My experience using Google AdWords Express
A few months ago, I returned to the provision of IT services in my small town. In order to loudly declare myself the first time I decided to try contextual advertising on the Internet. Since in our country, Yandex and all its services are blocked, the choice fell on Google and its AdWords Express service .
The system is very simple and beginners, even those not connected with the IT sphere, can quite figure out how to work with it. I believe that the idea of ​​the Google management to create a simple service for contextual advertising was correct, but the implementation of this idea turned out badly. This article discusses the problems and shortcomings of the AdWords Express system that I encountered during use. Also referred to service is My Business, which is closely related to the subject.
So, the sequence of my actions was this: I first registered in the free My Business service, and then in AdWords Express . I received a nice bonus at the start - promotional code of the action, according to which I was supposed to 900 UAH. to the account subject to the consumption within 1.5 months 300 UAH. Ok, google, thanks for the help at the start! After registration, I waited another two weeks before receiving a “paper” letter with a code confirming the address for the My Business service. I didn’t deposit money into AdWords Express account and didn’t launch contextual advertising until the end of registration in My Business.
Problems went further ...
Waiting for the "paper" letter with the code for confirming the home address I decided to prepare an advertisement in advance. In the course of filling in the forms of the ad creation wizard, I indicated a link to a personal site that is located on a third-party hosting. My site is completely useless, and My business service offers a simple website builder, on their domain business.site and hosting. Although their designer is quite primitive (compared to other website designers), but the resulting website is optimized for mobile devices, stylish and free. So I took and changed the link to the site in the ad and received: " Notice of ad rejection - One site per ad group ". Contacting the support service, I found out that the system was “stuck” and I need to delete the ad and create it in a new way.
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I chose a way to pay for prepaid ads. The promotion offered at registration offered to spend 300 UAH. - here it was decided to start with this amount. I received the requisites, paid by bank transfer via the Internet banking system and waited for the money to be received in the account. I received a letter stating that the payment for the specified amount was received and credited to my account. I checked in the Payment section - there is money in the account, and in the Ad Management section I get: “Notification - the announcement is not shown, since there are no funds in the account”. But the money is there! Turning to tech support, I found out that the money had been credited to the account, but had not yet reached the announcement itself and had to wait a day.
Faced with the first problem, the hand reached for the help button (?) . Having rummaged independently in the Help and not finding the answer to the question, I requested a callback to the support service operator. So I solved Problem # 1 - see above. Faced with Problem # 2, I decided to talk with the support service again, but found that for me the callback request button had already become inactive. There were two options to choose from: a chat request or a letter. I used the chat. When solving the following problem, I found that the chat request button with the operator had already become inactive for me. Thus, Google believes that the client should not disturb them too often. After a week, the callback request button became active again.
“ I’m a mathematician and I like to count everything. ” Studying the statistics of views and clicks on my single ad, I discovered a discrepancy in the data on the Ad control panel page. So, in the Clicks block, the time schedule of clicks on an ad and their total number is displayed. Below is the Search queries box in which is expanded, for each search phrase shows the number of views and clicks. I summed up the number of clicks for each search phrase and the resulting value was less than in the Clicks block. The support service operator was justified by the fact that I allegedly did not see part of the search phrases because of the privacy settings of users, or because of obscene content.
The days went by, the money was gradually withdrawn from the account - sometimes more sometimes less. Every day, observing and analyzing statistical data, I found that a small amount is charged for impressions, and for each click a little more - several hryvnas. I wanted to get the exact data: how much is the display of the ad and how much is the click on the ad. Surprisingly, I did not find the rates! It would seem that a simple service is offered - the ad is shown, which sometimes turns into a user click - the number is calculated. So why not publish a simple price, for example: display ads - 25 kopecks. , click on the ad - 5 UAH. Everything! But no, the secret ...
As I wrote above, I chose the method of payment for prepaid advertising services. I considered it safer than tying a bank card for automatic debit. The AdWords Express system offers extensive account tracking capabilities. The amount of the remaining funds can be observed in three places:
And now "funny": in my case, after a week of using the service, all three amounts turned out to be different. Two values ​​differed approximately by several hryvnias, and the third differed (from the first two) by several tens of hryvnias. Ok, Google, what's the accuracy?
I have always believed that in corporations such as Google, the most severe selection of employees. I thought that the best minds, supermen, gods of programming work there - they create perfect products. But the reality was completely different. The unit that developed the AdWords Express has released a “buggy” product. The management of this service did not work the workflow. As a user, I have already seen several serious problems in a week. Moreover, this service did not appear yesterday, the BETA tag does not hang on it, it is used by thousands of people and most likely the problems described here are also observed. The AdWords Express service is not just some kind of free nonsense, it is a cash cow that brings a certain amount of revenue to the campaign. How can you disgrace, "How is being tested on Google?"
So, you decided to run a local advertising campaign with contextual advertising on the Internet. From the lack of an alternative and low budget, you chose the Adwords Express service. Here are my recommendations:
" Hedgehogs cried and injected, but continued to eat cactus "
The system is very simple and beginners, even those not connected with the IT sphere, can quite figure out how to work with it. I believe that the idea of ​​the Google management to create a simple service for contextual advertising was correct, but the implementation of this idea turned out badly. This article discusses the problems and shortcomings of the AdWords Express system that I encountered during use. Also referred to service is My Business, which is closely related to the subject.
So, the sequence of my actions was this: I first registered in the free My Business service, and then in AdWords Express . I received a nice bonus at the start - promotional code of the action, according to which I was supposed to 900 UAH. to the account subject to the consumption within 1.5 months 300 UAH. Ok, google, thanks for the help at the start! After registration, I waited another two weeks before receiving a “paper” letter with a code confirming the address for the My Business service. I didn’t deposit money into AdWords Express account and didn’t launch contextual advertising until the end of registration in My Business.
Problems went further ...
Problem # 1 - Ad Editing
Waiting for the "paper" letter with the code for confirming the home address I decided to prepare an advertisement in advance. In the course of filling in the forms of the ad creation wizard, I indicated a link to a personal site that is located on a third-party hosting. My site is completely useless, and My business service offers a simple website builder, on their domain business.site and hosting. Although their designer is quite primitive (compared to other website designers), but the resulting website is optimized for mobile devices, stylish and free. So I took and changed the link to the site in the ad and received: " Notice of ad rejection - One site per ad group ". Contacting the support service, I found out that the system was “stuck” and I need to delete the ad and create it in a new way.
')
Problem # 2 - Cash Flow
I chose a way to pay for prepaid ads. The promotion offered at registration offered to spend 300 UAH. - here it was decided to start with this amount. I received the requisites, paid by bank transfer via the Internet banking system and waited for the money to be received in the account. I received a letter stating that the payment for the specified amount was received and credited to my account. I checked in the Payment section - there is money in the account, and in the Ad Management section I get: “Notification - the announcement is not shown, since there are no funds in the account”. But the money is there! Turning to tech support, I found out that the money had been credited to the account, but had not yet reached the announcement itself and had to wait a day.
Problem number 3 - Technical support by phone and chat - “once a week”
Faced with the first problem, the hand reached for the help button (?) . Having rummaged independently in the Help and not finding the answer to the question, I requested a callback to the support service operator. So I solved Problem # 1 - see above. Faced with Problem # 2, I decided to talk with the support service again, but found that for me the callback request button had already become inactive. There were two options to choose from: a chat request or a letter. I used the chat. When solving the following problem, I found that the chat request button with the operator had already become inactive for me. Thus, Google believes that the client should not disturb them too often. After a week, the callback request button became active again.
Problem # 4 - discrepancy in ad statistics
“ I’m a mathematician and I like to count everything. ” Studying the statistics of views and clicks on my single ad, I discovered a discrepancy in the data on the Ad control panel page. So, in the Clicks block, the time schedule of clicks on an ad and their total number is displayed. Below is the Search queries box in which is expanded, for each search phrase shows the number of views and clicks. I summed up the number of clicks for each search phrase and the resulting value was less than in the Clicks block. The support service operator was justified by the fact that I allegedly did not see part of the search phrases because of the privacy settings of users, or because of obscene content.
Problem number 5 - the lack of specific information on prices
The days went by, the money was gradually withdrawn from the account - sometimes more sometimes less. Every day, observing and analyzing statistical data, I found that a small amount is charged for impressions, and for each click a little more - several hryvnas. I wanted to get the exact data: how much is the display of the ad and how much is the click on the ad. Surprisingly, I did not find the rates! It would seem that a simple service is offered - the ad is shown, which sometimes turns into a user click - the number is calculated. So why not publish a simple price, for example: display ads - 25 kopecks. , click on the ad - 5 UAH. Everything! But no, the secret ...
Problem number 6 - the discrepancy of data on the state of the account in different parts of the system
As I wrote above, I chose the method of payment for prepaid advertising services. I considered it safer than tying a bank card for automatic debit. The AdWords Express system offers extensive account tracking capabilities. The amount of the remaining funds can be observed in three places:
- Ad control panel -> Expenses block: the time schedule of expenses by day and total amount is displayed;
- Payment section -> Payment Management tab: the balance is displayed, but knowing the amount of the deposit made, you can calculate the amount of expenses;
- Payment section -> Promotional codes tab: a filling indicator of expenses and the current amount for participation in the action are displayed (spend 300 UAH and get 900 UAH )
And now "funny": in my case, after a week of using the service, all three amounts turned out to be different. Two values ​​differed approximately by several hryvnias, and the third differed (from the first two) by several tens of hryvnias. Ok, Google, what's the accuracy?
"How to test on Google"
I have always believed that in corporations such as Google, the most severe selection of employees. I thought that the best minds, supermen, gods of programming work there - they create perfect products. But the reality was completely different. The unit that developed the AdWords Express has released a “buggy” product. The management of this service did not work the workflow. As a user, I have already seen several serious problems in a week. Moreover, this service did not appear yesterday, the BETA tag does not hang on it, it is used by thousands of people and most likely the problems described here are also observed. The AdWords Express service is not just some kind of free nonsense, it is a cash cow that brings a certain amount of revenue to the campaign. How can you disgrace, "How is being tested on Google?"
* Tips for newcomers to AdWords Express *
So, you decided to run a local advertising campaign with contextual advertising on the Internet. From the lack of an alternative and low budget, you chose the Adwords Express service. Here are my recommendations:
- To get started, register in My Business, wait for the “paper” letter with the code to confirm the physical address. Only then you need to get started with the AdWords Express service.
- I recommend to choose the method of payment for prepayment. So you can see your expenses and will be “insured” from an unexpected withdrawal of funds from the card (in the case of its binding for automatic payments).
- In the ad budget, choose the minimum. Do not get fooled by the hint: "competitors usually choose so much ...". In my case, it still exceeded the established limit, but at an average position, the expenses could be even higher.
- It’s better not to edit the ad in order to avoid system glitches. If you need to change something, it is better to rewrite all the important data (selected key phrases, headings) and create an ad for a new
- Do not enter your search phrases in the search, and especially do not click on your ad. As I was told in technical support, even if you, while logged in to your Google account, enter one of your keyword phrases in the search, the system will show you your own ad and will withdraw money from you. And for each click will remove even more.
Epilogue
" Hedgehogs cried and injected, but continued to eat cactus "
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/353806/
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