Should I still bother with AdWords?

[dpd1]

I hadn't even looked at my AdWords campaign in two years. I never have the time. I looked at it today, and it gave me a headache. It seems so complicated now. I'm wondering if I should even bother with it anymore. I have never even set it up to track if any sales come through that. My gut tells me, probably not many, if any. Most of my sales are from direct communication between people online, and probably search. I am at the top of the ranking for most of my product types. I personally never click on AdWords stuff myself, so I have to think that's a sign right there. I don't even see my ads come up anymore. At this point, I feel like it's a waste of money for me. Just wondering if anybody else has bailed on it lately and what they think.

[buckworks]

I'd urge you to take steps to measure what AdWords is achieving for you before you bail on it.

It might prove to be a poor spend, or it might be producing more value than you thought.

Even if you're not currently tracking conversions, you should be able to figure out what percentage of your overall site traffic comes from AdWords and how much it costs. That will give you a better basis for deciding whether AdWords is worthwhile rather than just what you "feel like".

Keep in mind that seeing ads is one of the things that sends people to organic search for products, so watch for evidence of synergy between ads and SEO.

[oliondor]

Yes, Adwords is a full time job and I still had no time or money to waste...

[ecommerceprofit]

I think you are crazy - Google advertising is one of...if not the most important place to advertise online for "most" businesses - not all. Just ignoring your campaign is unwise.

That being said, I have to agree that adwords is way too complicated...a good way to describe the problem...it's similar to Norton antivirus...bloated. However, I love Google...so many possibilities to advertise...can start with just $50.00 - that's pretty cool in my book.

[HRoth]

I still use it, although I don't check on it much. I use it specifically for those keywords I don't rank on. I don't spend a lot. I figure if it brings me at least as many sales as I pay for it, it's worth it, because of brand familiarity.

[oliondor]

The problem is that Google is doing everything possible to push people to pay for Adwords and in the future the complete 1st page of search will be filled with Adwords only...

[dpd1]

I've heard people claim that you do tend to rank better when you have a campaign going, but I've not seen anyone prove it definitively. Is that considered to be the case by most people now, or is it just one of those things where people are making the claim, but nobody knows for sure?

[buckworks]

Having an AdWords campaign has zero direct effect on your organic results.

However, sometimes you can learn things from running AdWords that you can use to improve organic rankings.

Also, if your AdWords campaigns are really well targeted and reaching very satisfied users, Google might pick up on signals of happy user engagement. Benefits from that would be true for any ad medium, though, not just AdWords.

It's all about targeting.

[pbradish]

Short answer: Yes, you should still bother with Google Adwords.

When set up correctly Adwords is extremely useful. It may be more expensive than it used to be but in many markets the ROI can still be pretty incredible. That being said, you have to be tracking your conversion data. This is an absolute must.

Also, as far as I know Google's stance is that paid ads have no relation to how you rank organically. That being said however, having an organic result and a ppc ad on the same page is excellent branding. There's also other things that you can do with your ppc ads now such as reviews, site links, phone numbers, etc - which make it much more appealing.

[dpd1]

Hmm.... OK. Wow, I have no idea how I'll find time to deal with that. It wasn't so bad when I actually saw ads coming up, but I haven't for a long time. I don't even know where the money is going at this point.

[engine]

dpd1, yes, I agree, it has become complex for those that have other day jobs.

If you don't have time, perhaps consider an agency to help optimize the ads for you?

[crossting]

I Think you should better pay more attention to adwords, if you are not too busy to handle more business.
unlike you, my concern is always i am worried that not enough people clicking my adwords.
Based on my experience, adwords is the best way to advertise your business...;

[trackchat]

Your biggest problem right now is that you don't know if AdWords is working for you. As others have said, you *need* to be tracking conversions, otherwise the whole exercise is pointless (i.e. you need to know whether advertising is resulting in sales).

Using AdWords is a just as much of a marketing strategy as any other. You need to devote time and energy to it. Once you know whether it's working for you, you can take the decision on whether it would be a worthwhile time investment to learn a bit more and concentrate your marketing there.

If AdWords isn't working for you, but other marketing channels are successful, I'd recommend sticking with and expanding your existing marketing strategies, and leaving AdWords well alone.

[gpilling]

We were off it for quite a while, then did some more dabbling and noticed an uptick in phone calls. So while we did not get the user clicking on the ad and making a transaction, we did get a user clicking on the ad and making a phone call - which resulted in a sale a large part of the time.

I agree it is quite complex now. You can test by turning it on and off (its a crude test for sure) and see if your phone call volume changes. Our phone call volume changed noticeably with retail customers. Wholesale customers, no.

[piatkow]

The old rule of thumb is that half of all advertising expenditure is wasted but you cannot tell which half.

A lot is just about reinforcing awareness of your name or product.