We are still seeing here the messages, that users have problem with the On Hold, On Trial mess.
Still again and again.
Google does his best to get new customers. And the first thing they experience after starting the account is the On Hold, On Trial mess.
No wonder, that there are people who ask:
How to close AdWords account?, like the boy here [webmasterworld.com...]
I will start accounts for 2 new big (for me) customers. I am not newbie (althougt my pro logo still has to show up :-), but I am worried to run into On Hold, On Trial mess.
Why? Because, somebody else did his work bad. So, I am punished.
And my question is why, why, why?
patient2all is absolutelly right ( [webmasterworld.com...] ):
I think Google should rethink this policy.
IF YOU AGREE WITH THIS, JUST REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE AND WRITE "AGREE".
Let's hope that THE RIGHT FOLKS WILL HEAR OUR VOICE.
Irrelevant keywords? Some of the on hold keyword phrases are phrases found in my domain name. I've boosted my bids, but this doesn't help, they have little or no competition in the first place.
What gives?
Now my bad experience involved brand names. How bout you dataguy?
No brand names here.... just common search phrases related to the information my site offers.
It doesn't seem to be effected by the amount of the bid. I ran a test the other day on a popular keyword in a campaign by itself with a budget of $100 and a $5.00 per click budget. It went to Oh Hold within five minutes of setting up the campaign with no impressions and no clicks.
I am in the web hosting business and the keywords web hosting, hosting and similar dropped below the 0.5 CTR.
When I changed the ads, they got "on hold" automatically, with 0 impressions! That's terrible - those were the most important keywords for me!
P.S.: I was paying Google lots of money and my bids/daily budget wasn't too low.
I use very specific keywords as well as some general ones - all of them things people searching for my products would type, and things which *only* people searching for my products would type - and instantly upon adding both flavors, several of my phrases go on hold or in trial mode. I've already had my account frozen once due to disabled keywords, and I don't want to end up paying another fee for ads that never got a single impression.
Even when I pump my per click bid well above the highest ranking position, I get similar results. All I get is recommendations to "optimize" my keywords. How can you optimize "blue checkered lightweight widgets" any more? Honestly, some of the keywords I'm choosing are so overtargeted/obscure that they have _no_ other bids. And yet I am not optimized enough.
I never bothered searching for kw on hold...
They are showing on my account as well. Maybe they just want an extra 5 bucks out of us...afterall, they do have shareholders to answer to these day's...
Things that make ya go hmmmm..!
NKNY
Maybe because we only have about 600 or so?
All of the keyword phrases on our account that show "On Hold" ... are still showing on Google when I search.
Mark ALL of them?
Or ALL you have find by running the report, that was looking for the words with On Hold status?
The nice part of the game is this:
1. The On Hold words should have 0 impressions.
2. The report shows ONLY the words with more then 0 impressions.
3. If you have huge number of words, there is no easy way how to find all the words with "On Hold" status! (Or am I missing something?)
I just set up an adgroup and the most important keyword went right into "Hold". It was once the title of a movie, but I have nothing to do with the movie. It's being used in a completely different context. I have a bunch of negative keywords including the cast of the movie so I won't get incorrect queries, but:
Computers cannot think!
They cannot reason (yet)
They cannot say "Oh, I know what this guy is talking about".
Guess I wasted my time on that site and campaign!
patient2all
[edited by: engine at 8:45 am (utc) on Mar. 30, 2005]
[edit reason] formatting [/edit]
Just curious,
My campaigns all point to my own web site, so no one else is buying keywords for my domain, and I don't have thousands of keywords, only 100.
I was told I was one of the top advertisers at Overture by one of the Platinum reps. I find that really hard to believe but that's what I was told.
Why don't I use adwords? Because of whats being mentioned in this thread.
It doesn't work! At least for me anyway.
(I used to wear those)
I guess that's why there is Pepsi and Coke.....
I can't deal with Overture, nor can I make any money with them. Overture takes over a week to examine my ads and keywords, I find their interface really clunky and if I submit 200 keywords, they approve 3. I've still got money sitting in my account there, you want it?
Besides, Yahoo already shows off many of my most mediocre pages in the first 30 SERP listings like a trophy!
Google only ranks me high in odd numbered months or something :)
Google is like a tempermental diva, but I'm hooked. I'm always fighting with them, but at night when I count the money, I'm happy again (5 days out of 7).
I know I'm something of a gadfly here, but I can't help but think that if Google would rethink just some of its AdWords policies, we'd all make more money, Google included AND the users would see more relevant ads.
Granted, those ridiculous famous auction site ads were an annoyance, but their replacements, at least in one of my main sectors, are just plain dishonest people now.
They are not affiliates, but misleading sites that now can make page 1 on AdWords for .05 bids. The thousand clicks from people who enter these sites and are turned off must be offset by the profit from the 5 suckers who fall for these pitches.
We went from a lot of ads whose only crime was silliness to ads whose pages look just like my bulk mail folder.
Well, PF, at least we're not competing with each other....
patient2all
My initial query was about extortionate CPC rates on new exact match keywords in my account. It turns out that you are competing with all broad match advertisers.
For example, you bid on EXACT [red widgets], a bunch of other corporate types who can't be bothered bid high on BROAD match of just - widgets. Someone searches for - Red Widgets. You have to set your CPC so high to hurdle all these broad matchers before getting any exposure.
I didn't think this was how it worked, but anyway. The suggestion was to bid on more targeted keywords, but, as this topic goes, you end up getting 'On Hold'.
So how do you win? You can't get exposure on some keywords now without bidding exceedingly high, at least in the short term, and you can't use more targeted phrases because you get put 'On Hold'? Is Google forgetting the little guys?
Is anyone else seeing impressions for *new* 'on hold' keywords or am I somehow special?
I agree! You pitch a prospective client on the virtures of AdWords, then it's "On Hold." Yesterday, I created a new Ad Group with under 100 phrases and all but one went "On Hold." I spent hours convincing the client, creating the keywrod list, finalizing the list, agreeing to go live ... then this.
Makes you look/feel kind of stupid to proclaim yourself a GAP with all this supposed knowledge and dedication to AdWords.
Can I trade my logo in for access to -adwords- as a keyword?
-T
-----
Ok, Pf, but do you know why they make you "run faster and jump higher"?
It's the Posture Foundation Insole patented by BF Goodrich in 1937, hence the 'PF'. Threw the keyword 'pfflyers' in the Google Toolbar and surprisingly they're still out there and hot. Curiously, the company itself only has the #1 spot for the plural, not the singular in the SERPs.
In the South Bronx in the early 1960s, they were cool until Converse All Stars took over, then anything else became 'skips'. I've always wondered if that disparaging term was regional.
If you had held onto them, they'd have an opening bid of $20.00 (used!) according to a famous auction house whose ads we can't seem to avoid.
patient2all
I agree! You pitch a prospective client on the virtures of AdWords, then it's "On Hold." Yesterday, I created a new Ad Group with under 100 phrases and all but one went "On Hold." I spent hours convincing the client, creating the keywrod list, finalizing the list, agreeing to go live ... then this.Makes you look/feel kind of stupid to proclaim yourself a GAP with all this supposed knowledge and dedication to AdWords.
I spent hours convincing the client, creating the keywrod list, finalizing the list, agreeing to go live ... then this.
EXACTLY MY CASE TODAY! I CRY IN THIS FORUM AND HOPE TO AVOID THE NIGHMARE described by TrumanTiger earlier.
But it is here:
The client started the account by himself, but before transfering the money he decided to give it to the proffesional.
So he contacted me, we agreed on the keyword list, the main staff in ad text atc.
I started the campaign and now about 60% of keywords (BIG PART OF IT ARE EXACT MATCHES!) are ON HOLD immediately.
So, now I am going to client and tell him what?
Can I trade my QGAP logo (that I will receive soon) for the possibilty to run the campaign?
55 of my 92 KW and phrases are on HOLD.
20 of these 55 are exact matches.
7 of these 20 are double words phrases (like [blue widget]).
The best one (that is ON HOLD) is four words phrase - exact match. Something like [small blue flying widget].
Please, tell me, how to improve my [small blue flying widget] phrase?
The only good part of this story is the fact, that although are these words and phrases ON HOLD, the ad is showing if I search these ON HOLD terms. But I do not know how long, it might be of tomorrow. Who knows?
AWA it is time to show up in this tread and give some explanation.
It is clear that the ON HOLD machine is broken. It is total nonsense try to improve my [small blue flying widget] phrase and others too.
I am not only GAP, who has problem with this.
So, PLEASE write something.
We would love text like this:
Yes we know about it, tech folks will look into it and in the meantime it is turned off, so even if the word is ON HOLD, it will show up and work as usally.
---------------
I can hardly use the word, adwords. The keyword phrase goes right to on hold. I am one of those that doesn't seem to get ANY Trial keywords of any kind.
Past CTR sins I guess.
Google service types want me to re-read the FAQ.
I do not need another condescending referral to the FAQ. I need a CTR lawyer! Give me my adwords freedom. I have served my time and am a QGAP (for what it is worth), I should be pardoned.
When did Google become the Great Silent Sphinx of Service? One successful IPO and one employee blog controversy and they turn isolationists ;-)
Seriously, is their a thread anywhere on cyber-yada-yada about Google's relationship with it's sales staff, us?
-TCH
My impression is that things are getting out of control and they desperate want to control everything, but it's not so easy to design an algo that would do best in all situations...
I can hear more and more complaints due to Google algo, and not to advertiser's lack of knowledge.
I fear that Google's evolution will be similar to Roman's Empire (keeping the proportions, though)
