How Catie Went From Hating Shopping Ads To (Almost) Liking Them

Today we’re chatting to Catie Daus from 🇺🇸 the United States, owner of Daus Digital Marketing.

Hi Catie! Could you tell me a little bit about yourself and describe your current business?

My company’s focus is to work with small businesses to help grow their business market presence and revenue through strategic planning and tactical execution of brand and lead generation marketing programs. I am passionate about helping businesses begin their digital marketing journey and evaluate what will work best for long-term success, through Google Ads.

What were you struggling with most when you ran into our Google Shopping course?

(Catie joined the Google Shopping Success course in November 2019)

When I first started this course, I was really struggling with setting up the Google Merchant Center.

Before, I had only set up Shopping Ads through the Shopify platform. However, I had recently acquired a new client that did not use Shopify, so I was at a loss for where to start with them.

After learning all the in’s and out’s of the GMC, I learned all the different modalities I can use to set up the GMC, in addition to becoming knowledgeable of troubleshooting techniques I can use to help me in the future.

What specific strategies, tactics or advice helped you most?

I haven’t finished the course yet, but so far the step-by-step videos have been an amazing help!

What have your results looked like since going through the course?

Again, I haven’t finished the course yet, but so far I have just started implementing the basics like settings, breaking out shopping ads into branded and non-branded (this one was great!!).

I have a client right now that sells clothes, so they are competing with Macy’s & Nordstroms which is pretty near impossible to compete with as a small clothing company (actually if you have any advice on this, I would love to hear it!) However, breaking up the shopping campaigns into branded and non-branded has helped me manage the campaigns more closely. Their brand is pretty big in the niche industry, so their branded campaign is bringing in a lot of great traffic!

What do you hate most about Google Ads?

I actually used to hate the Shopping Ads because they were so complicated to troubleshoot and optimize, but now after this course I (almost) like them as I can see they are generating income for my clients! And happy clients make me happy!

What do you love about Google Ads?

I really love the functionality of it, along with the data I can pull from Google Analytics. I like how it is so easy to set up an account, get Google Analytics up and running, and install tracking code / conversions through Google Tag Manager. Google has made this process seamless which has been a great help in saving me time!

What’s one piece of advice you’d like to pass along about Google Ads?

The biggest piece of advice is to do ALL of your research ahead of time to learn the in’s and out’s of Google Ads BEFORE you start an account.

Google Ads can be a little tricky when first setting up campaigns, so to ensure you are spending your budget wisely, you will want to do some research on what settings to turn on/off and how to use keyword modifiers to ensure your budget is being spent efficiently and effectively. To do this, I read many blogs about Google Ads, but I specifically focused on the Store Growers blog. And yes, I read almost every single blog post too!

What have you’ve got planned for the future?

I currently only work with small businesses with a monthly spend under $5,000. However, for the new year, I am pushing myself and I locked in a client that has multiple accounts & over $100,000 in monthly spend. I am looking forward to this challenge and taking on such a big client with all the new information & tools I can use from The Store Growers!

If people are interested in learning more about you, where should they go?

My website would be the best place.