Question

Hi all.  I'm new to the group.Hi all. I'm new to the group. I spend about €600 p/mth on Google Ads. Every so often, Google will call me and tweak my campaigns. However, I'm just not entirely convinced that the people I'm speaking with there have my best interests at heart and my budget has slowly but significantly increased since I started working with them. Can I ask you all what your experience/opinion of this is?  

Answer 1

Google's first interest is in increasing your spend. Not increasing your profit, necessarily.  

Answer 2

Don't trust them!  

Answer 3

Front line people want your money. They will always suggest turning anything you have turned off, back on. Very little knowledge. Only one goal- increase ad spend

Answer 4

They have decent reps but they are much further back from the public

Answer 5

Everything @titanothere is saying spot on. I worked in that department a few years back

Comments

@jardiniere thanks. I’m in the middle of changing reps as google has changed yet again. But the quality reps have skills and know that I want conversions, to test betas and to make my clients more.  

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@titanothere the quality of rep you get is entirely dependent on your country and ad spend. However, the rep that you have is internally known as the sales department. Call in customer service is sometimes better but their end goal is still getting you to sales. I'll also mention that the majority of their suggestions are spread across all clients no matter what your personal goals are. Sometimes they are knowledgeable, but getting a real Google rep (vs a contractor) depends on the above mentioned factors.  

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@jardiniere sales department. That says it all.  

Answer 6

If you are getting enough clicks or conversation then there is no need to listen google. There ultimate goal is to increase your ad spend. But its upto you if you have Clarity about your goal or ROAS. Just avoid them but remember there is a lot or Strategy you can apply and see the difference in your conversion. Its all about experiments. All the best

Answer 7

Ask your rep if a) he/she has ever worked on client campaigns themselves and b) if he/she has ever invested their own money into google campaigns. If not, be careful. If yes, be careful too - get yourself a neutral expert to challenge the recommendations in any case.  

Answer 8

In 95% never listen to them. Srsly just mark them as spam. :)

Answer 9

They’re a marketing machine, speak to an independent expert, get justification for your spend & what works. Costs should go down/stabilise, not go up, unless you’re doing something new

Comments

I put it like this to clients who get calls from G. They are focused on clicks. I am focused on conversions.  

Answer 10

@ferric36398 how is your conversion rate from ads compared to other traffic channels?  

Comments

@silvas62226 Umm. I don't know!  

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@ferric36398 great starting point  Where I am going with this is do you need to tweak google ads or your website for the best results?  

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@silvas62226 Possibly?! Sorry. but I'm coming to all of this completely green  

Answer 11

Google reps are basically sales people really. They don’t understand your business, they have a vested interest in you using their automated strategies.  

Answer 12

@ferric36398 reading between the lines of your comments - you aren’t tracking your conversions (sales) is that right?  

Comments

@jimmie Exactly. We've been in business for 11 years. We have a lot of repeat customers but also a lot of new, one-off clients. I have no data on how we have captured those people. Honestly, I wouldn't even know where to start looking.  

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@ferric36398 ok - really (and am not trying to sell you anything I promise) you should at least have someone set up your conversion tracking and analaytics. For all you know at the moment, that £400 a month may do nothing, or it may be your major source of new leads. Happy to have a completely no obligation chat to give you some ideas.  

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@jimmie Thanks so much for the offer. I'm sure that part of what I did with Google recently was set up the analytics. Though the info is with my web developer's account. I've asked him to divert that back to mine. These are the last stats that I saw.  

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@ferric36398 so that only tells you about clicks - so 100 clicks could mean 1 sales 10 sales or no sales. You’d probably remember setting up conversion tracking as it would have involved adding the code to the “sales action” on your website (not sure if you’re service or product based).  

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@jimmie Yep, my web guy did that but he says he has it going through his own Google Account. He's going to change that back to my account.  

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So the conversions need to be imported into google ads - you need to be able to understand which ads make sales, which keywords are costing too much etc. Honestly get a review done by an agency (again not necessarily mine - but do choose a good one). Doing google ads blind is the equivalent of opening a window and throwing cash out of it . Talking to the google reps is the same, but with them saying “no throw more money out of the window and lean out real far so it reaches the ground faster  

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@jimmie Thanks a mill Charlotte. I've decided to start educating myself on all of these things now. Though, I'm starting from the elementary level. It's going to be a long road, methinks  

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@ferric36398 there’s some good online courses - goggle even does one (though again - beware that it’s run by the exact company that’s taking your money). Also I would look at your google analytics and start getting to grips with which channels drive your sales - it may be that it’s all organically driven - it may be that your ads perform well for what you spend. But if you don’t know - you could be wasting a lot of cash.  

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I'll get a look at that. Thanks a mill Charlotte. I really appreciate this  

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@ferric36398 no worries at all - it’s not the easiest platform to master - and google don’t really help on that front! Good luck with it.  

Answer 13

I’ve been doing AdWords for over a decade. Google are nothing but sales now days. I’m blogging my frustrations here www. adswithkim. com

Answer 14

If you do a search in this group or others, it isn't hard to see what the majority of people think about the Google strategists. I will say this. every time I get recommendations from Google, it's the same 5 suggestions. It would be easier to believe them if they offered different suggestions for different accounts, but they don't.  

Answer 15

Wow. This has been a real eye-opener.  

Answer 16

I'll just repeat what you've heard already - but I agree with what was said about Google's help - don't listen to them. Most of the time, in like 99. 9% of all the cases, they are wrong. And definitely start tracking conversions. You will get all kinds of valuable info from there and you will know whether you are doing a good job or not depending on your desired outcome. Plus, you apart from tracking your macro conversions (eg. someone fills a form or calls or clicks "buy" if someone has na e-commerce store) you will be able to track some micro conversions - things like whether someone started filling in the form but didn't or whether someone watched a video you placed on your website or how much of your content he read - then, you could say that these people although they did not convert were in a way interested in your service and you can retargret them with your ads. If you are looking for a good course I can recommend Isaak Rudansky on Udemy. He is amazing.  

Comments

@tuber That's great. Thanks a million for that  

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@ferric36398 I second Rudansky, he has a tonne of free content on YouTube as well that would be super helpful to you. I also like the Adskills courses, I've found the support to be top notch and the certifications are actually industry recognized.  

Answer 17

Do you let the poker dealer pick your cards for you?  

Comments

@triton I probably would if I didn't know how to play the game  

Answer 18

Don't listen to them, they are just agents who get a training for a month or so with no real knowledges. They never ran any store, they never created a single campaign, simply forget about them and learn by yourself, way more valuable informations around.