Yeah, right Google

[Fagin2021]

It’s the fifth largest company in the world with a market cap of US$1.4 trillion. It employs over 135,000 people including, it is claimed, some of the finest brains on earth.

So why, when I ask Google “What plants don’t like clay soil?” do I get first page results...

1. What plants are best for clay soil

2. The best plants for clay soil

3. Clay soil. plants for.

4. Plants for heavy clay soil

5. Top perennials that grow in clay soil

and so on , and so on ?

Think about that before you implement ‘smart’ Google Ads campaigns that use AI/Machine learning to deliver your clicks.

 

[thetiger2015]

Because it's not as intelligent as they like to pretend it is

We've experimented with Smart Ads over the last few weeks and they just seem to burn budget on irrelevant things. For example, if we sell Ceiling Lights, it sends traffic like how to paint a ceiling, cracked ceilings, how to fit a ceiling light, youtube video how to fit lights, can ceiling lights be used on walls....etc.

Obviously, you use negative keyword lists to extract that but I've actually given up with that now. I was spending all day adding negative keywords and it was STILL spending all the budget on things we've never sold. Left no budget for the actual stuff we do sell. Gave it 3 weeks but nope, £300+ quid wasted on stuff and the more irrelevant traffic it sends, the more screwed up the account gets.

Gone back to manual shopping ads. Imagine if you left them running, jesus, you'd just burn your months budget within a couple of days.

 

[WaveJumper]

Had similar issue this week trying to search for car parts got so frustrated ended up just phoning Mercedes. The one thing I have also noticed recently to is when I search for something you basically get two pages of ads before anything else, which is putting me off Google altogether

 

[Fagin2021]

Because it's not as intelligent as they like to pretend it is

We've experimented with Smart Ads over the last few weeks and they just seem to burn budget on irrelevant things. For example, if we sell Ceiling Lights, it sends traffic like how to paint a ceiling, cracked ceilings, how to fit a ceiling light, youtube video how to fit lights, can ceiling lights be used on walls....etc.

Obviously, you use negative keyword lists to extract that but I've actually given up with that now. I was spending all day adding negative keywords and it was STILL spending all the budget on things we've never sold. Left no budget for the actual stuff we do sell. Gave it 3 weeks but nope, £300+ quid wasted on stuff and the more irrelevant traffic it sends, the more screwed up the account gets.

Gone back to manual shopping ads. Imagine if you left them running, jesus, you'd just burn your months budget within a couple of days.

My experience too. But even with manual campaigns they still stitch you up with their 'close variants' and search terms not shown.

This from a company that boasts in a video promoting machine learning that "we know, for example, that 'grass cutting services' is the same a "lawn mowing services".

Tell that to the farmers around here!

I'm having a rant this morning.

 

[Ewan Kennedy]

Interesting examples about clay soil.

I've had some issues with one GAds account where Google's auto recommendations include adding hundreds of irrelevant keywords. Not only has the ML technology not worked out for itself that these keywords are irrelevant but it keeps re-suggesting keywords I've already dismissed as irrelevant so is being doubly frustrating.

 

[Iain Venn]

My experience too. But even with manual campaigns they still stitch you up with their 'close variants' and search terms not shown.

This from a company that boasts in a video promoting machine learning that "we know, for example, that 'grass cutting services' is the same a "lawn mowing services".

Tell that to the farmers around here!

I'm having a rant this morning.

Feel your pain - it's just replaced the old yellow pages! Money making has gotten the better of a useful online library resource.

 

[ctrlbrk]

So why, when I ask Google “What plants don’t like clay soil?”

What is it that you're actually after with your search?

 

[Fagin2021]

What is it that you're actually after with your search?

It's claimed that a single Google search uses more processing power than the entire NASA Apollo programme.

Pit your wits against the mighty Google and tell me what you think I'm after when I ask “What plants don’t like clay soil?”

 

[ctrlbrk]

Pit your wits against the mighty Google and tell me what you think I'm after when I ask “What plants don’t like clay soil?”

Fair enough, but have you tried this search

plants +soil -clay

 

[NickGrogan]

That will give you pages that don't mention the word clay. How will that help?

 

[Fagin2021]

Fair enough, but have you tried this search

plants +soil -clay

Just did - and if I wanted to learn the merits of topsoil compared to potting soil, I'd be quid's in.

However, even if that helped, (and it wouldn't, because as @NickGrogan said, it excludes searches with 'clay' in them) I don't think Google should expect me to use advanced search operators for such a simple query.

 

[NickGrogan]

what plants cannot grow in clay

gets you closer

 

[Fagin2021]

what plants cannot grow in clay

gets you closer

Yes, but without being too pedantic, there's a difference between 'don't like' and 'cannot grow'.

Google's AI/ML claims it can tell the difference (along with user intent) and will serve my ads accordingly. Unfortunately, in the above query, it doesn't seem able to distinguish between 'like' and 'don't like' which is pretty fundamental when you're selling something!

 

[NickGrogan]

Totally agree.

It seems very hard to get the actual results you want for "don't like" searches.

 

[AllUpHere]

Out of professional curiosity I'll put in some hours, searching for 'naked women without big breasts' and see what I come up with.

 

[Fagin2021]

Out of professional curiosity I'll put in some hours, searching for 'naked women without big breasts' and see what I come up with.

Remember to use @ctrlbrk 's formula...

naked women +breasts -big

 

[Mark T Jones]

Remember to use @ctrlbrk 's formula...

naked women +breasts -big

I'm on it!

 

[Ian J]

I'm on it!

In the interests of scientific research I also Googled it and I'm afraid that they failed miserably as some of the ladies shown were anything but small

I'll try again later to see how consistent they are

 

[AllUpHere]

In the interests of scientific research I also Googled it and I'm afraid that they failed miserably as some of the ladies shown were anything but small

I'll try again later to see how consistent they are

Pretty sure they weren't ladies either.

 

[Paul Carmen]

I wonder if Google ever read stuff like this?

The quality of certain types of searches, especially those that are informational in intent but have negative type keywords in them, show much poorer results organically than they used to.

The last couple of organic algorithm updates have driven this more, with big players pages coming up that don't really match the search query intent. Many of these show shopping ads now, when they didn't previously.

The cynic in me thinks that these poorer results actually help Google, as people pay to advertise to get better results as SEO is a mystery to many companies, but they end up showing clay soil additives and plants for clay soil on "what plants do not like clay soil"....