Sudden Drop Down In Ranks

[foxnick]

Hello,

Is anyone noticing a ranking problem on Google this weekend. We are usually number 1,2 or 3 with the majority of our keywords. Suddenly we are number 6 or 7 and other competitors that are usually very low are now number 1 or 2. Seems like everything has been reversed.

Anyone else with the same problem?

Thanks,

NF

[onlinethrills]

Murdoch, do you know of what media in particular? I contacted a few of the bigger online and offline hitters. Funny thing was (honestly), in a very upscale independent Google newsletter I subscribe to, the news for that week featured an article I wrote about matter. Funny.

[nathanso]

My company has been using AdWords since May-2002 and we're currently spending about $500-1000/month. We offer a hosted B2B service to the telecom industry. I saw prices for our prime two-word keyword first top $0.50, the a buck, then $2, etc. Overture showed our competitors were bidding $6 per click in Q1 2005, and eventually I opted out of the two-word race in favor of cheaper three-word keywords.

Then a month ago I decided to get back in the two-word KW race, but bidding just enough to stay on page 1, usually in slot 8-10. This was marginally successful though our ad sometimes slipped to page 2 or completely off the ladscape for reasons Google doesn't seem to care to explain.

Then late last week impressions took a huge nosedive, only to take a complete about-face over the last 2-days when, lo and behold, there was our ad in the #1 (blue shaded) slot.. something I have never once seen in 2+ years. As I repeated the two-word search our ad would mysteriously bounce from slot #1 to #5, then back. Today it's in slot #3. Not suprisingly, our CTR on that two-word keyword has quadrupled, as has our cost.

[Murdoch]

Murdoch, do you know of what media in particular?

<drop removed> I was quite happy to see it as it means to me that people outside of our little forum are becoming privy to the issues that they may or may not face in creating an Adwords account. The more media that pick it up, the faster Google has to repsond to the problem. So if it was you, thanks.

[edited by: eWhisper at 9:51 pm (utc) on July 13, 2005]

[onlinethrills]

Do a search on "Google Adwords Algorithm" and see whose article comes up -- on a fair number of pages... This is a laugh for me, because I hadn't planned this.

[bostonseo]

I spoke with my acccount manager at Google about this and they sent me a fairly detailed explanation defending the change. I did ask them why they don't communicate changes like to these to us and of course there has not been a response to that email of mine.

It's shady when we all have to find out about pretty major changes in a web board chat forum. But Google is trying to say it is not a big change, rather just another
improvement then continually make. I don't think anyone is buying that...my cpc prices are up 33% at least in the last week.

[MLHmptn]

How are they supposed to explain that their stockholders want more ROI!? :>~

[onlinethrills]

I kind of liken Google explaining their changes to President Bush explaining the war -- always a good answer, you just have to BELIEVE. Hillary Clinton recently likened President Bush to Alfred E. Neumann (Mad Magazine) -- "What, me worry?"

[Murdoch]

Okay, we're all sort of getting off topic here. I think it's about time for this to be wrapped up. I think the amount of messages in this thread have definitely caught the eye of the movers and shakers. I also think that they aren't responding directly to this thread because they most likely believe we are just going to rag on them if they do. Finally I think it's time for a summary:

1. Google changed their Adwords algorithm to place more empahasis on regional targeting. This has been confirmed.

2. The change has turned more than one Adwords account on its head, effectively causing a frenzied bidding war and resulting in more than one person losing either their job or thousands of dollars.

3. While we are still capable of retaining our spot check reporting (through proxy servers), the overall change has significantly dropped the ranking of companies who search for their keywords IN THEIR AREA. Any others drops around the country is due to consumer search behavior and therefore cannot be blamed on Google.

4. Google has not responded with a satisfactory (in my eyes) solution to this problem, as their current "fix" is to split up all of your campaigns geocentrically. As a large corporation that already has 19 campaigns and over 10,000 keywords, this seems a bit ridiculous to me. My proposed solution is to let us view the statistics within the Adwords program from the targeted areas. Considering we can already do targeted advertising, why not targeted reporting? This would dispel the frustration with a supposedly false-looking Average Position.

Now I'm not the moderator, so I would like to thank e-Whisper for having the graciousness to allow this thread to continue as long as it has. I would also like to thank Onlinethrills for taking the initiative to get this situation out the media. His short article has already taken root in several of the web-based media consortiums. And I would like to thank Google, yes Google, for being a great tool for advertisers everywhere. Even though this particular change made my life a virtual hell, I still think it's a great way to advertise. If you feel the need to sum up your thoughts on this thread, please do so but let's move on...

[bostonseo]

5. This was a move so that Google makes a LOT more money in the average CPC. I've seen prices for my clients average a 33% increase.

[onlinethrills]

The only other comments I'll make on this (unless another post promts me) are (1) does anybody truly know how to "control" their campaign, position, costs, etc. or is this a relic of the recent past, (2) how is control of bidding then determined if, as a result, you can be in positions 1, 25, 38 or 400 depending on the day of the week and (3)is the Google AdWords system even "workable" or worthwhile from a revenue-generating standpoint given that their estimating tools are inaccurate and often on the blink.

[BadWolf]

Now I understand. My host is in Germany and my customer base in in the UK. This is why I'm only getting 1/10 of the clicks and therefore 1/10 of the customers I got a few weeks ago.

Marvellous..... This is why I can't pay the mortgage this month.... Cheers.

For some of this this is not a fun game.

[edited by: eWhisper at 10:17 pm (utc) on July 19, 2005]
[edit reason] Please no hosting drops. [/edit]