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  • 4 Critical Website Mistakes Made by Small to Mid-sized Businesses

    4 Critical Website Mistakes Made by Small to Mid-sized Businesses

    It’s the 2020s. With few exceptions, all businesses have websites nowadays.

    Yet despite this, many businesses treat them as a bit of an afterthought. Maybe because websites are complex and intimidating things or perhaps it’s because they can be too expensive to actively maintain.

    Whatever the reasons, the fact of the matter is that, as a digital marketing agency, we see many businesses squander their website’s potential because of misunderstandings and critical mistakes.

    Here are the most common mistakes businesses make when designing and creating a website and how you can avoid them.

    Mistake 1) Businesses don’t have an established “purpose” or “function” for their site.

    All too often, we see SMB owners who throw together a couple of web pages — because, again, it’s the 2020s, and having a website is just ‘the thing that businesses do now’ — without considering how to integrate them into their sales process.

    How to fix: Clearly define how and where your site fits within your sales funnel; define its role in how it helps achieve business objectives. Depending on that answer, your priorities and website will look very different. 

    For example, if you’re a B2B firm, then a probable function of your site might be to generate leads for your sales team. If that’s the case, then investing time and resources in good search marketing, copywriting, and conversion rate optimization is a must. On the other hand, maybe you’re a restaurant looking for more sit-in diners. Then strong local SEO, a Google Business Profile account, clear branding, and an appealing menu with quality images on your website will be critical.

    Mistake 2) Fail to understand how search engines work at the most fundamental levels. 

    If you expect a significant amount of traffic to come from search engines, then a strong understanding of how those search engines crawl and index websites is crucial. Specifically, mistakes can include a lack of internal linking (such as orphaned pages), no sitemap, and lots of unnecessary code that can slow down load speeds.

    How to fix: In the absence of professional developers or search marketers, unfortunately, the best fix here is simply to research. Don’t worry, there are a wealth of good articles and explainer videos teaching the best ways to design, organize, and code a website to rank on search engines.

    Mistake 3) Designers don’t give enough thought to marketing and SEO.

    You’ve made your sleek new website. Great. Now, how do your potential clients/customers find you? Whether business owners handle it themselves, they hire in-house, or go the agency route, marketing is a step that CANNOT be overlooked if a website is to be worth the effort, resources, and frankly, the headache.

    This is the scary part for most business owners. Nobody wants to fork over a ton of cash — usually thousands of dollars a month — for something that won’t guarantee returns right away. 

    How to fix: If your website plays any role in your sales process, ensure that your marketing team has at least some grasp of SEO and digital marketing. Search marketing tools such as Moz or SEMRush offer great SEO overview courses and are well worth the investment.

    Mistake 4) Don’t have a dedicated in-house webmaster.

    Even if a business outsources its website management, there needs to be someone in-house who is responsible for overseeing the website. As a digital marketing agency, it’s common for us to onboard new clients who have forgotten the login credentials for their CMS, hosting service, or Analytics accounts. Needless to say, if you can’t even access the site to make changes, install updates, or fortify security, it can quickly become a major liability for your company

    How to fix: Assign or hire for the responsibility of webmaster at your company. Ensure the person can, at the very least, keep track of login credentials, make simple updates, content changes, and ensure that security measures are up-to-date.

    How can these mistakes hurt a business?

    A bad web designer has the potential to put a business under. This is especially the case when established sites decide to redesign and relaunch their site. Here’s a true story from one of our clients (again, we are a digital marketing firm for SMBs):

    The client was a small Ecommerce site selling heavy equipment. We had been working with them for years at this point. They had strong SEO, decent year-over-year growth, and a good website structure. They wanted to redesign their site and went with a small, local firm — turns out to be just one guy. 

    Without our consultation (another big mistake; everyone working on a website needs to be in the loop about big changes at all times!), the client and designer changed the URL scheme of ALL of their core landing pages.

    This guy (a “professional” webdesigner) didn’t realize that Google operates by keeping all of the URLs it knows about in a massive database.  So when the new URLs didn’t match anything Google had in its database, in the eyes of search engines, the landing pages simply disappeared and new ones were created. And, for many different reasons, new pages take time to start ranking on Google (and also note: THEY DIDN’T BACK UP THEIR SITE — maybe the biggest, most costly, most avoidable of all possible mistakes involve big changes and no back up).

    Predictably, traffic, and therefore sales, plummeted. However we’re still making a slow but steady recovery. So in short, this bad designer hurt their business because he and they (the client):

    1) didn’t understand just how important their website was to their sales process (mind you, this is AN ECOMMERCE WEBSITE!)

    2) didn’t understand the fundamentals of the internet and search engines in particular.

    3) gave no thought to the SEO aspect of web design.

    Should You Go With a Pro?

    Websites are extremely complex and powerful tools that have the ability to skyrocket your business beyond the ‘small-midsize’ level. But, at the same time, one bad line of code can tank the whole thing. The more ambitious your business objectives are, the more necessary a good professional web developer will become.

    Fanatically Digital is here for all of your digital marketing needs. Whether it’s SEO, PPC, social media marketing, or any other web-marketing project you have, contact us today!

  • Google My Business is Now Google Business Profile

    Google My Business (GMB) is going to be seeing some changes in the coming months.

    Namely, Google My Business will now be branded Google Business Profile, and the Google My Business app will be retired in 2022 in favor of direct profile editing in Search or Maps.

    Google My Business is Now Called Google Business Profile

    First, it was simply called Google Local before a rebrand changed it to Google Places. Then, they doubled back, in a way, and it became Google+Local. They changed their minds again, returning to Google Places until about 2014 when Google My Business became the tool we all know and love (or simply tolerate; it’s not too often you see people with strong opinions on GMB).

    Now they’re opting for a more direct branding approach with the informative, if unimaginative, Google Business Profile.

    Yes, Google loves their rebrands almost as much as I am indifferent to them.

    Will This Rebrand Affect Your Site or Business?

    Almost certainly not. This appears to be nothing more than a name change will which likely go unnoticed by the vast majority of users.

    However, if your site relies on content with a “GMB” focus for traffic, it may be worth considering an update to reflect this new branding. Just keep in mind that while this change is immediate, it will take years before this rebrand will become the norm. Users will be searching for “google my business” for a long time to come.

    Google My Business App to be Discontinued

    Perhaps more impactful is the discontinuation of the Google My Business app.

    Those used to accessing their GMB profile through the app will need to rethink their workflow once it loses support. For a while, Google has been pushing profile managers to make edits or interact with users directly on search or map results.

    In short, these are minor changes which should not have an impact on SEO or how most businesses interact with Google My Business.

  • Better Reporting for Better Decisions

    Better Reporting for Better Decisions

    Yes, it’s that time of year when we start thinking about what we’ll do differently next year. Among the many challenges we all deal with is managing information, and more specifically how we consume information. Often we are not faced with too little information, but far too much. To make well-informed decisions, we need to better focus on the important information while either filtering out or delaying consumption of the rest.

    A Little Background

    Over the years, I’ve given the topic of digital analytics reporting a lot of thought. Running digital agencies and working with hundreds of clients over the past 30 years, I’ve seen how people of all levels handle (or don’t handle) information. 

    I was fortunate to consult with Kering, the parent company of brands like Gucci, Saint Lauren, Bottega Venetta, and others. Running 1-day digital analytics seminars for their groups in cities like Florence, Paris, New York, Boston, & Hong Kong, we engaged in conversations with people in positions ranging from copywriters to group presidents. 

    What made this engagement unique was the common goal of all to improve the digital experience for their customers. In one initiative, across multiple business units, we saw how tackling the same goal was being dealt with at all levels and across disciplines. 

    Common among all the people we worked with was the basic question: 

    “Did I have an impact?”

    Digital Analytics & Reporting

    That question, “did I have an impact?” is at the heart of how people should prioritize and consume information. It is the foundation for creating and delivering reports.

    The experience with Kering lead to the writing of “Digital Analytics: The Culture of Insights and Actions” (Available at Amazon Kindle Edition or download the PDF version). While the book focuses on organizational culture and structure, it also touches on how we can each structure the information we consume.

    What we saw at Kering, and across clients, is important information being overshadowed by mounts of interesting information. 

    Important information is what you need to know relative to your impact. Interesting information can be anything from broad KPIs that you cannot affect, to things other people want you to know about what they are doing, to fun facts in your industry. While consuming interesting information is great, doing so should not get in the way of clearly seeing the important information. 

    Before next year starts, determine what information you need to see in order to know:

    1. Did you have an impact?
    2. Was that impact what you expected?
    3. What might you do next for better outcomes?

    For a copywriter, the set of information will be very different than for a marketing director. Both the nature of the information and the frequency it is needed will be different. For your role, what do you need to know, and how often do you need to see it? 

    This should be what informs your reporting.

    The book mentioned above was written a while ago, so the tools mentioned as examples are not up to date. But, the book is not really about the tools. It is about the culture of the organizations that want to move toward better decision-making on all levels. If you’re thinking about reporting for your organization or your team, take a look; I hope it’s helpful.

  • What your SEO agency doesn’t know can hurt you

    What your SEO agency doesn’t know can hurt you

    No, this isn’t about the competency of your SEO agency. My guess is they’re good; you’ve hired them. 

    This is about communication. The people in your SEO agency are there to help you increase your business by improving the search results among important topic searches. As such, much of the conversation with the agency is about the page copy, headings, title tags, etc. Because site structure does not change too often, the topic is not top of mind. It should be.

    Little Changes Matter in Organic Search

    Over the years we have seen websites suffer significant declines in sales and lead generation because of changes that the companies didn’t think would matter. What seems like a minor change to a developer or site owner can send up a bunch of red flags for an SEO.

    It is not a call for a prohibition on changes. Rather, it is about managing those changes properly and having a chance to weigh the risks vs rewards of making them.

    When Site Changes Go Unmanaged

    Years back, we had a client working on an old version of a CMS. When they decided to come current, they contracted with an off-shore development group. We were unaware of this project.

    The developer looked at the easiest migration path. Two days before the go-live date, the client called to let us know that site may be unavailable during a short period over a couple-of-hours window. This is when they let us know that the updated version would be pushed.

    When we asked if we could look at the staging site, they were assured by the developer that it was unnecessary, that they had “all the SEO considerations addresses.”  

    Not so much. Almost immediately the site began to fall off the SERPs. It took us weeks to get the developers to properly address the issues, but the impact lasted over a year. As a result, the client lost several hundreds of thousands of dollars. The exact amount is hard to pinpoint because we can’t say what would have been. But, multiple 6-figures of lost revenue is a safe bet.

    We had another situation in which the person responsible for the site thought the URLs were “ugly”. And they were. However, the change was made without notifying us, and there were no proper 301s setup. 25% drop in organic traffic almost immediately.

    Search engines, ok, Google, is finicky. When there are changes that aren’t properly managed, Google will happily drop your pages from the SERPs. And, to be fair, they should. It’s scary how much sites depend on search engines. But, that is the reality and we have to manage accordingly.

    Communicate Any Website Changes Early

    When making changes to a website, notify your marketing team, and in particular, your SEO agency as soon as the topic comes up. Early involvement can ensure the impact of the changes can be anticipated and mitigated. 

    Usually, developers are comfortable working with SEO teams. The tension tends to stem from SEO getting involved too late in the game and a bunch of re-work is requested. With introductions made early, all parties can work together for a seamless website change that ultimately improves UX, conversions, and search results.

  • Why do we need server-side tracking for Google Analytics?

    Why do we need server-side tracking for Google Analytics?

    Before we jump into server-side tracking for analytics it is important to understand the state of website tracking up to this point. For simplicity, we are going to use Google Analytics as the tracking tool for this discussion. But, the same ideas apply to virtually every analytics and user tracking tool out there.

    How site tracking has worked – client-side

    Google Analytics tracking code is a bit of javascript that a website adds to the code that is pushed out to the browsers when a page is loaded. Once a page is loaded, several things can happen and all of them are controlled in the browser. This is also referred to as client-side. 

    The tracking code will often tell the browser to create a cookie that is saved to the user’s device. These cookies contain information about the session and browsing activity. No PII is stored, but behaviors and non-identifiable information can be stored. When the user revisits a site or visits other pages on the site, the javascript will access the cookie, retrieve some information from it, and often combine it with the current page load data, then send it to the server. In this case, Google analytics.

    What’s important about this transaction is that the entire process is being controlled by Google Analytics, not the website itself. This is known as a 3rd party cookie. 

    The javascript sends a unique id (stored in the cookie) and the current page being visited to Google Analytics. In the reporting, this shows up as a “page visit.” 

    What is changing? 3rd Party Cookies Being Blocked.

    Because of security concerns, browser developers (Apple with Safari, Google with Chrome, and others) have either already or are in the process of restricting 3rd party cookies. While the well-known and reputable players can be trusted to use the 3rd party cookie tech properly, this does expose users to unscrupulous players as well. Within a year or so (the actual dates get changed), we expect the majority of browsers to block third-party cookies completely.

    How can Analytics Continue? Server Side Tracking with APIs.

    Analytics applications like Google, Facebook, and others have released Server-Side APIs to let site owners send information directly from their servers to the application’s server. This is more complicated to implement than a simple bit of javascript code, but it is the only way to track activity without exposing users to the security risks associated with client-side (browser) tracking technologies.

    What to do with Google Analytics now.

    There are several steps to take now to be ready for the ultimate shut down of 3rd party cookies.

    • Add Google Analytics G4 to your site. It is quite different from Universal, so getting it setup, even with client-side tracking for now, will help you get used to it before it is required. Universal Analytics will not be made to support the API tracking even with Google Tag Manager.
    • Meet with your Dev team ASAP and audit what client-side tracking you are doing. In addition to Google Analytics, virtually all ad platforms use js code to track users and report metrics back to their platforms. Getting a full scope of these is critical.
    • Plan the priority for migrating from client-side to server-side tracking. If you’re like many organizations, there is more work than resources. You’ll want to be sure the must-haves are on the top of your list.
    • Shoot for early implementation on the most critical tools. More the majority of sites, Google Analytics will be high on the list.

    While the heavy lifting will have to be done by the dev team, read enough about Google Analytics to understand the scope and options. GA will have the ability to use Google Tag Manager to some extent. Knowing how this can be used for what you need to track can give you more control and alleviate some of the burdens on the dev team.

    The technology for tracking is changing. 3rd Party Cookies are being phased out. Start planning for Server-Side tracking technology now to be sure you are not caught off guard in a year or so when browsers like Chrome completely block the 3rd party cookies.

  • Google to Add Continuous Scrolling on SERPs

    Last week, Google announced they would be implementing a ‘continuous scrolling’ function on the search engine results page over the next few weeks.

    Users will no longer need to press a “See More” or “Next Page” button every ten results or so. The page will simply load more results as users scroll down. This new system will load approximately 40 results before users will need to click a “See More” option.

    Why the Change?

    While the vast majority of clicks go to the first four results on any given search, there are particular types of queries for which users tend to bounce around between results. sometimes going as far down as page four of their results.

    This change is meant to create a more seamless experience for those types of searches.

    Will this affect Google Ads?

    Google Ads are typically displayed at the top and bottom of these results pages. What happens if there are effectively no more pages?

    While there won’t be any changes to Local and Shopping ads, Text ads will see some shake-up. Google says they will “redistribute” how many text ads will be shown. Fewer ads will be displayed at the bottom of pages moving forward.

    So what should you expect from your metrics?

    Google claims the only thing likely to be affected are mobile impressions, which may increase, and CTR, which may decline a bit.

    They expect all other metrics will stay relatively stable.

  • Website Analytics and Reporting

    I’ve been asked what we use for analytics and tracking. The short answer is Google Analytics (like most everyone.) But, I think a better way to think about it is “how do you use your analytics platform?”, whatever it is. We find that we are creating different implementations for our clients, but every implementation has the same base elements. Below is a general approach to analytics and reporting that we use.

    Core Analytics Platform

    Our go-to platform is Google Analytics (GA). The reasons are both obvious and, perhaps, not so obvious.

    As the most popular website tracking platform, GA is easily integrated with any website. From tracking basic actions like page views, time on site, bounce rate, and sources to easy reporting, GA is great for the basics. It also connects easily with Google Ads, making the sharing of audiences, goals, and key metrics quite easy.

    Custom Audience

    GA provides a hub for creating custom audiences. The most common application is to track and target general site visitors. But, with the custom audience capabilities, we can segment users based on content consumption, self-selected preferences, or any number of attributes. While the scope can be wide, the value comes from knowing what is important for your marketing efforts prior to establishing the audiences.

    External Data

    Importing external data into GA allows us to connect off-site data with on-site usage. The most fundamental data is media spend, impressions, and interactions. Properly set up, we can see fairly nuanced data points as well as a full, 360-degree view of media performance.

    Google Tag Manager

    In addition to GA’s core attributes, Google has also created a great connection with Google Tag Manager(GTM). With a bit of knowledge about the elements of the website, we can easily set up GTM to trigger events and send data back to GA for additional user insights. On-page interactions can be tracked, video interactions measured, and custom dimensions/variables set. Using GTM, we can access page elements, browser variables, or data layers to help trigger events without taking up the developer resources. By combining GTM and GA, digital marketers can gain significant insight into the users.

    But, GTM and GA can also allow us to do much more. With the right combination of 1st party cookies, scripts, and database knowledge, we can create a level of visibility into individual user behavior(without violating PII rules.) How this is implemented depends on the client’s needs and questions to be answered. While not necessarily an easy lift, for some businesses, this is a worthwhile investment.

    Google Data Studio

    While we use GA reporting for some basic management steps, an additional benefit of GA is the integration with Google Data Studio (GDS). From management dashboards to drill-down reporting, GDS allows us to see GA data in unique ways that answer our program-specific questions. 

    G4 Analytics

    Google Released G4 to allow marketers to more easily feed data from different sources into a single container. This allows us to see a broader range of user interactions across different environments. Consider an online lead or sale that results in a longer-term relationship managed through a CRM. For most businesses, the connection between the two is broken. But, with G4, the CRM can continue to send data, maintaining the continuity of information. 

    G4 also sets the stage for the next step in website analytics, server-side tracking. 

    Up to now, and at least through 2022, most website analytics data comes from the users’ browsers. This has been somewhat problematic in that it does require third-party cookies and calls from the browser. With some people blocking the third-party cookies, and indeed some browsers doing so by default, the data has holes. But, there are enough enabled browsers to provide good data for tracking and marketing decisions. That’s going to change.

    In 2023, Google Chrome will block 3rd party cookies. Once this happens, the continuity of data from users’ browsers will disappear. 

    To address this, Google has released a suite of tools to allow websites to use server-side actions to send data to G4. It is through this same paradigm that marketers can think about sending data from virtually any environment to Google Analytics G4. With the right planning, the lifetime actions and attributes of customers can be visible and used to enhance their experience as well as marketing efforts.

  • Google Ads: Another AI/ML Move To More Data-Driven Automation

    As Google continues down the path of AI/ML-driven “everything”, advertisers are left with blind spots. The latest push came when Google announced that last-click attribution will be replaced by data-driven as the default for Google Ads. This, in and of itself, is neither good nor bad. What it means to you depends on your program. 

    One challenge inherent with AI/ML is that it requires consistency with the inputs. And the inputs encompass everything involved: user behavior, your program parameters (budgets, geo, and any setting not fully controlled by an automated part of Google Ads), as well as your website with UX/UI, goal parameters, and more. If there are regular changes to any portion of these, then the system has to relearn what “optimized” is.

    Where we see the biggest challenge is in the area of client-side decisions. If the landing pages are in constant flux or the definition of a goal changes, these throw off the inputs Google uses. Maintaining consistency is a key element in leveraging Google’s automation.

    As we stabilize programs and the AI/ML process maximize Google Ads programs, we must determine what’s next. 

    Optimize what is rather than being able to decide what should be

    Another challenge in the AI/ML-driven world (currently at least) is that, while these are great at doing what you tell them to do, they are not great at figuring out what should be done. 

    When it comes to paid search, sometimes the spark of an idea comes from diving into the data detail. The more Google automates and removes our visibility, the fewer opportunities we have to gain insights based on intuition or have an “ah-ha moment” from some querk in the data.

    This becomes particularly acute when we see what Google is doing with ads. Soon, Google will lock Extended Text Ads and force all new ads to be responsive. Unless there is much more transparency in the Responsive Ads reporting, we will lose visibility into the nuance of copy that drives action. 

    Google will optimize the combination of inputs, but not allow us to “force” inputs in order to see what is actually happening beyond not converting. 

    Are certain phrases leading to more site-search, or navigation to other pages, or are they more likely to simply bounce? What other behavior are we not seeing because we can’t control our copy? What do these behaviors tell us about our understanding of the prospects? The more that is controlled (and hidden) by automation, the less chance we have of understanding why things happen.

    It’s not new

    Years ago we use to build paid search programs that were targeting long-tail searches. In fact, it was one of the strategies that Google Reps encouraged. Then, Google stopped allowing long-tail strategies by designating that the searches had “low volume,” no auction would be created. Not only did this take away a key cost-optimization path, but it also blinded us to the best ways to communicate with prospective customers. 

    But, we still had the query report. While we couldn’t necessarily create ad groups around the queries we saw, we could nuance our ad groups to force them to trigger certain ad groups and not others. In 2020, Google removed a great number of those queries from the SQR under the guise of privacy. They recently reintroduced greater visibility into the search terms as SEMs were fairly vocal about our disappointment in their decision. 

    With each step Google takes to advance automation, we lose some visibility & insight into the users.

  • Google Update: How Google Changes Your SERPs Titles

    Google Update: How Google Changes Your SERPs Titles

    Last week, Google confirmed that they changed the way they generate new webpage titles to appear on their results page (SERP).

    Does Google Change My Website’s Title Tag?

    Yes. Although you may not have noticed, Google has long experimented with systems that generate new title displays based on user search queries. Since 2012, they’ve altered titles based on search queries to more accurately represent what the user might be looking for.

    But instead of generating titles based on user search queries, this new system will generate titles based on the webpage text and header tags.

    How often does Google change titles? 

    Google has said that they still use content HTML title tags around 80% of the time. That can mean they might use the exact text or they may only take elements of your HTML title to incorporate into a generated title.

    Why and when does Google change titles?

    Google says the main reasons they generate new titles are because HTML title tags can be:

    • Very long.
    • “Stuffed” with keywords, because creators mistakenly think adding a bunch of words will increase the chances that a page will rank better.
    • Lack title tags entirely or contain repetitive “boilerplate” language. For instance, home pages might simply be called “Home”. In other cases, all pages in a site might be called “Untitled” or simply have the name of the site.

    Initial data gathered by the community (check out this helpful Twitter thread) suggests that title length is a key factor. HTML titles below 50 characters stayed the same 99%+ of the time. 

    A site’s domain authority (or Page Rank) also appeared to play a role. Titles on sites with a higher domain authority were less likely to be changed than lower DA sites.

    When a title was altered, the new title’s content was pulled from the H1 tag more than 50% of the time.

    Takeaways

    So what does this mean for SEOs and webmasters? 

    Well, keeping titles short and sweet appears to be the most important factor in ensuring the title you want is displayed as you intended. 

    But secondly, this reinforces the importance of relevant H tags and quality on-page content. For those following SEO best practices, this really shouldn’t mean much. However, if you’d like to check whether your titles are being changed, check out four useful tools here.

  • Google Ads Match Types Lack Meaning

    As Google continues to push its belief that the Google Ads AI is better at aligning search queries to advertisers’ needs than are advertisers, the Google Ads Match type becomes less meaningful. From phrase match to exact match, Google increasingly serves ads for queries that are not aligned with the goals of the advertisers.

    This isn’t to say the queries are not relevant to the general themes of the keywords, but they tend to push the edge of relevance. Google reps will argue that these terms are connected to future sales or conversions. The reality is, most programs have shorter timelines for ROAS than can be attributed to these peripheral queries.

    We’ve always managed programs with deep sets of negative keywords. As Google (and Bing) make match types meaningless, these negative keyword lists become ever more important.

    Shared Negative Keyword Lists

    Google’s shared negative keyword lists make for more efficient management of the negative keywords.

    The way Google Ads aligns search queries, we see ads for one campaign showing for keywords that are in other campaigns. This is true for the expansion of phrase match and exact match as well. While this has been true with broad match keywords all long, we were “safe” with the other match types. Now, not so much.

    So, while each ad group should have a distince set of negative match types, you will need to leverage shared lists for negative keywords. We find that adding all the targeted keywords for a campaign or ad group to a nagative list, you can then share these lists across the other campaigns. This will keep Google (in theory) from showing ads in campaigns or ad groups that you would prefere to go to a defined ad group.

    That sounds familiar, and it is. This technique was used extensively for broadmatch ad groups, and quite a bit for phrase match. But, unfortunately, if you want control of how your ads appear, to which pages you drive users, and how you align offers with ad groups, you need to do this for every campaign, every match type, in your account.