A/Q: Why do you think?

Everyone knows that Google make most of their money from AdWords. And anyone who uses AdWords knows that it’s a seriously powerful system.

Like many powerful systems, it has a lot of options.

Here’s where I get to the point.

Almost every single default is in Google’s favour and not yours.

A new campaign will default to being displayed on all devices (including  iPhones), on all networks (really bad idea) with ads not rotated evenly and more.

All the defaults, every single one of them, are in Google’s interests and not their advertisers.

On top of that there are an astonishing number of options to choose from.

A new AdWords advertiser may be horrified to discover a total of 18 decisions that have to be made when setting up a new campaign – and that’s before they have to start even thinking about actual keywords or ads.

As someone who’s been working with AdWords since the very earliest days, I’ve watched what was a fairly simple system evolve into an astonishingly complex multi-headed beast of a monster!

Our company has two certified individuals and have attained AdWords Certified Partner status as a company, so we know what we’re doing, and know what we’re talking about.

Have you ever set up a Gmail account? Shared photos on Picasa? Setup a Google Docs account? Used Google Analytics on your websites? These are complicated tasks that Google have made simple.

AdWords is complicated because Google want it to be complicated.

If you know what you’re doing (we do) then you can have a fruitful, symbiotic relationship with Google. But most advertisers don’t know what they’re doing, in which case the relationship is very much parasitic.

Smart parasites hide the damage caused by their feeding, so as to be able to feed on their hosts for as long as possible.

Most AdWords account that I see for the first time (I see many)  are losing money without the advertiser even realising.

Are you really that confident that you know what you’re doing with your AdWords account?

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The problem with Google’s “don’t be evil” approach is that it often seems to bite them. The other problem is that it sets the stage to be black and white – with no grey. Good and bad.

I don’t believe that Google are evil, but they’re undoubtedly guilty of questionable behaviour.

The latest bee in my bonnet lies in their newly updated AdWords ad rotation settings shown below.

The Optimise for conversions is the new option – just added yesterday.

So which is the ideal option? None of them.

Rotate: Show ads more evenly is my favourite example of Google double-speak.

Google is entirely based on numerical data. It’s therefore laughable that Google can only show my ads more evenly. If I have an ad group that receives 10,000 impressions a day and four ads, surely Google can calculate that each should be shown 2,500 times.

And don’t think that this is down to any lack of accuracy with regard to prediction or extrapolation. I’ve seen countless ad groups using this setting with a very regular number of impressions that are heavily weighted. Weighted to clicks and CTR invariably. Is that to my benefit or Google’s?

Optimise for clicks: Show ads expected to provide more clicks.

A simplistic example:

Two companies bid on the same keyword.

Company 1′s ads get a high CTR rate, but show a high bounce rate. People like the ads, click on them, don’t find what they’re looking for, so go back to Google to click the next ad.

Company 2′s ads also have a high CTR, but when people click on their ads, they find what they’re looking for and so remain on the website.

If Google display Company 1′s ads in first position, they’ll most likely get two clicks from the same search.

If Google display Company 2′s ads in first position, they’ll most likely get one.

It’s therefore in Google’s interests to put Company 1′s ads in first position, but this is certainly not in Company 1′s best interests.

Optimise for conversions: Show ads expected to provide more conversions.

At first glance this might seem to be a sound choice. And if you’re tracking only one conversion type, this might be the case. But if you’re tracking multiple conversion types this is rendered meaningless.

If or when Google allow me to choose what conversion type to base this on, I’ll be very interested in this option.

The bottom line here is that none of the options are ideal. Rotate: Show ads more evenly gives you the most control (at least in theory), and is therefore the option to stick with as default, even though Google suggest otherwise.

Google aren’t evil, but they’re very, very naughty.

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You may have noticed that ads displayed on Google are starting to look a little more discrete. In days gone by they were pushed to the right hand side of the browser, were clearly marked as Sponsored Links, made heavy use of mixed case in the display URL, and the few that were placed above the organic listings were clearly highlighted with a strong background colour.

Today we see ads that are physically closer to the organic listings, Sponsored Links has been replaced by Ads, display URLs have to use lower case in the domain portion, and the now-common ads above the organic listings use such a subtle pale yellow background that it’s almost impossible to notice on my monitor.

The ads are slowly but surely blending in with the organic results.

Google have to balance between three quite distinct interests: Google themselves, their advertisers, and the searchers – the people who use Google to find what they’re looking for.

It appears that the searchers are now being pushed slightly down the order of priorities.

Advertisers will start to see increased click through rates, and Google will make more money.

It’s win-win. At least for as long as the searchers don’t realise they’re being misled.

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Is it just me or has the list been getting longer?

It’s a shame they don’t offer a “Last 28 days” option. I suppose that would be too useful.

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Thought 1: Bodybuilding has always struck me as an odd activity.

At a very basic level, it’s about people wanting to look good and feel good about themselves.

taken from wikipedia

Most young (and not so young) men would be happy to look like that. But if the aspiring bodybuilder decides to take it to a more competitive level, odd poses, fake tans and oils come into play.

taken from wikipedia

Most men wouldn’t want to look like that.

And the fascinating thing about bodybuilders is that they generally only look good to other bodybuilders.

Thought 2: Google offer a range of certification programs, one of which is the Google AdWords Certification Partner scheme.

In a nutshell, our company is certified because one or more people have taken and passed a couple of exams, and we handle more than $10,000 a month in total budgets.

The issue that niggles me is that the exam is little more than a memory test, and doesn’t actually measure a person’s competence in Google AdWords. In fact we’ve received a couple of job applications from qualified individuals who clearly didn’t know one end of an AdWords stick from another.

So the certification is more or less meaningless. More people are becoming qualified, and less of them know what they’re doing.

So a part of me is tempted to abandon the whole thing, and not jump through Google’s hoops any more. But then doing so may imply that we’re not capable of becoming qualified, which might put some people off working with us.

Thought 3: I recently tried a local networking organisation and attended two of their breakfast events. Aside from the awfulness of explaining who you are and what you do to complete strangers at 7:00 in the morning while trying to eat, everyone wears a suit. I hate wearing a suit.

In hindsight I feel that I sold out. I should have gone in jeans and a t-shirt, and explained to the other suits that my type of work doesn’t require a suit, and that if they didn’t like that, they shouldn’t work with me. But I didn’t. I went in a suit because “that was how these things work“.

True, my jeans would have put some people off. And many of them would have dismissed me as amateur and clueless. But I don’t want to work with that sort of people anyway.

And now I have to take two more Google exams to get a qualification that I no longer believe in because this is how these things work.

But at least I don’t have to tan myself and rub myself in oil.

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I’ve just seen Google Instant for the first time.

It’s a simple idea. As you type your search term, the results appear in real time.

It’s also a really bad idea. As you type your search term, the ads also appear in real time.

Imagine I’m interested in finding a hotel in Londonderry.

As I start typing the word hotel, the results start to come in. Note the AdWords ad being displayed – it has nothing to do with what I’m looking for:

As you get to hotel London, the results change. Note the ads still have nothing to do with what I’m looking for:

As I finish typing, I finally see the results and ads that I’m looking for:

You might be forgiven for assuming that the ads displayed aren’t counted as impressions. But you’d be wrong.

Here’s what Google have to to say:

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Like it or not, broad match is a vital component of Google AdWords management.

The only way to avoid broad match is to play it 100% safe – perhaps by only using exact matched keywords. But 100% safe doesn’t work in advertising, marketing or Google AdWords.

There are, unfortunately, no 100% guarantees, but you can reduce the risks significantly by understanding how broad match works.

The first point is that broad match needs muzzling.

Bid on the broad matched keyword red shoes for example, and your add might be displayed to people searching for buy red shoes, leather shows, redwood, running shoes, avoiding a red face, red paint and more.

The second point is that common-sense is a good starting point, but to use broad match you need to combine the power of the search query report with a good list of negative keywords.

And let’s not forget that keeping on top of this as an ongoing task is critical.

Tame broad match and it will work with you. Allow it to run free and it will wreak havoc.

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Mistake #2 looked at why you need more ads, but quality and variety are every bit as important as quantity.

Assuming that you have a healthy number of ads in each ad group, it’s important that each and every one is unique and distinct from each other.

Changing a word here and there won’t have much of an impact, and the only way to truly see what works is to dry different approaches. Different tones, different wording, a different message, different appearances – even different lengths.

Be bold, be different, be distinct.

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A significant part of AdWords management involves educated trial and error.

No matter how well you know your product, your markets and Google’s system, there is no way to accurately predict which ads will work and which will fall flat on their faces.

AdWords visitors are probably quite different from your regular visitors – different needs and behavioural patterns, so new strategies may be required.

For all of these reasons, it’s important to try a wide variety of different ad techniques.

I would recommend four ads per ad group as an absolute minimum; but the more different ads you run, the greater the chances of success.

Bonus tip: once you’ve found the ‘right’ ads, don’t make the mistake of then believing that the ad group can be left to run itself. It can’t.

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