in a month of conversions Where you are assigning some kind of value to the conversion. Now, some businesses, they might not have 30 sales a month, or they might not get 30 leads a month if they're, you know, on the smaller side with their budgets.

But that's okay. If you set up your conversion tracking well, you can say, well, what's the next best step? What could give Google the idea that I'm actually you know, that they are doing the right thing. Maybe it's add to carts. Maybe it's, you know, if we're talking about lead generation situation, maybe it's not generating the lead yet, but it's someone who's spending 3 or 5 minutes actively reading the website and collecting information, that might be good enough to tell Google, well, this is a more valuable prospect than the one that came to my website and just left. So, the more of that data we give to Google.

Then, when we set up the ads, we can say, alright, instead of using manual bidding, which is the old cumbersome way, if we use AI bidding and we train the Google Ads system to use that conversion data, it's going to go and fetch the type of people that are going to lead to those conversions.

Bill Ross: That makes a lot of sense, that makes a lot of sense. I… I think, you know, what we're talking about from an old layman's term standpoint is that pixel, that conversion pixel that people might have heard of in the past. And, and what you're telling me is that that terminology, whether it applies today or not, it doesn't really matter so much, but it's the conversion event that you're placing on your website, or wherever that occurs, and the instructions to do this, it's a little technical, but the instructions to do this exist in Google and pretty much any platform. And actually, AI can really help you if you talk to Perplexity or ChatGPT or whatever, probably actually figuring out how

How to install this, and ask me, you know, tell me how to do this. But it is that specific It's that specific piece that you're talking about. And then what you're actually giving people is a strategy of Because they need so much data over a given period of time, you're letting them know it's okay to start at smaller events and build up to those sales.

if necessary, to build that data and teach Google, the puppy, in this case, what they're looking for, what you want them to look for. Is that correct?

Petra Manos: Correct, yes, because the… the important factor is the volume of them, and not necessarily having perfect accuracy. So, and I was gonna say before, sometimes ChatGPT and Perplexity, they can send you down the garden path, because they might be aiming for perfection, or they might be aiming for a more technical solution. Sometimes you don't need the most technical solution, because what you're trying to do is give Google enough volume of data that it can make decisions.

About which types of people are likely to be good prospects. And so, having… While we don't want to have, you know, incorrect data, we don't necessarily need to go to the point of having the most accurate data, where we know exactly how much a lead turned into in terms of sales value, and… like, sometimes that can overcomplicate it.

What we need to do is have enough volume of data that Google can look over all of the examples where you provided conversions.

But trying to layer in some value differential is a good idea, because Google will take into account the total amount of value that you've assigned to something. So, in a situation with retail, if someone has actually purchased from you, you want to have the purchase value in there, but a rule of thumb that I would use is if they're not having at least 30 purchases, and we're going to be looking at something else like add to carts.

Bill Ross: Then, if we just assign…

Petra Manos: a dollar as value. It's not a real dollar, because you don't actually earn a dollar if someone adds to cart, but it's telling Google that you value it enough that you're willing to put a value on it, and then when you use, an AI bidding type called Target Return on Ad Spend, or Target ROAS,

What that particular AI bidding model is doing is it is trying to maximize the value That you get financially. And it can be used by lead generation as well, it doesn't have to just be e-commerce, as long as you put a value on the different business outcomes that you might have in your business, those conversions.

Yep. So, yeah.

Bill Ross: I think, I really got clear there that it is important, I want people to understand, to add a value, to add a number, whatever it may be, whether it's a lead, or it's an add to cart. If it's not an actual sale and you don't have an actual dollar amount, you need to add a dollar, or two, or whatever the case may be. to that event so that you're telling Google, this is worth something to me. And then they can… and then it improves performance long-term. That's great. I think that's fantastic.

The second part of the question is, you know, regarding improving your company's reputation. So how would you take what you've already explained to people in running these types of ads to actually improve, you know, the overall reputation?

Petra Manos: Exactly. So, once you've got that infrastructure set up, your ads will be running on your behalf, and like that puppy running amok on the internet. But the thing is there, when you are showing your ads, you want your ads to be showing you in the right light. You don't want to be…

Mass sending off messages about your business that isn't… improving your reputation at the same time. So this is where the quality of your ad copy and assets really comes into play.

And so, it's very important that you look at your ad copy and assets. And when I say assets, I'm talking about images and… we've got… in Google Ads, there's something called extensions, which goes alongside your ads. Probably don't need to talk about those in too much detail, but they all make up The ad, essentially.

And making sure that the language that you use and the assets that you use Are, first of all, aligned with your website, but second of all, they're not misrepresenting you in some way, like pretending to be your competitor, or, you know, making offers that you don't actually plan to offer.

And this is really important if you've used AI… again, we're talking about AI, but if you've used AI to write the ad copy, you need to be especially careful that it hasn't gone and created something that you don't want.

I have seen some real examples where, it's turned into a clickbait situation where Google's concluded, oh, if we use these words, we'll get more traffic, but to the detriment of reputation, and this is something we really need to be careful of.

Bill Ross: Gotcha. So… even if you use AI to write your ad copy to save yourself time, make sure to review it, and you read it, and that it's accurate, and that it is not clickbaity, so to speak. And if anybody wants to know what that really means, just look at the Google ad policies, and they'll spell out what they determine as ClickBank. You don't want that, correct?

Petra Manos: Be careful, though, because within Google Ads. There's the ability to have Google Ads write your ads. And in this case, it may be Google's own AI,

Which is causing the misleading ads. So, for example, if you have… competitor keywords. Triggering your ads, which is very common.

Google Ads may write your titles of your ads. To be your competitor's business name.

Bill Ross: Oh, interesting.

Petra Manos: And, I'm seeing this more and more, even to the point where I… I grabbed a screenshot the other day, and I highlighted it, and I… sent it to my husband in frustration. I said, I keep seeing this, and he's like, what's wrong? I said, can you see that they're… they're actually advertising their competitor's name? And he didn't realize, because the title is larger than the business name. And he's like, oh, I thought it was the competitor's ad.

So, you really have to be careful, because it may well be that you are advertising your competitor's name and causing a misleading situation when they get to your website and realize that you're not them.

Bill Ross: It can cause bounces, or it could, in some cases.

Petra Manos: It has caused lawsuits where a business has impersonated a government entity.

Bill Ross: Well, okay, people, so the idea here is review the AI copy. Don't trust Google just because Google did the work for you, right?

Okay. Petra, I think you've given some incredibly valuable information for people to, you know, implement in their business, i.e, you know, making sure that they have their conversion tracking set up, that they're properly giving value to train Google to go find what they want, sales, right? And then, and then obviously how to protect their reputation in this day of AI and everything else. comes along with it. So, thank you so much for your time. I do have one simple question for you, and that is, if somebody wants to know more about you, how you might be able to help them, what's the best way they can reach out to you?

Petra Manos: Thanks for that. So the best way to reach me is to come to my website, which is TheQuantifiedWeb.com.

And one of the things that we offer is a free strategy session, and so with the strategy session, you would have a quite extensive meeting with me.

And we would go through and write a strategy plan for you about how you can get Google Ads working in your situation.

Bill Ross: Fantastic. Thank you, Petra. I appreciate all your time, and we'll go ahead and sign off now, and hopefully everybody will go implement what you're talking about and reach out to you. Thank you so much.

Petra Manos: Thanks, Bill.