Rick Hecker - Google Ads Optimization & PPC Strategy Blog

A hand chooses a small preserved valve from a drawer beside a reservoir whose single valve feeds uneven streams into several channels.

Cascader Answers

Revenue fell after merging 26 Google Ads campaigns. Should I turn the old ones back on?

Paused campaigns can be resumed. Compare allocation and performance within the same groups to decide whether to restore a lost control or use the old setup as a checked fallback.

A Competitor Appeared on Your Brand Search. What Does the Screenshot Prove?

A founder’s screenshot proves one rival ad appeared. Here is how to check your own brand coverage, weigh the business signals, and choose a response.

A small writing slate surrounded by stacks of paper notebooks and loose pages, with a curled sheet reaching toward it.

Paid search for unfamiliar products: what does the customer want to change?

Public questions about notebooks and accounts of processed scraps show how familiar tasks and alternatives can shape an honest introduction.

Cascader Research

Fewer clicks did not settle the health-card experiment

Four cards reduced opened pages and increased no-click completion in a historical health-search experiment, while pooled diagnosis accuracy fell. Correct diagnosis could still accompany wrong urgency. The card-supply calculation shows why different weighting changed the interface ordering.

A brass service bell connects to a blue counter and a red mail tray; a screwdriver and blank work order lie beside it.

Cascader Answers

When conversion tracking requires rebuilding a client's form, is that included in PPC management?

Separate a tracking connection from a broken enquiry form, then agree the repair, price, acceptance test and ongoing owner before a quick fix becomes unlimited support.

Two pleased agency owners pin gold rosettes onto each other’s already crowded jackets; the ribbons tangle between them across a table with a laptop and coffee.

Paid-Search Agencies: Leading Experts in Being Leading Experts

Two rival paid-search agencies find a way to stand out. Then a way to certify it. Then someone needs an ad.

Three paper paths lead to an open door, a crooked door that can be repaired, and a door painted on a solid wall.

Check the Search Ad's Promise Before Fixing the Landing Page

Follow one Aurora search ad through four paths: use the page, repair a misroute, or change a service or check claim the business cannot keep.

An overflowing tray of blank enquiry slips sits beside a coin purse and a single work-order clipboard with keys and a wrench.

Cascader Answers

Should I drop Target CPA after a small campaign's CPA jumps, even when the target already matched actual CPA?

Removing Target CPA changes what the budget is asked to buy. Compare mature, suitable opportunities with actual spend. If that record is missing, distinguish a linked, bounded observation from uncertain acquisition before buying either.

A hand holds a square paper frame over a wide picture of a heating engineer, keeping the face inside and the boiler outside.

What survives the crop in your Search ad image?

Three small image comparisons show what a crop keeps, what it loses, and when a different photograph would serve the offer better.

A red thread links sale tags on a search screen, coffee brewer, product page, and support phone beneath a midnight clock.

The $90 sale ended. Its promise kept traveling from search ad to support desk.

A visual story of one $90 brewer offer after its deadline—and the separate clocks in an ad, asset, product feed, page, and support macro.

Cascader Research

Fewer clicks, longer search bouts: what a week of imposed AI Mode measured

Among retained active-search volunteers over seven days, imposed AI Mode versus unchanged Google showed lower external clicking per counted search, fewer bouts and more foreground Google time per bout. A separately selected survey reported worse experience. What those measures let you say.

A large hand checks a hinge on a small wooden tour-booking kiosk while three travellers stand nearby on a Japanese city street.

Cascader Answers

Is a $2,000 setup and testing fee sensible for a trial with about $500 in Google and Meta ads?

Separate the value of a working, client-owned booking setup from what a small advertising trial can establish. Then price and accept each part on its own terms.