The paid media lab – Details, episodes & analysis

In this episode of The Paid Media Lab podcast, we're speaking to PPC expert Adriaan Dekker about whether it's worth shifting to POAS instead of ROAS.

Adriaan is a highly respected voice within the PPC community, known for documenting every minor and major update to the Google Ads platform since launching his Google Ads newsletter in November 2022.

With a substantial 100k+ following on LinkedIn, Adriaan is a recognized authority in the field, and a trusted guide for thousands of performance marketers working at the cutting-edge of PPC.

We could think of no better way to delve into advanced paid search metrics than to get Adriaan on, and have a chat with him about something he firmly believes in – the value of the Profit on Ad Spend (POAS) metric vs. the more traditional ROAS metric.

Timestamps:

0:00 - Intro 3:25 - POAS vs ROAS explained 5:02 - POAS for different businesses: which types of businesses can benefit most from POAS 6:28 - B2B Webshop Trends: Adriaan notes the growing trend of B2B companies using webshops. 6:02 - Accurately calculating profit margins 7:20 - Essential prep/considerations before transitioning to POAS 8:38 - POAS and budget allocation: how to shift budget allocation to more profitable products 9:47 - Impact of POAS on automated bidding strategies 11:20 - Google Ads gross profit optimization: Getting POAS from third party tools vs. Google 13:20 - How/when other platforms may follow Google's lead and adopt POAS 14:58 - Using profit metrics for POAS & offline conversion tracking 16:16 - Additional resources Adriaan recommends for getting started with POAS

Prefer watching over listening? Subscribe to Lunio's YouTube channel to get full-length video episodes: @lunio_ai

Get more free PPC tools, webinars, and resources at:

https://www.lunio.ai/resource-library 

In the second episode of the Paid Media Lab podcast, we're speaking to PPC expert Sophie Logan about her approach to running high-performing competitor campaigns across paid search.

Sophie is the PPC lead at Beauhurst, a leading private company database tool for the UK market.

Specializing in B2B and SaaS brands, Sophie has many years of experience in the performance marketing space under her belt, and regularly shares her insights as a speaker at conferences and industry events. Sophie is also a regular contributor to Search Engine Land, making her a leading voice in the PPC community.

We could think of no one better to discuss competitor bidding than Sophie, so we had to get her on the podcast to outline the key strategies and considerations required to ensure success.

Timestamps:

• 0:00 - Intro
• 03:03 - When to bid on competitor brand names, and when to avoid it
• 05:50 - Why competitor keyword bidding requires a different approach
• 06:56 - How to decide which competitors to target
• 08:35 - Step-by-step process for setting up competitor bidding campaigns
• 09:49 - Being creative with ad copy when you can't use competitor names directly
• 12:24 - Recommended bidding strategy
• 13:35 - How to create winning landing pages for competitor campaigns
• 15:10 - Key metrics when assessing competitor bidding campaign performance
• 17:00 - Cases where competitor bidding can backfire
• 17:20 - Sophie’s response when she found out a competitor violated an agreement to stop bidding on each other
• 18:24 - Using forums like Reddit to research competitor complaints and guide your campaigns
• 20:32 - Key optimizations for competitor bidding campaigns
• 22:10 - Sunk cost fallacy
• 22:32 - Wrapping up / outro

Prefer watching over listening? Subscribe to Lunio's YouTube channel to get full-length video episodes: ⁠@lunio_ai⁠

Get more free PPC tools, webinars, and resources at: 

⁠https://www.lunio.ai/resource-library ⁠

Welcome to the first episode of the Paid Media Lab podcast, where we're kicking things off by speaking to the 'Demand Gen whisperer' himself, Thomas Eccel.

Thomas is one of the most respected and recognised voices on LinkedIn, often breaking major Google updates and discussing optimal strategy with his thousands of followers, and 20,000+ strong audience of PPC newsletter subscribers.

We spoke to Thomas about all things Demand Gen in 2025, including his step-by-step strategy for seeding high-performing Demand Gen Lookalike Audiences using Meta lead gen campaigns.

Timestamps:

• 00:00 - Intro
• 03:10 - How Thomas became the ‘Demand Gen whisperer’
• 05:39 - What DemandGen campaigns are, and what goals they achieve
• 08:38 - Lookalike audiences and their significance for Demand Gen
• 11:50 - Rundown of all audience targeting options for Demand Gen
• 13:25 - Thomas’ step-by-step strategy for seeding a Demand Gen lookalike audience via a Meta lead gen list
• 16:55 - The difference between narrow, balanced, and broad audience options
• 17:49 - The feedback received from people who have tried Thomas’ lookalike audience strategy
• 19:04 - Specific instances where Thomas would recommend a lookalike-only approach
• 20:55 - Potential downsides of a lookalike audience strategy
• 22:40 - Additional resources Thomas recommends for those interested in learning more about Demand Gen campaigns

Prefer watching over listening? Subscribe to Lunio's YouTube channel to get full-length video episodes: @lunio_ai

Get more free PPC tools, webinars, and resources at: 

https://www.lunio.ai/resource-library 

The paid media lab is a podcast for performance marketers who want fresh, innovative, and actionable strategies to maximize return on ad spend. 

In each episode, we speak to a leading paid media expert about the one strategy, approach, or tactic that has consistently delivered impressive performance improvements across their campaigns in recent months. 

Experimenting and trying new things is crucial for gaining a competitive edge in Paid Media, and that’s exactly what this show is designed to help you with!

Presented by James Deeney and brought to you by Lunio, the go-to solution for combatting click fraud and invalid traffic. 

Get more free PPC tools, webinars, and resources at: 

https://www.lunio.ai/resource-library 

This episode of the Paid Media Lab podcast featured PPC Expert Nick Handley discussing product feed optimization at scale, how to accurately measure the impact of marketing, and much more.

Nick is the head of Paid Media Performance at performance marketing agency Impression, and has years of experience under his belt working alongside leading brands.

We spoke to Nick about the importance of product feed optimization, and what to do when you initially adopt a product feed that's in a 'less than ideal' condition. We also discussed Nick's core personalization strategies, vehicle ads on Google, cross-platform integration, and a whole host of important topics that performance marketers need to stay on top of--including: Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 02:33 - An overview of Nick’s approach to a case study involving an automotive client 05:08 - First steps when dealing with a large / unorganized product feed 08:12 - What vehicle ads are, and how they differ from general shopping ads 10:10 - Creating personalised feeds for Meta 15:24 - Getting quality first-party information in the automotive industry 17:12 - Why measuring the holistic impact of marketing is so difficult in 2025 and beyond 20:07 - Using incrementality & uplift tests to measure impact 22:24 - Nick’s key advice for performance marketers & the importance of feed quality 25:16 - Final thoughts / outro

Prefer watching over listening? Subscribe to Lunio's YouTube channel to get full-length video episodes:

https://www.youtube.com/@lunio_ai

Get more free PPC tools, webinars, and resources at:

https://www.lunio.ai/resource-library

On the Paid Media Lab podcast this week, PPC Consultant Selina Patel gave her expertise on the (surprising) announcement from Google that Performance Max (PMax) campaigns are no longer prioritized over Standard Shopping campaigns. Selina is the founder of Exposure Media, a PPC consultancy based in Manchester. Selina has worked for international brands with multi-million dollar budgets, small local businesses just finding their niche, and just about everything in between--giving her a wealth of experience across all aspects of the paid media industry. Selina has a particular interest in Google Shopping and product feed management, making her a highly knowledgeable guest when it comes to PMax vs. Standard Shopping. When Google announced they were deprioritizing PMax, we knew Selina would be the perfect guide for marketers looking to forge a new strategy. Selina’s years of experience means she has a deep understanding of the nuances of each campaign type, and could provide marketers with actionable insights on how to work with both campaign types going forward. Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro

02:34 - What Google's deprioritization of PMax means for marketers

05:19 - Early Data on Standard Shopping performance

06:47 - How PMax feed-only has weakened significantly due to the change

08:15 - Key advice for marketers: How to manage the change in prioritization + feed-only

09:40 - Shopping Spend Alert Script: Custom script to monitor changes in spend

10:27 - The implications of consolidated campaign structures for PMax

12:37 - PMax strengths: When to use PMax over Standard Shopping

14:35 - The drawbacks of PMax (+standard shopping advantages)

16:45 - Case Study: How Standard Shopping can improve product visibility

21:02- Key recommendations: How to approach PMax and standard shopping

23:51 - Final thoughts

Prefer watching over listening? Subscribe to Lunio's YouTube channel to get full-length video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@lunio_ai

Get more free PPC tools, webinars, and resources at:

https://www.lunio.ai/resource-library

In this episode of the Paid Media Lab podcast, PPC expert Scott Carruthers about value-based bidding and the key optimization points for PPC campaigns.Scott is a widely respected voice in the paid media industry, sharing valuable tips, scripts, and insights for his thousands of LinkedIn followers.Scott is also Head of PPC at Journey Further, spending well over a decade crafting and executing award-winning search marketing campaigns for leading brands around the world. With overall conversion value proving increasingly important for performance marketers due to tightening budgets and greater expectations, we spoke to Scott about his take on a more value-driven approach to campaigns. He ran us through his methodology on lead volume vs. lead quality, his step-by-step guide on switching to a more value-based approach, what to consider when choosing optimization points to aim for, and a whole lot more--including: Timestamps:00:00 - Intro

02:00 - Google's Power Pair: Implications going forward

05:04 - Optimization points in PPC: Why they’re important

09:01 - Factors to consider when choosing optimization points

12:25 - Adopting a value-based approach

16:51 - Case study: Using availability and competitor data

20:00 - Defining conversion points, leveraging AI, and refining PPC

21:38 - New user signals incorporated into broad match

23:08 - Final thoughts / outro

Prefer watching over listening? Subscribe to Lunio's YouTube channel to get full-length video episodes:

https://www.youtube.com/@lunio.ai

Get more free PPC tools, webinars, and resources at:

https://www.lunio.ai/resource-library

In this episode of the Paid Media Lab podcast, we're speaking to Tomasz Abbott-Wieczorek about the often under-appreciated topic of ad copy localization for international PPC campaigns. 

You likely already know Tomasz as the founder of the PPC Profit Club, a sizable community of marketers sharing tips, strategies, and best practices for PPC success. 

Individually, Tomasz has audited over $1 billion in Google Ads spend, and has been ranked amongst the top 100 most influential PPC voices worldwide.

In this episode, Tomasz discussed key strategies to maximize the ROI on international PPC campaigns - something Tomasz has extensive experience in - by aligning with cultural nuances, linguistic expectations, local buying behaviors, and more.

In just over 25 minutes, we discussed everything marketers need to know about adapting their ad copy for international campaigns:

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro

02:35 - PPC Profit Club

04:03 - Why ad copy localization matters

05:38 - Likely performance improvements from localization

07:02 - Industries where localization really matters

09:25 - Tips for identifying the best local copy 

12:09 - Case study: The best brands to learn from

13:52 - Testing/optimizing localization copy

17:22 - How use AI in localization

20:43 - Balancing unique localization & brand messaging

23:07 - Key ad copy localization tips

23:54 - Final thoughts / outro

Prefer watching over listening? Subscribe to Lunio's YouTube channel to get full-length video episodes:

https://www.youtube.com/@lunio.ai

Get more free PPC tools, webinars, and resources at:

https://www.lunio.ai/resource-library

In this episode of the Paid Media Lab podcast, we sat down with PPC expert Lucy Smith to discuss demand-led bidding, and how it can help marketers make the most of their ad budgets.

With over eight years of experience managing campaigns across paid search, paid social, and programmatic channels, Lucy has worked with clients across various industries to refine bidding strategies that adapt to real-time demand.

During our conversation, we broke down:

• What demand-led bidding is and why it’s more important than ever.

• How to move beyond fixed budgets and let demand dictate your ad spend.

• The impact of Google’s latest PMax updates and how to use them effectively.

• Common pitfalls to avoid when transitioning to demand-led bidding.

• Technical considerations and tools that can help optimize performance.

If you’re looking for ways to drive more efficiency, maximize tROAS / tCPA, and stay ahead of competitors--this episode is a must-listen.

Timestamps: 

00:00 - Intro

01:06 - Insight into new PMax controls

03:31 - Overview of demand-led bidding (+why it’s so important)

05:52 - Who benefits the most from demand-led bidding

07:27 - Considerations when approaching a demand-led strategy

09:25 - Real-world examples to consider

10:50 - Lucy’s first-hand experience & pitfalls to consider

15:05 - How long to wait before deciding to make changes

16:10 - Expectation setting & communication 

18:12 - Technical considerations to be aware of 

20:52 - Recommended tools / scripts

23:16 - PMaximiser rundown

24:28 - Key advice for implementing demand-led bidding

26:56 - Final thoughts / outro

Prefer watching over listening? Subscribe to Lunio's YouTube channel to get full-length video episodes:

https://www.youtube.com/@lunio.ai

Get more free PPC tools, webinars, and resources at:

https://www.lunio.ai/resource-library

In this episode of the Paid Media Lab podcast, we sat down with PPC expert Chris Nightingale to discuss all things landing pages in 2025 and beyond. 

Chris is the owner of Can-Do Marketing, having previously worked as the Marketing Lead at AO and the Head of Digital Marketing at Alleyoop to name but a few. 

With over 10 years experience in both the B2B and B2C marketing spaces, Chris has an extensive background in all aspects of marketing. He has a particular interest in the power of landing pages, and their potential to turn visitors into long-time customers. 

During our chat, we recapped landing page fundamentals that every marketer needs to consider, before diving into more advanced strategies and considerations to see success in 2025 and beyond. 

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro

02:25 - Landing page fundamentals 

03:38 - Key landing page mistakes to avoid

06:50 - What % of budget go towards landing pages?

09:01 - Step-by-step: Create landing pages

11:32 - Relating search ad copy to landing page copy

14:38 - PMax landing pages & final URL expansion

17:08 - Should you send paid traffic to blogs?

18:30 - Real-world customer journey examples

20:47 - Building social proof

22:38 - Personalization & dynamic landing page advice 

25:55 - Final thoughts

Prefer watching over listening? Subscribe to Lunio's YouTube channel to get full-length video episodes:

https://www.youtube.com/@lunio.ai

Get more free PPC tools, webinars, and resources at:

https://www.lunio.ai/resource-library