Protect Your PPC Budget

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Ready for another day of staying ahead of the competition in the Growth race?

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Partnership with Stack Influence 

How Lenny & Larry’s 11X’d Amazon Sales Without Spending More on Ads

You know that sinking feeling when a new product just doesn’t move? Ads burning cash, clicks dying out, and the Amazon algorithm ignoring you completely. That’s exactly where Lenny & Larry’s was when their Protein Pretzels tanked until they flipped the script.

They stopped buying attention and started earning it. Through Stack Influence, they turned 1,560 real customers into micro-influencers. 

Buyers who actually posted, reviewed, and drove organic visibility. Within weeks, momentum snowballed.

🚀 Sales exploded 11X from 1K to 11K units per month
💬 500+ verified reviews boosted trust and rankings
💰 $2M+ in revenue with zero increase in ad spend

Stack Influence helped brands like Unilever, P&G, and Magic Spoon quietly scale the same way by turning customers into content creators and paying them only with products.

The faster you start, the faster your next launch compounds. 

See how it works today!

💡 How to Protect Your PPC Budget From Competitor Brand Terms

Competitor searches can quietly drain your PPC budget. Those clicks look cheap, but they rarely convert and can distort your performance data. Navah Hopkins outlines a smarter approach to keep your spend focused on audiences that actually buy.

1️⃣ Use Strategic Negative Keywords: Add competitor names as phrase match negatives to block most irrelevant searches. Use exact match negatives when there is overlap that needs precision. Just be careful not to block valuable generic queries that include competitor-like phrasing. If your platform limits negatives, use shared lists to stay efficient across campaigns.

2️⃣ Use Brand Inclusions and Exclusions in AI Campaigns: Performance Max and other AI-driven campaigns allow brand controls that help the system avoid competitor-related queries. These are not the same as negatives. They rely on AI interpretation, which is helpful but sometimes imperfect. Still, it’s a strong layer of protection.

3️⃣ Assign Accurate Conversion Values and ROAS Goals: Competitor clicks are cheap for a reason. They rarely turn into revenue. Without proper conversion values, your bidding system might chase low-cost but low-value traffic. Assign real values to each action, like trials vs purchases, and use Maximize Conversion Value with a ROAS target so the system prioritizes profit, not volume.

4️⃣ Separate Competitor Campaigns Completely: If you intentionally want to bid on competitor terms, keep them isolated. Give them their own budget, bidding strategy, and success metrics. Never include competitor names in your ad copy to avoid disapprovals or suspensions. Instead, emphasize why choosing you is better.

5️⃣ Audit and Refine Continuously: Search behavior changes constantly. Regularly review search term reports to identify new competitor variants slipping through. Add low-performing searches to a shared negative list. Segment data by device, audience, and location to uncover patterns that can guide exclusions and bid adjustments.

The Takeaway

Protecting your PPC budget requires ongoing attention and smart structure. With strategic negatives, brand controls, accurate conversion values, and isolated competitor campaigns, you can stop wasting spend on clicks that never convert and focus your budget where it actually pays off.

💡 How to Schedule Meetings in Gmail Using AI

Gmail now makes scheduling meetings effortless by combining your inbox context with real-time calendar availability. With Gemini built directly into Gmail, you can propose meeting times in seconds without switching tabs or checking dates manually.

1️⃣ Start Inside Any Email Thread: Open the message where someone asks to meet and hit Reply. This keeps the whole scheduling process anchored inside the conversation so you never lose context.

2️⃣ Use the Help Me Schedule Feature: Click Help me schedule in the bottom right corner of your composer window. This activates Gmail’s AI scheduling assistant powered by Gemini.

3️⃣ Let Gemini Read Your Availability: Gmail automatically reviews your Google Calendar and analyzes the email thread to understand the meeting request, preferred time windows, and urgency. You no longer need to juggle between calendars and messages.

4️⃣ Review Smart Time Suggestions: Gemini proposes meeting slots that match your real availability. These suggestions account for conflicts, travel time, busy blocks, and any patterns in your schedule.

5️⃣ Insert Slots With One Click: Choose the times you prefer and add them to your email instantly. Gmail formats them neatly so the recipient can select the best option without back and forth.

6️⃣ Customize Before Sending: Adjust any time slot, add physical or virtual locations, shorten or extend the meeting duration, or remove overlapping commitments. AI handles the heavy lifting, but you stay fully in control.

The Takeaway

Gmail’s AI-powered scheduling removes friction from booking meetings. By blending email context with live calendar data it helps you propose accurate, conflict-free options in seconds and dramatically reduces scheduling back and forth.

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