April 19, 2018 at 15:12My experience using Google AdWords Express
A few months ago, he returned to providing IT services in his small town. In order to declare himself loudly for the first time I decided to try contextual advertising on the Internet. Since Yandex and all its services are blocked in our country , the choice fell on Google and its AdWords Express service .
The system is very simple and beginners who are not even connected with the IT sphere may well figure out how to work with it. I believe that the idea of Google’s leadership to create a simple service for contextual advertising was correct, but the implementation of this idea turned out badly. This article will talk about the problems and shortcomings of the AdWords Express system that I encountered during use. My Business service is also mentioned, which is closely related to the one in question.
So, the sequence of my actions was as follows: first I registered in the free My Business service , and then in the AdWords Express service . I got a nice bonus at the start - the promotional code of the action, according to which I was supposed to 900 UAH. to the account subject to spending within 1.5 months300 UAH Ok Google, thanks for the help at the start! After registration, I waited two more weeks before receiving a “paper” letter with a code confirming the address for My Business service. I didn’t deposit money into my AdWords Express account and didn’t launch contextual advertising until the registration in My Business was completed.
Then the problems went ...
Waiting for a “paper” letter with a code to confirm the home address, I decided to prepare an advertisement in advance. When filling out the forms, the ad creation wizard indicated a link to a personal site located on a third-party hosting. My site is completely useless, and My Business service offers a simple site builder, on their business.site domain and hosting. Although their designer is very primitive (compared to other site designers), but the resulting site 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 disapproval of the ad - One site per ad group". Having contacted the support service by phone, I found out that the system was" buggy "and I need to delete the ad and create it in a new way.
I chose the method of calculating for prepaid ads. The promotion offered during registration suggested spending 300 UAH. - it was decided to start with this amount. I got the details, paid by bank transfer through the Internet banking system and began to wait for the money to be received in the account. A letter came that a payment for the indicated amount was received and credited to my account. I checked in the Payment section - there is money in the account, and in the Administration section of the announcement I get: “Alert - the ad does not appear because there are no funds in the account”. But there is money! Turning to technical support, I found out that the money arrived in the account, but have not yet reached the announcement itself and you need to wait a day.
Faced with the first problem, the hand reached for the help button (?) . Rummaging independently in the Help and not finding the answer to the question, I requested a call back from the support service operator. So I solved Problem No. 1 - see above. Faced with Problem No. 2, I again decided to talk to the support service, 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. Used the chat. When solving the following problem, I found that the chat request button with the operator has already become inactive for me. Thus, Google believes that the client should not bother 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 only ad, I found data discrepancies on the page of the Ad Control Panel . So, in the Clicks block, the timeline of clicks on the ad and their total number are displayed. A little lower is the block Search requests in which it is expanded, for each search phrase the number of views and clicks is given. I added up the number of clicks for each search phrase and the resulting value was less than in the Clicks block. The support service operator justified that part of the search phrases was allegedly not visible to me because of user privacy settings, or because of obscene content.
Days passed, the money was gradually withdrawn from the account - sometimes more, sometimes less. Daily observing and analyzing statistics, I found that a small amount is charged for impressions, and for each click already more - a few hryvnias. I wanted to get accurate data: how much it costs to show an ad and how much a click on an ad costs. Surprisingly, I did not find a quote! It would seem that a simple service is being offered - displaying an ad, which sometimes “turns” into a user’s click - the number is being calculated. So why not publish a simple price, for example: ad serving - 25 kopecks. , click on the ad - 5 UAH. All! So no, secret ...
As I wrote above, I chose the method of payment for advertising prepaid services. Found it safer than tying a bank card for automatic debit. The AdWords Express system offers rich tracking capabilities. The amount of remaining funds can be observed in three places:
And now the “joke”: in my case, after a week of using the service, all three amounts turned out to be different. Two values differed by approximately a few hryvnias, and the third differed (from the first two) by several dozen hryvnias. Ok Google, what’s the accuracy?
I have always believed that in corporations like Google, the most severe selection of employees. I thought that the best minds, superhuman, programming gods — who create perfect products — work there. But the reality was completely different. The AdWords Express development team 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 label does not hang on it , thousands of people use it and most likely they also observe the problems described here. The AdWords Express service is not just some kind of free nonsense, it is a “cash cow” that brings a certain share of revenue to the campaign. How can one be so dishonored, “How are they testing on Google?”
So, you decided to conduct a local advertising campaign using contextual advertising on the Internet. From lack of alternative and low budget, you have chosen the Adwords Express service. Here are my recommendations:
" Hedgehogs cried and pricked, but continued to eat a cactus "
The system is very simple and beginners who are not even connected with the IT sphere may well figure out how to work with it. I believe that the idea of Google’s leadership to create a simple service for contextual advertising was correct, but the implementation of this idea turned out badly. This article will talk about the problems and shortcomings of the AdWords Express system that I encountered during use. My Business service is also mentioned, which is closely related to the one in question.
So, the sequence of my actions was as follows: first I registered in the free My Business service , and then in the AdWords Express service . I got a nice bonus at the start - the promotional code of the action, according to which I was supposed to 900 UAH. to the account subject to spending within 1.5 months300 UAH Ok Google, thanks for the help at the start! After registration, I waited two more weeks before receiving a “paper” letter with a code confirming the address for My Business service. I didn’t deposit money into my AdWords Express account and didn’t launch contextual advertising until the registration in My Business was completed.
Then the problems went ...
Problem # 1 - Editing an Ad
Waiting for a “paper” letter with a code to confirm the home address, I decided to prepare an advertisement in advance. When filling out the forms, the ad creation wizard indicated a link to a personal site located on a third-party hosting. My site is completely useless, and My Business service offers a simple site builder, on their business.site domain and hosting. Although their designer is very primitive (compared to other site designers), but the resulting site 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 disapproval of the ad - One site per ad group". Having contacted the support service by phone, I found out that the system was" buggy "and I need to delete the ad and create it in a new way.
Problem №2 - Receipt of money to the account
I chose the method of calculating for prepaid ads. The promotion offered during registration suggested spending 300 UAH. - it was decided to start with this amount. I got the details, paid by bank transfer through the Internet banking system and began to wait for the money to be received in the account. A letter came that a payment for the indicated amount was received and credited to my account. I checked in the Payment section - there is money in the account, and in the Administration section of the announcement I get: “Alert - the ad does not appear because there are no funds in the account”. But there is money! Turning to technical support, I found out that the money arrived in the account, but have not yet reached the announcement itself and you need 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 (?) . Rummaging independently in the Help and not finding the answer to the question, I requested a call back from the support service operator. So I solved Problem No. 1 - see above. Faced with Problem No. 2, I again decided to talk to the support service, 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. Used the chat. When solving the following problem, I found that the chat request button with the operator has already become inactive for me. Thus, Google believes that the client should not bother them too often. After a week, the callback request button became active again.
Issue # 4 - Discrepancy between ad statistics
“ I’m a mathematician and I like to count everything. ” Studying the statistics of views and clicks on my only ad, I found data discrepancies on the page of the Ad Control Panel . So, in the Clicks block, the timeline of clicks on the ad and their total number are displayed. A little lower is the block Search requests in which it is expanded, for each search phrase the number of views and clicks is given. I added up the number of clicks for each search phrase and the resulting value was less than in the Clicks block. The support service operator justified that part of the search phrases was allegedly not visible to me because of user privacy settings, or because of obscene content.
Problem number 5 - the lack of specific information on prices
Days passed, the money was gradually withdrawn from the account - sometimes more, sometimes less. Daily observing and analyzing statistics, I found that a small amount is charged for impressions, and for each click already more - a few hryvnias. I wanted to get accurate data: how much it costs to show an ad and how much a click on an ad costs. Surprisingly, I did not find a quote! It would seem that a simple service is being offered - displaying an ad, which sometimes “turns” into a user’s click - the number is being calculated. So why not publish a simple price, for example: ad serving - 25 kopecks. , click on the ad - 5 UAH. All! So no, secret ...
Problem No. 6 - discrepancy of account status data in different parts of the system
As I wrote above, I chose the method of payment for advertising prepaid services. Found it safer than tying a bank card for automatic debit. The AdWords Express system offers rich tracking capabilities. The amount of remaining funds can be observed in three places:
- Ad control panel -> Expenses block: the time schedule of expenses by days and the total amount are 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;
- section Payment -> Promotional codes tab: a filling out indicator of expenses and the current amount for participation in the action are displayed (spend 300 UAH and get 900 UAH )
And now the “joke”: in my case, after a week of using the service, all three amounts turned out to be different. Two values differed by approximately a few hryvnias, and the third differed (from the first two) by several dozen hryvnias. Ok Google, what’s the accuracy?
"How to test at Google"
I have always believed that in corporations like Google, the most severe selection of employees. I thought that the best minds, superhuman, programming gods — who create perfect products — work there. But the reality was completely different. The AdWords Express development team 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 label does not hang on it , thousands of people use it and most likely they also observe the problems described here. The AdWords Express service is not just some kind of free nonsense, it is a “cash cow” that brings a certain share of revenue to the campaign. How can one be so dishonored, “How are they testing on Google?”
* Tips for AdWords Express Newbies *
So, you decided to conduct a local advertising campaign using contextual advertising on the Internet. From lack of alternative and low budget, you have chosen the Adwords Express service. Here are my recommendations:
- To get started, register in the My Business service, wait for a "paper" letter with a code to confirm the physical address. Only then do you need to get started with AdWords Express.
- I recommend choosing a prepaid method of payment. So you can see your expenses and you will be “insured” against unexpected debit of funds from the card (if it is linked for automatic payments).
- In the ad budget, select the minimum. Do not fall for a hint: "competitors usually choose as much ...". In my case, it still exceeded the established limit, but with an average situation, expenses could be even greater.
- It’s better not to edit the ad in order to avoid system “glitches”. If you need to change something, it’s better to rewrite all the important data (selected key phrases, headings) and create an ad on a new
- Do not enter your search phrases in the search and even more so do not click on your ad. As technical support explained to me, even if you, being logged in to your Google account, enter one of your key phrases in the search, the system will show you your own ad and withdraw money from you. And for every click, it will take off even more.
Epilogue
" Hedgehogs cried and pricked, but continued to eat a cactus "