Aaron Young Define Digital Academy

Aaron Young Define Digital Academy Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Aaron Young Define Digital Academy, Educational consultant, Mountain View, CA.

09/11/2026

Just because someone clicked your ad and landed on your website, it doesn’t mean they’re a customer yet.

You’ve only just passed the first step.

I put out a video on high average order values and how they lead to more time before people make a decision. A few people asked how it relates to lead generation businesses, so let me take you through it.

It’s a very similar concept. When they click today, they’re not necessarily going to convert today.

But instead of average order value, the big thing to think about with lead gen is the emergency. How important is it, and does it need to happen today?

Take a plumber. If someone’s toilet is blocked and there’s water running all over the bathroom, they don’t care. They’re going to call and convert straight away.

So which side of that line does your business sit on?

If you’re running B2B software as a service, home repairs, or a professional service like an accountant or a lawyer, there’s going to be a longer click to conversion window. Sometimes not even weeks, but months.

Because they go through stages. There’s the first click, then the research, then getting quotes. That could be three, five, six quotes. Then they compare them. Then they check references. Then they convert.

There are other factors too. Do you have an active sales team calling those leads straight away, and how good are they?

A click is not a customer. You’ve got a lot more steps before you turn it into one.

09/10/2026

People don’t buy on that first click.

If you remember one thing about Google Ads, make it that.

Think about the last thing you bought online. Did you click the ad, go to the website, add the product to your cart and buy the same day?

Chances are you didn’t.

So why would you expect your customers to behave differently to how you behave when you interact with other brands?

Here’s the concept I want every brand owner running Google Ads to really understand. The higher your average order value, the longer it takes for someone to make a decision.

Now this isn’t 100% exact, but you’ll get what I mean.

Under $50 and you can be in that impulse market. People may buy on the first click, or after a really short intro to your product.

Once you’re in the $100 to $300 range it gets more considered. It could take two to four sessions, and you could still close it in days.

Move up to $500 or more and it really starts moving into weeks.

And if you’re sitting in the multiple thousands? You could be looking at a months long, or even year long buying cycle, from when they first interacted with your brand to when they actually purchase.

So please, don’t expect your customers to buy in a different pattern to how you buy things online yourself.

09/09/2026

Being skilled at Google Ads used to mean you knew how to set up and optimise campaigns. Now it means knowing when to tell the platform it’s wrong.

Let me explain what I mean.

Last month a furious business owner came to us. They’d had an agency promise them the absolute world, saying they use all this cutting edge AI to get the best results. Claude prompts, the lot. It’s great technology, but they’re not the only ones using it.

Here’s the real problem our industry needs to face right now. AI is making a lot of Google Ads experts dumber. Because they’re in the wrong conversion data, and they’re making the wrong decisions.

And here’s how bad it can get.

This business owner was down 80% on their revenue. When we looked, they had 50 products generating 80% of the revenue in their business.

The agency came in and completely changed where the account was spending money, saying it was all backed by data.

Those 50 top products went from 54% of the spend down to below 12%. Revenue on them dropped from over 10 grand a month to 2,600. Total revenue and conversions went down across the account.

And this was the kicker. All 50 of those products were eligible and in stock.

Google didn’t make the mistake. The new structure this so called expert set up simply stopped showing the ads.

So the golden rule with AI in your Google Ads account is this. You are the strategist. Use it for data. Claude and even Google Ads are terrible strategists, so let them handle the data and you make the decisions.

09/08/2026

Getting targeted traffic but no new customers? Before you blame Google for spammy leads, remember a form enquiry is not a sale. It’s just a lead.

We had a business selling the same leads to three companies. Two called them poor quality. The other said they were great and asked for more.

Same leads. Different sales processes.

So check your team and your offline follow up before you blame Google.

09/04/2026

Spammy Leads from Google? Fix this

Before you waste more budget, this is the one thing you need to fix.

Your conversion data.

If you’re not feeding the correct data back into Google, you’re telling it that it’s doing a good job. And with maximize conversions or target CPA, you’re doubling down on that decision.

Here’s the recommendation, even if you need to pay someone for it:

Set up offline conversions

Or use an external CRM tool to Rank your leads, or even just a simple thumbs up or thumbs down on good lead vs bad lead

Until you let Google know what’s a good lead and what’s a bad lead, you’ll keep hitting this issue. And as you scale, it only gets bigger.

So this is your warning. Sort your conversion data.

09/04/2026

My Google Ads were working but then I increased my budget

We get this all the time from members at Define Digital Academy.

There are three things people get wrong when scaling.

1. You scale the wrong way: jumping from $100 a day to $500 in one go.

The same campaign on $100 vs $500 operates really differently with smart bidding.

2. You’ve got the wrong account structure: in 2026 a more condensed structure moves you through learning cycles quicker, so you can scale faster.

3. You’re only targeting bottom of funnel, high intent searches. At some point you have to reach beyond search into YouTube, Gmail and display.

Scale the right way, with the right structure, and think beyond just those bottom of the funnel searches.

The right people are clicking your ads and still not buying. Here’s why.A click is not a buyer, it’s a browser. Someone ...
09/02/2026

The right people are clicking your ads and still not buying. Here’s why.

A click is not a buyer, it’s a browser. Someone clicking your ad is interested, not committed. Treating a click like it should convert on the spot is where the frustration starts.

Think about the last big thing you bought online. You probably didn’t buy it the first time you saw it. So why do you expect your customers to?

Right now I’ve got two purchases sitting in my checkout that I still haven’t bought. A mattress, a jacket, whatever it is for you, you looked for weeks, compared, read reviews, left it in the cart, came back. Your customers do exactly the same thing.

So if you’re judging Google Ads on a first-click sale, you’re ignoring your own buying behaviour.

This is for brands already getting sales, so you know your pricing and offer works. You just need to increase your efficiency.

There are two places to look. First, your store. Weak product pages, no reviews, no trust signals, the friction that kills a considered purchase.

Second, and this is the one most eCom owners ignore, cold outreach and remarketing. If you’re expecting a stranger to buy on the first click, you’ve skipped the entire middle of how considered purchases actually happen.

The best DTC brands get this. That’s why they pop up an offer for 10, 15, 20 percent off the second you land, because they know you won’t buy today, so they want your details to keep the conversation going.

Fix the store. Fix the follow up. Stop expecting strangers to behave differently to how you do.

09/01/2026

Your agency is boasting about how they use AI to run your Google Ads? This is the one question you need to ask them.

Is your business running better now than it was before they started using that AI tool?
I’m not against using AI inside Google Ads. But especially in 2026, a lot of agencies and even some business owners have become obsessed with it.

It’s not a bad thing. But it comes down to this:
If the tool is actively increasing your results, keep it
If it’s not, you’re simply wasting time

When it comes to Google Ads, the main goal is more leads and more sales for your business.

If any of your tools or tech stack aren’t doing that, it’s time to cut it and focus on what drives better results.

08/31/2026

Running Google Ads but getting nothing except poor quality, spammy leads that go nowhere and waste your sales team’s time?

It’s really easy to blame Google Ads. But this is what most business owners get wrong.
If you feed in low quality conversions, that’s exactly what you’re telling Google to give you more of.

So the problem isn’t Google Ads. It’s the data you’re feeding it.

At Define Digital Academy we talk about the three tiers of conversions:
- Spammy unqualified leads: high volume, low value
- Converted clients only: lower volume that dries up your spend and makes it unprofitable
- The green zone: qualified leads

Focus on the lowest quality lead that still brings high value to your business.
That’s the lead you go, “we didn’t get the business, but please send me more of those.”

08/28/2026

If you’re an ecommerce brand running Google Ads, never forget one thing. How you actually buy your own products.

We’re so busy marketing that we forget how we shop ourselves. Think about it. How often do you click an ad, land on a site, and buy the very first day? Quite often you don’t.

I’ve got three products sitting in my cart right now. They’ll stay there another week or two while I do more research. For one, I’m just waiting for the brand to drop their next sale, because I know they run one every September.

That’s the point with Google Ads. Yes, they click your ad today. But they may not buy for days, weeks, months, sometimes years.

So if you’re frustrated you’re not seeing instant results, remember that’s just not how people buy. Including you.

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