Google: worst crooks online

[Antiventurecapital]

Long story short:

I have been using Adwords since spring 2003. It was good in the beginning but performance has been steadily deteriorating. I initially loved it.

Over the past year Adword's performance has really gone down the toilet not just for me but for almost everyone I know who uses it.

Last Fall Team Adwords asks for permission to add a bunch of search terms which should work for my various sites. I think about it for a week and then give them the OK because something needs to be done about deteriorating performance.

Well, my expenditures triple overnight with almost no increase in sale. Now since I'm busy I don't get around to checking my account for a week. When I do, I'm horrified by the bill.

I then delete the junk words racking up all the dollars. But somehow they remain in my campaigns burning up dollar after dollar. I am on Live Chat with a Goog rep right now. She says: It is possible an error occurred when you initially tried to delete them. However, they are now deleted.

Wow!

Bottomline: never trust Google. Don't use features which will allow them to know what sales you are getting through Adwords. If they think that you are making too much, they will find a way to raise the prices you pay per click. Avoid their new PayPal ripoff at all costs!

They never ever admit to a mistake. However, every mistake is in their favor financially.

I'll add that their campaign reporting/management system used to be easy to use. Over the past couple of years they have added so many features and changes, that's it's really become a pain in the butt to use.

[Conan Stevens]

It took you a week to check the new campaign costs? Maybe next time you will be more responsible for your own cash and not believe someone who profits from your expenditure.

Never believe anyone selling something to you, especially if it is a big corporation who obviously do not really care.

Though everything else about Google is pretty much true and some. The entire system is scewed towards their own profit generation with no accountability.

[thadroe]

People have a right to be ticked off at Google sometimes.

However, you can really use it to your advantage. Most people don't read the manual and have no idea how to use it properly. Adwords is extremely profitable for me. When you stay highly relevant and targeted with a lot of small, specific adgroups, you can dominate most people using it.

Google rewards you for good relevancy and performance with higher position and lower cost. I have some pretty competitive keywords where I'm in the top 3 positions and paying less than $.10/click...sometimes just a penny or two if there's less competition.

It just takes mastering their system and being very relevant.

Thad

[Antiventurecapital]

Back in 2003, I read the manual by the Adwords guru in Toronto from cover to cover and spent hours a day tweaking my campaigns, ads, search terms, and bids. I helped others set up their programs as well. I'm like that when I get into something new: I devour every bit of info I can find on the subject.

However, the performance of Adwords has steadily declined since then. I belong to a community of people who run websites and most agree that it's gone down the crapper.

This is one of the reasons that I now log into my admin panel only about once a month. Adwords has simply dropped in relevancy.

I have a long love/hate relationship with Google. Three years ago it mysteriously dropped one of my best-positioned sites from its index. It just ceased to exist. *Poof!* It took months for it to get back into the index and more than a year to recover its SERP position for the most important key words.

The problem with Adwords is that it's a "black box" which Google can fine tune to force advertisers to pay ever higher prices. Moreover there are the bozos who spoil it for everyone else by having to be the top bidder. This drives the prices up for everyone. These bozos then burn up their budgets within a month or two only to be replaced by another bozo. The advertisers who have staying power don't feel a need to have the top ad slot.

One more piece of advise: never allow your ads to be run through Goog's "Content Network" as you will get tons of worthless lookie-lou clicks.

[dalante]

I am in charge of the Adwords campaign at my day work. I find the key is to maintain a good relationship with your account manager, frequently ask questions about how performance can be improved and do a meeting (call or real meeting) every 2-3 months.

Also, I check the spending everyday, and try to tweek the campaign at least once a week.

I agree that performance on content network is low.

[Antiventurecapital]

Originally Posted by dalante

I am in charge of the Adwords campaign at my day work. I find the key is to maintain a good relationship with your account manager, frequently ask questions about how performance can be improved and do a meeting (call or real meeting) every 2-3 months.

Also, I check the spending everyday, and try to tweek the campaign at least once a week.

I agree that performance on content network is low.

Account manager???
\


We didn't have no steenkin' account mangers when I started. It was sink or swim. You young people have it so easy today.

Seriously, how do you qualify for an account manager?

[dalante]

I am not sure, to be honest. The account manager was in place when I started the job.

Maybe there is a minimum spending for it...

[Antiventurecapital]

Are you big spenders on Adwords?

[dalante]

Let's just say we are big investors in Adwords. It works well for our business (online retail).

[Dani]

*sniffs*

I remember when Google was the rebel's haven from 'the man'.

But the little rebel boy has now grown up into 'the man'

My once beloved google. Where did you go wrong....