GoogleAds Reports

what is your experience with Google Ads?

[samwest]

I used Adwords back pre-2010, before all the AI, and profiteering began. I quit in disgust after 2010. I am now hearing reports that paid ad performance is great, so what is your experience of late? I just restarted a campaign and I'll report back on traffic and conversion performance. My expectation is not particularly high.

[FranticFish]

I've run campaigns for about 15 different businesses over the past 3 years. None of them have really needed the traffic, but rather:
- Google Ads was always something I did for 30 days to do some live keyword research if they'd not had any done;
- they were interested in another channel and what the cost per lead might be;
- they wanted to expand; or
- they wanted a switch they could flick if the phone stopped ringing.

I track forms, emails, mobile calls (from the ads and from the site), but I don't use number forwarding so landlines are a mystery.

Up until a few years ago it was always very obvious that it paid for itself. Lately not always, and perhaps not so much. In past 12 months I have switched off two campaigns because the ROI was non-existent. One for a professional charging a good day rate and the other for a business with a very high margin. Both had a lot of targeted traffic via the campaign (in spite of the 'exact match: close variant' nonsense) - they just didn't get any business.

The businesses that are happy to keep it going right now are mostly low volume high margin.

That said, I used it for a business in the hospitality sector last year and we got great results from a very small budget.
And I have used it recently to drum up some extra work for a tradesman to fill gaps in his diary and that's also worked.
Both of these businesses have phenomenal repeat custom / recommendation rates however so a little traffic goes quite a long way.

If I had to sum it up I would say it's not as effective as it used to be, and sometimes it is a just a waste of time and money in that it was expensive to get a 'No, that didn't work' answer.