A Call From Google (Not a Question but the Moderators said to Put this Here)
-
This is not going to be a long post but I wanted to get something out there that a lot of other business owners might not understand. I have several different PPC campaigns that my business partner and I personally run. The campaigns are all doing quite well with a high rate of return.
Never has Google contacted me (other than for surveys, which I did wind up receiving 5 blue gym bags with the Google insignia on them) and never did I think they would. The campaign they called me on wasn’t a particularly large campaign. Right now the PPC spend is around 3000/month. I understand this isn’t a little bit of money, but at the same time it’s not in the millions like most of Google’s top sites.
The thing that concerned me most was the reason for their call. A nice woman introduced herself and said that the campaigns were nicely run except for a few changes. She went on to tell me of a couple of updates in the PPC realm (this happened to me yesterday – Feb 28). She said within the past few months they were rolling out a new way to target their content network and for most people they were able to save 35% (that was a number she mentioned) with the tactics she was going to suggest. My background lies in mathematics and finance (somewhat related) and I tend to know when I am either being sold or being tricked into being sold.
Through the whole list of things she mentioned that would help as she was walking me through she mentioned that it was a good idea to up the bid on the content network. That way we would have more chances of being seen and it would help with out conversions. This by itself seems like decent advice, but our bid for the content network is not cheap. If they are calling every small – medium business and telling them to up their bids, we are going to have a dilemma on our hands. The dilemma being that the AdWords placement is going to cost a heck of a lot more. She said that even if we up our bid, we are not likely to pay the full amount. She wants us to have a repeat conversation on Monday.
One side of me was a little upset after the conversation but all they are doing is simply up-selling. They are raising the rates through what I guess are fair business practices. A lot of business owners might just take the advice of a Google representative and not think twice about it. This means we have thousands to hundreds of thousands of people at this very moment upping the bid on their content network.
If they can even get a small proportion of people to increase their bids - let's say 10% - the other 90% will start getting less shows and eventually increase their bids. Also, the people that have higher bid amounts in but aren't paying the full amount will start getting closer and closer to the amount they put in as their maximum bid.
This wouldn’t be alarming to me but this is the first and only time I have ever heard from a Google representative. I can’t say I didn’t see this coming but at the same time I was definitely taken aback. I am curious to know what the MOZ community has to say.
-
The budget is maxed out for this term - they just wanted us to up the bid (which we are spending .25 of the current bid).
-
We are number 1 btw - that is the average - they just suggested to raise the bids. I should have mentioned that.
-
I have played with it - I know exactly what is going on. That is not the problem. The problem is their suggestions. We spend enough to know about raising budgets. They want us to raise the budget for something specific that is already maxed out - it is set at 500/day and coming in at much less - they didn't even look at it. The problem is they want us to raise the budget as a suggestion without any looking into. This is dangerous.
-
They will keep doing this and eventually it will up the price for all terms (I am sure this has already).
-
cant believe they are still doing this till today.
Thanks for sharing Jacob
-
We have a term that is performing really well and showing to the maximum amount of people on the content network - she wanted us to limit the people it shows to and up the bid.
-
Yeah...seems it's a common problem. There's a Google Partner group Google set up on G+, Lots of complaints and examples of terrible advice.
Good luck!
-
It wasn't great advice and really wasn't applicable. Pretty weird - hopefully it's not driving up the bids which if everyone followed it the advice would.
-
Google AdWords seem to be having a massive push on customer retention at the moment. We've had clients that spend 20-30K and 1K alike per month receiving calls offering "advice" (often VERY bad advice). We (and some other Google Partners) have complained to our account managers at Google and ours in particular mentioned that they have some teams calling advertisers working from prompt sheets (basically offering them all the same advice).
So take it with a pinch of salt, experiment but don't fall into the trap of thinking because it's Google they're 100% correct. Often google uses outside agencies for these types of things - one in the UK is called Capita I believe.
-
I say play with it. If your hunch is true then you'll pay more and get the same results. If your hunch is not then you'll pay the same or slightly more and get better results. PPC campaigns are all about testing, analyzing and improving. Maybe this is one of the ways for that to happen.
-
I have a meeting with our Google Rep weekly. They do enjoy spending your money, however most of the suggestions are worth it in terms of ROI in my experience. Guess it all depends on the size of the marketing campaign. Interesting they are reaching out in this way though.
-
Hi Jacob,
They're definitely upselling, that is just their sales business ;-). I've received a couple of calls over the years as well to incentive me to spend more money with them. I don't have a problem with it personally as any other sales department of any company would do the same probably.
You might want to also have a look at this one: http://webmarketingschool.com/should-you-trust-google/
I must say that she had a point that upping your bid doesn't mean that you will have to fully spend that amount on display advertising. It could also be that she sees that you just have to spend just a bit more to generate more top placements and so on receive more conversions and lower your CPA. But it's a hard guess if that would really be paying off for you.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How does Google Home Services Ads work?
Hi mozzers, I have a plumber client who would like to try the Google Home Services ads but I have not found a guideline on this just yet. Do you know how to set it up? Do I need to use adwords or is it under another google product? The more details you guys have the better! Thanks
Paid Search Marketing | | Ideas-Money-Art0 -
Return of investment on spend on google adwords
Hi Running an adwords campaign for a builders/construction company namely double glazing what sort of return of investment could I expect to get on a return of £4000 per month? I know its a million dollar question but any insight or thoughts would be appreciated, especially on tracking ROI for example in this case it's just leads via a contact form on potential conservatory, windows or doors work which would be followed up via phone and an onsite visit.
Paid Search Marketing | | offonhols0 -
Google Analytics and WorldPay - Tracking Sales/Conversions
Hi there, I recently remember reading somewhere that tracking code could be used to monitor sales/conversions of eCommerce payments that went through WorldPay. I've been looking around the web for news stories, forums, discussions, but all seem to be from 2007 - 2011; was just wondering if anyone knew any up-to-date info they could point me towards? Thanks
Paid Search Marketing | | bricktech0 -
Google Adwords Conversion Tracking - Recording Wrong Page
Hi Guys I have a problem with my Google Adwords conversion tracking. Basically whenever I check to see which page it is recording, it shows me the incorrect one. Now I probably checked a thousand time now and the conversion tracking code is not on this specific page, but is on the one that I really want to track. I have also checked that the code is correct and that there is nothing missing. But strangely enough when I look at historical data, it does show that is was tracking conversions on the correct page, but for some reason the past couple of weeks it's reporting conversions from another page, which is the incorrect one. If somebody could please give me some insight as to what could maybe be the cause of this, I would appreciate it. Thank You Dave
Paid Search Marketing | | DavidZA10 -
Google PPC - coupon balances
So, I know that you can't simply transfer a coupon credit in Google AdWords to another account. My question, if anyone knows, is there a way to do this using My Client Center? We manage multiple accounts, and have another coming on board that has a pre-existing coupon credit. We were going to set up a new account (which we would handle billing for and just invoice) for the client. But, that would leave them unable to use a coupon code. If it's managed under MCC, is there a way to work around this?
Paid Search Marketing | | DeliaAssociates0 -
A question for Google Adwords experts
Hi Google Adwords experts, We own the trademarks to some keywords. When you search for these keywords, only our ads will ever appear but they don't appear every time a search is made. They're hardly ever appearing now that we've dropped our bid from $1+ to the minimum first page bid (1 cent in some cases). My question is; are the ads showing less because our bid has dropped so low? If so, why is this? If we own the trademark to the keyword and no one else can display ads, any bid that we submit should be accepted by Google, shouldn't it? If you can include a link to any articles that will give me more info, i'll vote for your answer. Thanks!
Paid Search Marketing | | HamiltonIsland0 -
How much does Google adwords cost increase year to year?
I am trying to find about how much the cost of Pay-Per-Click increases year to year? If anyone can point me to some data/study that speaks to this I would appreciate it very much.
Paid Search Marketing | | JerrodDavid0 -
Rating Snippet on Google SERP
Hi Mozers, I have question today. I see lot of Serps with rating review on the snippet, good i am reading on google about that, and i placed it on my website and i checked it, through google test tool and it works! My question is: Which type of rating system can i use on Google Adwords? Only shoping rating, or can i use the same rating system of my content and not on any product-shop on google? Can you tell me please! Thanks, Meti.
Paid Search Marketing | | leadsprofi0