Ana Kostic shared why “best practice” cost her client 40% of revenue.

On the newest episode of PPC Dwell the Podcast, Ana Kostic shared how one account restructure taught her a lesson that also shapes how she manages paid media in the present day: profitable PPC isn’t about constructing the right marketing campaign construction—it’s about defending the enterprise behind it.

The error: A “excellent” account restructure

Early in her profession, Kostic inherited a Google Adverts account with a messy construction. Decided to use PPC greatest practices, she rebuilt the account from the bottom up, assured that cleaner campaigns and higher key phrase organisation would enhance efficiency. As a substitute, site visitors and gross sales dropped by round 40%.

The hidden price of beginning over

The problem wasn’t the brand new construction itself—it was wiping away years of historic efficiency knowledge that Google’s techniques had discovered from. The account finally recovered, however solely after roughly two and a half months, with the total advantages taking nearer to 6 months to materialise.

The lesson wasn’t about Google Adverts

For Kostic, the largest takeaway wasn’t technical. It was recognising that companies can’t afford main income dips whereas platforms relearn marketing campaign efficiency. “You must take into consideration the enterprise first,” she mentioned.

Ask enterprise questions earlier than platform questions

At the moment, Kostic begins each onboarding by understanding the enterprise quite than the account. She asks about money move, margins, development objectives and the way a lot short-term disruption the corporate can realistically take in earlier than recommending main structural modifications.

Why gradual beats excellent

Moderately than changing campaigns in a single day, Kostic now introduces modifications step by step, permitting new constructions to be taught whereas current campaigns proceed delivering outcomes. Her philosophy is easy: “We prefer it gradual and boring.”

Communication is a part of optimisation

Kostic additionally credit her former supervisor for serving to navigate the tough conversations that adopted. As a substitute of assigning blame, the company centered on transparency, created a restoration plan and supported each the shopper and the group till efficiency stabilised.

PPC doesn’t cease inside Google Adverts

One in all Kostic’s greatest items of recommendation is to spend extra time speaking to gross sales groups. These conversations usually reveal the language clients truly use, serving to advertisers construct higher campaigns than platform knowledge alone can present.

AI doesn’t change the basics

Whereas she’s a robust advocate for merchandise like Efficiency Max, Kostic says AI shouldn’t substitute good decision-making. Advertisers ought to nonetheless put guardrails in place, check step by step and prioritise enterprise stability over chasing each new characteristic.

Backside line

The largest PPC errors aren’t all the time marketing campaign errors—they’re enterprise errors. For Kostic, rebuilding an account too aggressively turned the expertise that reworked her from a platform specialist right into a business-first strategist.