Adsense is a night mare for advertisers!

[elgep]

I’ve run several Adwords campaigns for clients over the years so when a new client told me she wanted her product advertised on websites with similar target markets I thought of running an Adsense campaign.

I set a relatively high daily total ($500) which I usually do for a regular Adwords campaign to make sure my add appears as much as possible. That was my first mistake.

My second mistake was trusting Google’s suggestions. I typed in about half a dozen key phrases related to sleep disorders in children and their suggestion tool came up with about 70 websites. My experience with Adwords has taught me to let the data tell you which words are money makers so I figured I should let the add run and see which sites paid off.

Less than 24 hours later I got an email that Google couldn’t process the payment to the credit card used so I logged in to look into it and in less than 24 hours they’d managed to rack up almost $400 of charges $370 of which came from a website where you create an online pet! Gee! No wonder why of the 1.3 million impressions there were only 810 clicks and no purchases! (9 of the other sites account for the other $30 and 60 of the sites Google suggested didn’t have one impression.)

Of course I immediately paused the campaign and put in a ticket to Support but in the last two weeks of back and forth all I get from them are instructions on how to use the system. I seriously doubt they’ve even read my emails to them.

Buh-lieve me! I won't be using Adsense any time soon and I plan to make it my mission to warn others about what a rip off it is.

:mad:

[Erik Geurts]

I can understand your frustration about the way they answer your e-mails, but on the other hand you did start of a little bit too much on auto-pilot. Like in aviation, I suggest that take off and landing is handled by a human pilot or at least closely monitored by the pilot.

By the way, you're talking about an issue with AdWords, not AdSense! There is a separate forum on this board for that:
http://www.adsensechat.com/forumdisplay.php?f=7

[elgep]

No. I didn't start on "auto pilot." I started with all the information I could find.

I posted here because I thought the people running Adsense might want to know that the people paying them are feeling ripped off. Not a good business model.

I've done some research. I'm not the only one.

[mgrcentral]

You are much better off doing a keyword targeted campaign unless you know of specific sites you want to advertise on.

I for one am very happy with Adwords (and I just got a Sydney based Account Manager :) )

[pamz]

I like using AdWords, each time I start a campaign I keep the daily cost low. I watch every few hours to see what clicks are earning me money. Each day that I am satisified with my cost vs. my earnings I up my daily amount.

I now spend about $350 a day but each time I add a new campaign I keep under $50. This way I can see where my clicks are going and don't feel as though I am throwing money away.

[Sbabb]

One of the HUGE rules in marketing is: "Test, test, and test some more. Never stop testing."

Never jump into any marketing program spending a ton of money without having tested first to make sure that what you're doing will be effective. That goes for AdWords, print advertising, billboards, radio, TV, or streakers at the Olympics with your web site URL painted on their chest.

15 years ago when I created a (completely non-internet) product, I tested classified ads to market it first to see what potential buyers responded to. I spent a little money testing, instead of jumping in spending tons of money on full-page magazine articles without knowing if they worked.

I tried to figure out a way to do AdWords arbitrage (get cheap AdWords traffic to your site and try to convert them into expensive AdSense clicks) by testing small. Over the course of a few weeks I spent less than $100 to find out that I was unable to do it in my niche. That's not to say that it can't be done, it's just that I couldn't figure out how to do it effectively. But I didn't waste a fortune finding that out, I tested small and only spent a little money.


Scott

[golden14]

love it or hate it arbitrage works $1200 in testing to get it right but this will have paid for itself inless than 12 days, the right keywords are essential and boy was I surprised at what worked. The new keyword tool on adwords is the key to the gate. It now analyses your site and suggests the most relevant keywords. To anyone running adwords who's not used it revisit it NOW. Of course if you don't want a 800% traffic increase for only a 10% more outlay then carry on as you are. This new tool is a demon, my best CTR is no longer a $0.70 click but now a $0.03 click. Kind of ads up. You may not agree with this but it makes money, and at the end of the day isn't that what we all want????

[mgrcentral]

'Advertising resales' or 'Advertising brokerage' are much better terms than 'arbitrage' :)

[bobtheteacher]

Two things.

1) people creating online pets may have sleep disorders, and are obviously interested in whatever it was that you were advertising.

2) for your ad to be clicked on that many times means you had decent copy.

I agree that having a high budget initially is a good way to make sure you get the impressions right away, but you still have to set it to a point where you can afford it.

The testing of the key words is a big deal. And remember also to set your content ad rates at a different level than your search rates.

--Bob Jenkins

[Mytigodess]

I'm sorry you had such a bad experience with Adwords. I truly understand the frustration, especially with Google's response time and lack of response.

Sometimes there is an issue with the accusation of click fraud, but that might be the case in some folks. Often, clicks with no sales are a result of other factors.

Like others have pointed out, you did make a huge mistake by putting up too much of a budget per day. It is better to do smaller budgets and test 2 or 3 keywords at a time to see which ones work. It really could take a day to find the right keyword if you are lucky or it could take a few months.

There are different factors to consider when doing a campaign:

1. Is the product hot? People may all hear about a certain product, or it may get a lot of publicity, but if the company behind it is struggling in sales themselves, you may find it the same with you. Check with your competition and see how well they are doing.

2. Is there an urgent need or want? People will go out of their way to get the products they really need or really want, especially if your message conveys that they need it now. On the other hand, there are things people NEED, like toilet paper, but unless you convey they NEED it NOW and only YOU can give them what they want - then you won't convince them to buy. The ad may arouse interest, but unless they feel an urgent need or want to get it now, you just wasted your money.

3. The landing page copy must say BUY! Often a failure of many campaigns is when the people come to the page after the click thru, there is nothing on there to motivate them to buy. It could be a result of bad design, bad copy, bad navigation, and even issues such as where the traffic is coming may affect your results because if you cannot deliver to them, they can't buy.

[hrpr45]

I'm sorry you had such a bad experience with Adwords. I truly understand the frustration, especially with Google's response time and lack of response.

Sometimes there is an issue with the accusation of click fraud, but that might be the case in some folks. Often, clicks with no sales are a result of other factors.

Like others have pointed out, you did make a huge mistake by putting up too much of a budget per day. It is better to do smaller budgets and test 2 or 3 keywords at a time to see which ones work. It really could take a day to find the right keyword if you are lucky or it could take a few months.

There are different factors to consider when doing a campaign:

1. Is the product hot? People may all hear about a certain product, or it may get a lot of publicity, but if the company behind it is struggling in sales themselves, you may find it the same with you. Check with your competition and see how well they are doing.

2. Is there an urgent need or want? People will go out of their way to get the products they really need or really want, especially if your message conveys that they need it now. On the other hand, there are things people NEED, like toilet paper, but unless you convey they NEED it NOW and only YOU can give them what they want - then you won't convince them to buy. The ad may arouse interest, but unless they feel an urgent need or want to get it now, you just wasted your money.

3. The landing page copy must say BUY! Often a failure of many campaigns is when the people come to the page after the click thru, there is nothing on there to motivate them to buy. It could be a result of bad design, bad copy, bad navigation, and even issues such as where the traffic is coming may affect your results because if you cannot deliver to them, they can't buy.

Kinda of like "Sell the Sizzle, Not the Steak"

[cashfuel]

Hi everyone,

The most important key to succeed in traffic arbitrage is doing an accurate keyword research & testing it properly to make sure it really works.

============
Attn: Golden14
============
May I ask, which keyword research tool(s) did you use?
Would you mind sharing how you used them?

Just to share my thoughts, I've been buying up adwords credits for cheap, about 50% off the value. Eg. buying US$1000 credits for US$500 or lesser.

In this way my advertising cost is greatly reduced & I have a lower downside for arbitrage.

[Reprobate]

Two things.

1) people creating online pets may have sleep disorders, and are obviously interested in whatever it was that you were advertising.

2) for your ad to be clicked on that many times means you had decent copy.


I would have put it down to one thing. Fraud on the part of the website where all the clicks were happening.

The owner could be telling members via PM or in a hidden forum to 'click, click, click'.

Other than that I'd have to say that Adwords/Adsense works well for Google/Advertisers/Site Owners.