Forum Moderators: martinibuster
And this is after adding more pages continually.
So, today I decided to check out some of the Adwords threads, and sure enough, the advertisers are mostly upset with Google. And NOT BECAUSE THEY ARE PAYING TOO MUCH, but the opposite - they are complaining that adwords is REJECTING their keywords.
No keywords = no ads = No income for anyone, including Google.
I do believe there is something else going on, however, and it shouldn't surprise anyone. Google is treating larger advertisers and larger sites better - much better - than the little guys. It's a business decision, but it really grates against their "morality" - you know, all that high-sounding, anti-corporate schmoo they throw around.
As usual, the middle class, i.e., little guy, gets squeezed. Be prepared for yor earnings to crater unless you are a very large corporate entity.
I should have known better, as soon as they went public.
The point is, however, with both sides of the equation - advertisers and publishers - hopping mad, google's answer is silence, and it is truly deafening.
[webmasterworld.com...]
I do believe there is something else going on, however, and it shouldn't surprise anyone. Google is treating larger advertisers and larger sites better - much better - than the little guys. It's a business decision, but it really grates against their "morality" - you know, all that high-sounding, anti-corporate schmoo they throw around.
Isn't it possible that the "little guys" are just more likely to make mistakes when submitting AdWords ads? The big companies and brokers know what they're doing, and they're less likely to waste their own time and Google's by ignoring or failing to understand the rules and how the program works.
We see the same phenomenon here in the AdSense forum: It's pretty obvious that most of the "Can I do this," "A friend clicked on my ads," "My application was rejected," etc. posts are from operators of small sites who aren't familiar with the program's rules and can't be bothered to read the TOS. (Don't get me wrong--I have nothing against mom-and-pop sites; I run one myself.)
This would surprise nobody.
Maybe a competitor will emerge who treats ALL customers the same. As it is, larger publishers have significant advantages and they are to the detriment of smaller sites.
Corporatism is rampant, growing and killing free enterpise. Google has embraced the corporate mentality fully and they won't turn back, I'm afraid.
Could it possibly be that Goggle is simply going by the 80/20 rule and favoring the 20% of their customers who represent 80% of their business?
It's certainly possible that Google is giving faster service to big advertisers and brokers. There's nothing wrong with that; it's just good business, like allowing elite-level frequent flyers to board the airplane first.
Maybe a competitor will emerge who treats ALL customers the same.
That's pretty unlikely, IMHO.
As it is, larger publishers have significant advantages and they are to the detriment of smaller sites.
They obviously have negotiating clout, and they get some perks like account managers and (in some cases) CPM deals that make it easier for them to predict revenues and cash flow. But I'll bet there are quite a few small- to mid-size niche publishers who earn higher effective CPMs than the big portals and news/entertainment sites do, just because their topics convert better for advertisers and attract higher bids as a result.
As for the remarks about Google's going corporate, let's not forget that Google was a business long before the IPO. Also, it's worth noting that Google has made AdSense available to even the smallest hobby sites, non-profit sites, etc. That inclusiveness may have been driven partly by a desire for market share, but the fact remains that Google has made it possible for operators of everything from dog-rescue sites to disease-support forums to earn revenues just by slapping a few lines of code on their pages. So it's a bit unfair to equate Larry Page and Sergey Brin with the Robber Barons or Enron. :-)
All the high-sounding principles seem to have been quickly forgotten and replaced with almighty dollar devotion.
Sorry to sound like a broken record, but I really dislike corpo-think. Basically, I think big corporations have too much power and control and it's damaging to the human spirit.
You can cheerlead and defend Google and their policies as much as you like, but it will not change my mind. The internet was originally billed as an egalitarian system, but after a decade, it's largely corporate controlled.
You can cheerlead and defend Google and their policies as much as you like, but it will not chane my mind
"When you run out of facts, use personal attacks."
The internet was originally billed as an egalitarian system, but after a decade, it's largely corporate controlled.
Not nearly to the extent that offline media are controlled by corporations. Believe me, it's a lot better being a mom-and-pop Web publisher than a mom-and-pop magazine or book publisher. The distribution channels are far more open, the costs of entry and operations are infinitely lower, and even an over-the-hill, middle-aged geezer has the opportunity to earn a good living. :-)
That's a really low blow, even from you. Besides, what is that comment but nothing more than a personal attack against me.
Go with the flow, EFV. You are god. Posting here, and having to read your one-sided posts is a waste of time.
Later, geezer.
Again - let me say I think Adsense is a great program even though I am making a lot less $$ since February. And Adwords is a great program too - it clearly works (when it is working).
But I must say, both are highly unpredictable and rather chaotic, and I think that for most non-technophile business folks, who have little time or patience for the chaos, both programs are probably causing a lot of gray hair.
Go with the flow, EFV. You are god. Posting here, and having to read your one-sided posts is a waste of time.Later, geezer.
Wow, that was really rude, especially as a reply to someone that was politely responding to your posts with a different point of view (that maybe it wouldn't hurt you to at least consider as valid.)
I don't feel a real need to defend myself over such foolery, especially since EFV has been harassing me practically every time I post.
I'm all for lively discourse, but EFV is stridently pro-adsense, leaving little room for any constructive discussion.
The air gets a little thick.
Mea cupla, mea culpa, maxima culpa.
Adwords and Adsense clients both complaining
I'm very happy with both programs but I did complain here and there.
You can cheerlead and defend Google and their policies as much as you like, but it will not chane my mind
I don't think this is a personal attack. It's just his/her opinion.
I have never perceived any difference in how Adwords treats my client with a £5 daily spend or my client whose daily maximum is several thousand dollars in peak season.
Could the program be improved? Sure--as I've often pointed out myself (though a new user couldn't be expected to know that). However, the claim that advertisers and publishers are "hopping mad" was made without any supporting evidence, and the numbers in Google's most recently quarterly report don't indicate a swarm of defections by advertisers or publishers. Still, instead of arguing the point, why don't we all come back after the 1Q 2005 report and see what those numbers show?
As for the remarks about Google's going corporate, let's not forget that Google was a business long before the IPO.
True, but having a public stock and billions of dollars of that stock in private and public retirement accounts does mutate things. The pressure to make a quartely profit figure is a known negative pressure on public companies.
Thanks.
The pressure to make a quartely profit figure is a known negative pressure on public companies.
One could argue that it might also be a positive pressure by creating opportunities for publishers. After all, the AdSense program probably wouldn't exist if Google hadn't felt the need to increase its revenues prior to the IPO.
On the flip side, one also could argue that the AdSense launch might have been handled differently and the AdSense's quality controls might not be so lax if Google had remained a private company. We'll never know.
