Rant: Adwords tricks me into Search & Content.

[subject98]

So..., Started a new campaign, got this wording, that i could copy an already existing campaign, to save time.
I did, but it seems that it sets Search Partners & Content targetting default on 'on'. For years now i do not use Search Partners or Content Partners on any of my campaigns.
Two day's later over 100.000 impressions, and some money down the drain...... (zero conversions...)
I dont bother about the money, but why do they want to trick me?
Pete

[ogletree]

I hope someday they get in trouble for this. I personally think the content network is immoral. I saw a company do the same thing. They lost $50,000 before they caught the mistake and of course no conversions. The content network is a place for new advertisers to get tricked. It is just a scam for the most part. I know there are some people that like it and get conversions from it but that is a very small group. I hope someday it just dies. I would never own Google stock because I know the company is built on sand right now. A company that makes most of its money tricking people can not last very long. They could work a lot harder and make it legit but they like all the free easy money.

[UnitedRigo]

I think that is changing with Placement reports.

[skibum]

I think that is changing with Placement reports.

It will for power users but, I'd bet for every experienced AdWords advertiser there is at least one new one signing up that accepts all the default settings and runs on content without really understanding where their ads are showing.

[UnitedRigo]

I agree...It isn't your grandfather's AdWords anymore. Anyone spending serious dough on Google should either get some knwoledge or hire someone who has it. Otherwise they're in for a lot of hurt.

[shorebreak]

skibum,

I'd say it's 10-20 unaware advertisers/agencies for every 1 who knows that this is the case. The heights of inexperience shown by advertisers, agencies and in some cases entire country SEM markets astounds me.

-Shorebreak

[sharewarepro]

Shorebreak,

>I'd say it's 10-20 unaware advertisers/agencies for every 1 who knows
>that this is the case.

Maybe.

But the fact is that any person handling their AdWords account should check their settings.

Google shouldn't "get in trouble for this". They're not doing anything wrong.

Their crime here is that they set the system defaults to their own advantage. How very naughty of them.

I'm not trying to provoke anyone, but you can't blame Google for doing this. Not checking the campaign settings is your own mistake.

[subject66]

I beg to differ....

The message clearly states:
"Do you want to save time? Copy your settings from an existing campaign, then edit as needed."

Adwords does not copy my settings, something what is very irritating.

Peter

[smallcompany]

subject**

I understand you and completely agree with "why"? That should not happen.

sharewarepro

So you're OK for Safeway to somehow put additional stuff into your basket? No need to go further where you even get charged without your knowledge. You would give them a hell, I don't even need you to confirm.

lack of experience, inexperience, new, and so on

This means who already drives drives, no new drivers? This should not happen, period. Being with no knowledge, naïve, whatever, is not for such punishment. If Dad tells to a very young kid to run across the street, he/she will do it. If car runs at that moment, a kid will be hit. Kid’s or Dad’s fault?

Why worry about such trivial stuff, there are so many other “smarter” things to do, opposed to: check checkboxes dude…Come on…

[moTi]

ogletree, a slap in the face for every honest publisher. i can't believe it.
if you're flopping on content network, don't blame others.
i'd expect more qualified statements than "i hope someday the content network dies" from a 3000+ posts member.

[ogletree]

I'm not flopping on content network I just don't have time for it any more. I work as a full time SEO now. I have done both. Right now I do more with advertising. I'm not saying this because I don't do much with it any more. It was a fun ride and I made a lot of money back in 2003 when they could care less what you did. Now that I am an advertiser it bothers me that Google takes advantage of people like this. It flies in the face of their "do no evil" statement.

[jkwilson78]

Do the same SEO strategies from 2003 still work today with the same effectiveness?

PPC is a competitive evolving game and with constant learning and using your stats/analytics to study trends it is quite posissble to be as or even more profitable today than last year or a couple years ago.

I agree it stinks that they enable the content network when copying a campaign because their wording implies it won't but every new campaign I've ever created since I've used Adwords has the content network enabled by default...

Honestly, it's encouraging to still hear that so many people hate the content network because it has been an absolute cash cow for me.

[ogletree]

In 2003 PR was everything. After Florida in Nov 2003 Authority came into the picture with a vengeance. You could have a high PR site with lots of authority and rank for anything. You could auto generate thousands of pages and rank for all kinds of long tail terms. PR and Authority are still around. There are just new things like age that factor in. Google looks more at a sites theme than it used to. Anchor text still plays a big role. I see many low PR sites outranking old high PR authority sites on anchor text alone.

Smart pricing has hurt adsense a lot. A site that I had in 2004 that made a lot of money would make 1/4 of that money now with the same traffic.

[bcc1234]

The content network is a place for new advertisers to get tricked.

For most of my products I get 90% of traffic and 80% of sales from the content network. The ROI is slightly lower than search (not always), but the overall amount of sales the content network brings compared to search is amazing.

You just have to treat it differently. The visitors that come from content are in a very different state of the buying process than those who come from a search query. If you don't account for this fact, of course you'll lose money.

[ogletree]

My point is it is a risky advanced feature and should not be set up by default. I never said it could not make somebody money.