Looks like the Overture Fast Track, except the upfront fee goes towards clicks.
Where does this fit with the 10k minimum for an account manager at Google, and the 5k minimum per agency client account required to have a CS rep at Google?
When we notify you that your campaign is ready, we'll charge you a $299 prepayment amount. We'll then immediately credit this entire amount toward your initial ad clicks. (Once this prepayment amount is depleted, you'll be responsible for any ad clicks thereafter.)
thanks for sharing, have been hearing about this.
Shak
What's next? SEO. Or, Next stop, paid inclusion?
My hope is that it won't be.
We've taken on a few clients fresh out of Overture's "Fast Track" and have been able to quickly show improvement. I hope Google doesn't make that kind of thing too difficult. :)
The pricing approach is a great idea for them. That'll be hard to beat.
What's next? SEO.
I could see google promoting a white hat seo operation. Makes me shutter!
Good move and a great deal.
I could see google promoting a white hat seo operation. Makes me shutter!
Wouldn't that be a conflict of intrest...
It will probably make it relatively easy to get the Google conversion tracker installed on lots of sites and then extract the maximum amount advertisers are able to pay for a click.
It would be great for SEM firms with clients who don't spend 5k per month as this type of thing doesn't seem to be offered to agency clients with a budget under 5k per month.
The SEM firm/client can get some assistance for all the money they spend and the SEM firm can then tweak what is proposed for maximum results.
Would this service be offered to an agency/consultant or would G refuse it to anyone other than a direct client?
The quality and targeting of proposals will be key.
Note: Currently, Jumpstart is only available to US customers for campaigns in English
I wonder how long until it spreads?
I think it's a good feature and I might use it to test their quality a few times, but unless they make my AdWords profitable, I won't continue the campaigns. ;)
It looks like an extremely smart sales ploy on Google's part, though... almost as if they're cloning all those fresh-faced Googlers you see at the trade-shows and putting them into cubicles...
Would this service be offered to an agency/consultant or would G refuse it to anyone other than a direct client?
Great question. I couldn't find an answer in the FAQs.
Brett... when does JumpstartJill become a member?
Look in competitor's account and copy campaigns across to new account.
I'd like to sign up for that!
zeus
Many a media buyer has learnt the hard way that letting the publisher write copy, set CPC's and select keywords is a very, very bad idea.
We may end up with some smaller kids in the deep end of the swimming pool as a result of this - but they usually get out when their parents call for them...
Google SEM: Look in competitor's account and copy campaigns across to new account.
Is no-one else concerned about this possibility?
Many advertisers are quite rightly concerned about sharing any kind of conversion rate/CPL data with media vendors due to the power it gives the vendor - this just adds yet another level of concern.
Google adwords has always been 1 of the easiest campaigns to get up and running for the lone ranger.
methinks, this is just a handholding exercise for the tradeshow/non net savvy type of people.
trust me, if it came down to me choosing ewhisper/webdiversity V google jumpstart handling my campaign, I know who i would choose ;)
Shak
When? Can't wait...
As for the idea of google using other accounts to drum up keywords and strategies, that scare tthe bejesus out of me. I think google should step up and add something to thier privacy policy and user agreement to reassure thier clients they will not be doing this.
I don't think it will affect PPC management companies much at all. The continuous tweaking of ads for CTR, measuring ROI (especially for campaigns where conversions occur offline), helping a site to improve conversion rate, quick customer support and adding of new products, etc, are some of the benefits to using a management company - and services this system will not include.
No one can know more about a company that the company owner/employees. A management company will learn some about the company, its stratedgies, and its competitors - this is not something Google will get into at present.
In fact, this system could actually be good for PPC management companies.
It will attrack more companies to start advertising. However, just because their campaigns are running, doesn't mean they are profitable. At this point in time, the company needs a specialist to handle their account, and then turns to a SEM company.
The in-house Google people did a campaign for one of 11 hotels in a small chain I was doing the PPC campaigns for.
After a couple weeks, it was obvious that the campaign Google did was underperforming.
I didn't tweak it, I scrapped it.
Google will have an OBVIOUS advantage in that they have access to competing campaigns and all the stats therein. If I were them, I'd learn from, use, and profit from the experience of others. Others, by the way, who benefit from Adwords and voluntarily participate.
Bottom line, more companies will wade into the Adwords pool. Google Jumpstart will not be able to guarantee they will stay afloat.
As an SEO specializing in PPC optimization and specifically Adwords, I am comfortable with my ability to compete with anyone Google hires on salary to put together a $300 campaign.
The more I think about it, the more optimistic I get actually! ;)
Re looking at competitors accounts to find keyword that work - Much of the value is in the smaller terms that produce little traffic in their own right but overall add up. They tend to be the cheaper terms. Google staff are likely to concentrate on the big money terms that most people can think of anyway.
[edited by: running_scared at 1:03 pm (utc) on May 17, 2004]
Google and Overture have a major disadvantage over PPC management companies, in that they only promote their own products... Google can only offer Adwords, Overture can only offer Overture partners... None can reduce spend one one to increase spend on the other (or on the minors) and as such there is always a place for an intermediatory until there is an outright monopoly, in which case I'll be asking for a job.
I also feel a good PPC management company will end up making more money for Google than an "offset $299" could possibly do, as PPC managers have to demonstrate that the ROI is worth investing more in order to succeed themselves.
What I bet they provide is nice conservative targeting on the most obvious of terms. Something reasonably likely to not fail, but something far from the effort needed to be really competitive.
This new service will probably be useful in getting some new very-small-business customers to try Adwords. I've seen some of these folks so botch an Adwords campaign that it gets immediately shut down. It should be great for them.
As a more educated customer, I was put off by the overly-simplistic approach. Years ago I learned my lesson about having a third-party that's spent maybe three hours on my site churn out keywords and ad copy. I'm highly skeptical of the ad quality. Has Google hired talented professionals with experience and expertise or is it more of a 1,000 monkeys at a 1,000 machines approach? (nothing personal to anyone working there, but I would imagine the people who are really good at this are already making $$ somewhere else.)
Regardless, this will be great for SEMs. After a company gets "jumpstarted" they'll have money comitted to a channel that they might not know how to manage.
