I spent about $1000 in December, less than $500 in January.
I was notified on Jan 30 that I now have a dedicated rep for the next 90 days. Somebody else here reported getting a dedicated rep on a small account, though they didn't mention a 90-day period.
Here is the strange thing: I've been running 50-60 clicks/day all of January. On January 30, I got 104 clicks. January 31, 114 clicks. Today, 131 clicks, and it's only 1:00 PM.
Exposures have also increased correspondingly.
Has anyone else gotten the dedicated rep offer, and also had their clicks increae dramatically?
I have not changed anything in my account during this time. Nor have I contacted the rep yet.
I advertise maybe 200 products, with perhaps 20 keywords average per product. It's not just one product that has shown improvement, but across the board. Several are running in the blue box with 30%+ CTRs. These are looking like pre-holiday levels.
Needless to say, I am suspicious. I can't prove it, but it seems there may be levers that can be pulled behind the curtain. While I may be happy that somebody may have pulled some levers, their potential existence worries me.
It may not be as sinister as that, and may simply be a matter of things that can get screwed-up in an account (that the advertiser has no control over), and having a dedicated rep go in and fix them. Nothing visible has changed in my account to my knowledge.
I had verified a couple of weeks ago that all my ads had been reviewed, so a review of un-reviewed ads wouldn't explain this. Unlikely to be an issue in any case, as I advertise only on Google Search.
Anybody else have this happen to them?
Think it's just coincidence.
Agreed. ;)
Needless to say, I am suspicious. I can't prove it, but it seems there may be levers that can be pulled behind the curtain. While I may be happy that somebody may have pulled some levers, their potential existence worries me.
I'd like to comment on this, jtara, though I'm fully aware that my comments may not allay your suspicions. (So, my intent here is to simply report - rather than convince.) In any case, I'm one of the earliest AdWords employees and have spent, on average, 60 hours a week over 3 1/2 years working with the program. Thus, I have a pretty good handle on what goes on, and I'd like to report: no such levers.
It may not be as sinister as that, and may simply be a matter of things that can get screwed-up in an account (that the advertiser has no control over), and having a dedicated rep go in and fix them. Nothing visible has changed in my account to my knowledge.
No one at AdWords, including 'dedicated reps', may make changes of any kind in your account without your written request or explicit permission. So the reason that nothing visible has changed in your account is, simply, that nothing has changed.
AWA
things that can get screwed-up in an account (that the advertiser has no control over), and having a dedicated rep go in and fix them.
Let me clarify this, with emphasis on "that the advertiser has no control over".
One example of this would be ads which have not been reviewed. The advertiser has no control over whether or not an ad has been reviewed. But if it hasn't been, it can't run in the blue box or on content or search networks.
A rep can "pull the lever" to have the ads reviewed.
I was wondering out loud whether there might be other, similar things, that the advertiser has no control over. i.e. some data corruption that can be recovered from, etc.
So, when I said "fix them", I didn't mean going in and making changes to ad text, keywords, or other settings under the direct control of the advertiser, but other things, more subtle and more legitimate than fiddling with any "impressions", "CTR", or "CPC" levers, which surely don't exist, as that would just be evil. :)
AWA, can you think of anything other than lack of approvals or reviews, that could get "messed up" behind the scenes, that a rep could correct?
AWA, can you think of anything other than lack of approvals or reviews, that could get "messed up" behind the scenes, that a rep could correct?
Other than stuff like the ability to call an advertiser's bank and verify that charges are legit, escalate a technical issue to the right team, talk to a manager about a possible credit and so forth - nope.
There are no exotic "Forgive this keyword's history" buttons, "Tweak algo to give this advertiser a special break" levers, or "Increase traffic a lot as a pleasant surprise" settings. ;)
AWA
Regardless of whether it was or not, if any extra support/advice for the smaller player is being provided - in order to help us maximise our efforts - I am impressed and wholeheartedly welcome such a strategy.
Syzygy