Google Ads Partner Program

We at SoftwarePromotions have decided to no longer participate in the Google Ads partner program.

This is because recent changes to the requirements of the program would force us to work against our client's best interests.

Our goal at SoftwarePromotions has always been perfectly aligned with our client's - achieving highly targeted traffic from Google Ads at the lowest possible cost.

We also have a policy of not increasing our fees if our clients spend more on their Google Ads. And we only recommend budget increases when we know that it will produce better results.

Part of Google's new partner program requirements would force us to increase our client's budgets, bid on keywords that are off-target, and other actions that could harm our client's accounts.

The Google Ads partner program requirements are as follows:

• Certifications: We would need to pass certain exams that Google provides each year. This is something that we have been doing since Google introduced certifications, and we plan to continue.
• Spend: We would need to manage at least $20,000 within 90-days which would not be a problem. Most of our clients spend well beyond that amount.
• Company performance: We would need to apply specific Google recommendations to receive our Google Ads partner status. This is the part of the new requirements that we are taking issue with.

The Google Ads recommendations scheme.

Some time ago, Google introduced a new section within your Google Ads account that was designed to help account managers produce better results.

It is called "Recommendations" and within it, you can find a variety of account recommendations from Google. While a number of them are worthwhile, others are simply irrelevant, or even a blatant approach at increasing Google's revenue. Initially, these were simple recommendations, but then Google added a scoring system to effectively force the entire process.

Here are just a few examples.

The screenshot below shows that if we apply these recommended budget increases to our client's campaigns, SoftwarePromotion's performance score will increase. Google will also make more money and SoftwarePromotions would be well on our way to receiving our partner status.

The screenshot below shows that if we add these keywords to our client's account, SoftwarePromotions score will again increase, and we will be on our way to receiving our partner status. Keyword recommendations can be mixed. Sometimes, there are good keyword ideas that we use, sometimes there are keywords we've tried in the past but have since been removed due to their poor performance. But sometimes Google's keyword ideas are downright awful.

If we do as Google recommends, Google will make more money and SoftwarePromotions will be on the way to receiving our partner status.

In the next example, Google recommend that we add the Google search partners to the campaign targeting. While this might work for some of our clients, we tend to remove the Google search partners when we see higher cost per clicks or a higher cost per conversion. If we applied this recommendation, our score will increase and it will hurt our client's bottom line.

It is true that Google do sometimes make good recommendations. For example, Google occasionally recommend that we lower bids, as in the next screenshot. This is an odd and puzzling recommendation from Google, because they have it in their power to simply not charge so much per click. Also, you can see that this wouldn't really impact the overall SoftwarePromotions score.

If we were to apply these Google recommendations, SoftwarePromotions would be certified as a Google Partner but our clients would see higher costs and worse performance.

This is why we will no longer participate in the Google Ads partner program.

If you have any questions or concerns about these changes, please let us know immediately.

Thank you.

Last updated Wednesday February 26th, 2020.