Heidi Sturrock shares how a costly mistake turned into a competitive advantage

Heidi Sturrock, a paid search consultant with 24 years of industry experience, joined me on the latest episode of PPC Live The Podcast. The episode covers a broad matchmaking error with an unexpected silver lining, and Heidi’s experience testing AI Max across 50+ accounts.

A game-wide mistake – and an unexpected silver lining

Early in her career, Heidi ran a campaign to win over competitors for a high-spending B2B SaaS client using a broad play – without adding the wrong keywords – and launching it on Fridays with a huge daily budget. Over the weekend, the client’s call center was flooded with angry calls from our competitor’s customers demanding refunds and technical support.

When Heidi called a customer to handle it, she was surprised to see it as an opportunity – training her sales team to handle calls like soft pitches, offering switchers 50% off their first month. The campaign was then split into two – one targeting disgruntled competitors, the other targeting regular competitors – giving better control over spending and targeting.

Lessons: Don’t start on Friday, and know your stakeholders

Two clear lessons emerged from the story. First, never launch important campaigns or budget changes on a Friday – the algorithm needs to be monitored during its learning period and errors can sneak up on the weekend. Second, always include all key stakeholders in client meetings.

Having an entrepreneur and a head of sales in the room meant that everyone knew who to contact when things went wrong – and thinking from an entrepreneur’s perspective turned a problem into an opportunity.

Advice when you’ve made a mistake

If something goes wrong, the first step is to stop the bleeding quickly – stop whatever is causing the problem rather than waiting for the algorithm to fix itself. Then call the client directly, handle the error fully without deflecting blame, clearly explain why it happened, and come prepared with a solution and next steps.

Handling a mistake with honesty and accountability can build customer trust rather than destroy it.

Common account errors drive Heidi crazy

Two errors appear repeatedly in audits. The first is attribute windows that don’t reflect the actual sales cycle – especially high-ticket or long-term products, where a short window starves the algorithm of conversion data and creates a cycle of frustration between the client and the agency. The second is to adjust to secondary KPIs such as CPC or CTR at the expense of the agreed primary goal.

If the campaign reaches its ROAS target, the increasing CPC is not really a problem – the algorithm can enter the auctions with high intent, and ten clicks that convert with a high CPC often cost more than hundreds of cheaper ones that do not.

AI Max for search – what really works

Heidi tested AI Max on more than 50 accounts, with nearly two-thirds seeing strong results and one-third underperforming — often due to insufficient historical data, conversion volume, or poorly defined goals. His advice is to use it as a test before changing everything at once, and manage the setup carefully – giving the algorithm the right data for the first group, reasonable goals, and constraints such as the release of the landing page where needed. A step-by-step guide is coming to his blog soon.

One big takeaway

Don’t fight the coming changes in the industry — embrace them. The AI-enabled features of Google ads are truly powerful when set up correctly, and advertisers who take the time to learn the new rules will be the ones to come out on top.

Where to find Heidi

Heidi is active on LinkedIn and offers free guides at HeidiSturrock.com, including a free guide to writing effective ad copy with LLMs. He will also speak on a panel at SMX Advanced in Boston in June. You will be part of an audience-driven Ask the Experts session. There are no documents. No talking points have been set. Just the most important conversations – driven by you.