PPC - New Google adwords structure

[top-click]

Hi All,

I have been away in South Africa for a while, and, as sods law would have have it, the new payment structure* for adwords kicked in while I was away.

There have been quite a few whinges from many subscribers to another (far more dull and not nearly as useful!) forum that I belong to - saying that this new system is simply an attempt to rip customers off and squeeze more pennies out of them - this hasn't been my experience, in fact, my largest client who spends over £35k a month is about 7-8% better off - 6 of my clients have seen improvements, 8 have seen little change, and 3 a minor increase.

Have you suffered - has it made no impact - or has actually enhanced the activity? - Let me know, cheers
Rob

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*Google removed the minimum bid with active/on hold/in trial/disabled status system - with a straight in active/inactive with no minimum bid system.

[daveashton]

Top

We have just taken our adds down because we use them as boosters but no difference was found.

What has P*ssed me off is the Google users for our top phrase now take over 3 week to contact us (over 75%) where as before may it was 70% either instant or within a week.

This is not the same for overture. This is alos making PPC spend and when v hard to work out.

Is this normal?

[top-click]

Hi Dave - have PM'd you

Cheers
Rob

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[ebonybailey]

many may know one of my most recent clients was Konica Minolta, many may not know it was through PPC with Rob, many thanks Rob true to your word.

Michael

[daveashton]

No PM Top Click

PS EB when are you comming up?

[ebonybailey]

not sure, working my feet into the ground at the mo, will have to give me a few days to sort myself out.

[top-click]

Dave - sent you anotrher PM - let me know if it doesnt arrive

Cheers

[Rob Holmes]

Hi Rob,

Can you explain in 'laymans' terms what the changes mean to people?

It would help me !

Cheers,

(The other) Rob :D

PS hope you had a good break in SA!

[top-click]

Yep - no problem,

Previously, when setting up an adwords campaign you would write the copy for the advert to be shown and enter in a list of 'keywords' people would use to search for your products which would cause the advert to be shown.

When you entered the keywords into the system they would be held in certain 'states' - Active (the ads would show at full strength), in trial (the ads would show on a limited basis to see whether they would meet the minimum 'quality' threshhold, on hold (would not be shown until demand allowed it) and disabled (the ads didnt meet the quality criteria and were not shown at all).

The real problem for many users of the system was that having keywords anything other than an 'active' status meant that they where in effect punished and the adgroup as a whole was slowed. (Google did this back in Oct/Nov last year to remedy the fact that there were many millions of useless keywords in their system, and to encorage users to clean them out).

The system today means you'll either be Active or Inactive, Google simply tell you how much more you have to bid to become active.

You no longer ‘lose’ your disabled words and you will need to receive 1000 impressions on each adword to get going. Instead of getting disabled, the minimum bid price will just increase. As the 0.5% minimum disappears you will be able to show your ads at 0.1% CTR, if you're prepared to pay enough for them.

Does this help or have I just confused the issue further??

Rob

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[epiphany]

Good to have you back Rob2 :)

[top-click]

Cheers epiphany - good to be back, a busy week or so before I left and a couple of weeks in South Africa makes me feel like I've been gone for ages!

Rob
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[Kama]

I have to say that for me the new Google adwords structure has impacted me negatively.

There were certain keywords that I was getting good CTRs for, at least on the search side, over 1%. But, all of a sudden Google decided that this was not good enough and made those keywords Inactive.

THEN, to add insult to injury, they recommended a minimum amount that I needed to bid to have those same keywords reactivated. The amounts were double what i was paying before.

They did those for all my best performing keywords.

Seems like a blatant cash grab to me.

Ridiculous.

[top-click]

I've heard this 'blatant cash grab' phrase a few times now - and I'm not going to defend Google to the end of the earth, but let's face it, Adwords customers have had it pretty good for some time now.

The cold hard facts is that it is selling inventory on its own site - there is a limited supply and a good demand. If I was in their shoes I would monetise Adwords in the most efficient way also.

Rob

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[Kama]

The cold hard facts is that it is selling inventory on its own site - there is a limited supply and a good demand. If I was in their shoes I would monetise Adwords in the most efficient way also.

Rob

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True, but the way it was presented was as though it was going to be beneficial to the customers. In reality it is not.

Just a sneaky way to extract more money from us.

I have to admit that Google Adwords do work. Which is why despite the increased cost I am still running them.