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Google and Facebook ad traffic is 90% useless

youexec.com

201–210 of 382 posts

Re: Google and Facebook ad traffic is 90% useless

#201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>My site was targeted with millions of low quality links Are you saying competitors maliciously sabotaged your ranking? Or that you bought SEO services from an unscrupulous company?

Does Google actually punish sites for buying spam SEO, or is this speculation without evidence? They don't publish page rank scores anymore, so how can one know? How does one determine their site is "punished"? I have seen the consequences of paying for SEO. They spam your site URL on random web forums. If you pay for SEO, you are very likely paying people to use bots and sweatshops to spam your site url via low qual…

I do know a company in India which does this site linking in forums, comment sections etc for their own product. They have large number of guys working on just linking. And does have good revenue as well.

Re: Google and Facebook ad traffic is 90% useless

#202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious, how does your behavior around perfectly elastic goods play out? Two products, same price, arguably indistinguishable (eg. Coke and Pepsi). I like to think I fall into the same category, where ads don't prompt me to spend money I wasn't going to spend before, but I think all else being equal I stick to brands I've heard of (via ads).

Out of my head, these kinds of products appealed to me as a kid, and I sticked to those I liked more. Pepsi lacked something. I can't be sure how psychological this is (branding, logo, color .. amount of marketing in my country versus the US). I still think I could probably distinguish them blind. Early on I was fond of both brands, but later, if you offered pepsi half the price I'd still pick out a can of coke. Now…

Sure, that was just an example though. Where do you buy gas? Which lightbulbs do you buy? Which batteries do you buy? Etc.

Re: Google and Facebook ad traffic is 90% useless

#203
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like a bad product

That's not an unfair conclusion. However, our retention rate after the first order was spectacular, and we slowly gathered a core group of users who were using our services exclusively. Unfortunately, despite providing a ubiquitous business service, we couldn't gather customers fast enough to float the boat.

Would need to see the product, but right off the bat seems like fb is the completelty wrong platform to be advertising. Marketing department should have been fired after 5 figures spent?

Re: Google and Facebook ad traffic is 90% useless

#204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of my head, these kinds of products appealed to me as a kid, and I sticked to those I liked more. Pepsi lacked something. I can't be sure how psychological this is (branding, logo, color .. amount of marketing in my country versus the US). I still think I could probably distinguish them blind. Early on I was fond of both brands, but later, if you offered pepsi half the price I'd still pick out a can of coke. Now…

Sure, that was just an example though. Where do you buy gas? Which lightbulbs do you buy? Which batteries do you buy? Etc.

Yeah sorry, I got caught in my own head. I think more than brand, it's shelves that drive the decision for such commodities. Whatever is close and in good supply I'll take without too much attention paid to the brand. Or brand reputation when I'm feel picky. But never advertising itself.

Re: Google and Facebook ad traffic is 90% useless

#205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) Update your Disavow file properly, which I am sure you've done 2) Email Google directly. It is sometimes difficult to find a way to email, but once you do they'll take care of it.

Any suggestions on where to search for such an email address?

Frankly I do not remember, but if you look into the webmaster console help section hard enough you will end up finding a place, or you can also try reporting an issue via the Maps since it is a local business. What is certain is you can contact someone there and they are usually helpful once you do.

Re: Google and Facebook ad traffic is 90% useless

#206
post #171
post #36

OP is simply doing it wrong. Advertising works, and the title's claim only shows how inexperienced op is. I work at a digital ad agency. Ads work if you do it correctly, but it's incredibly easy to waste money. People like op are why google and Facebook make buying ads overly complicated - if it were easy you wouldn't have to spend so much money. If op is reading this, I'd be happy to hop on a phone call and help you…

> People like op are why google and Facebook make buying ads overly complicated Buying ads is literally one of the easiest things I've ever done on Facebook.

Buying ads is easy. Buying effective ads is not.

Re: Google and Facebook ad traffic is 90% useless

#207
post #28

I really thought I was crazy when I thought that a 99% bounce rate is unreal, even for my highly specialised product sites which cater to a very niche audience. But I ultimately came to a similar conclusion; no matter what ads I come up with, it's money down the drain, and I've never had a single conversion that came through the door that way. I've spent untold thousands on paid ads. I learned a great deal about whic…

Is your product specialized to technical users? I've noticed that businesses with more technical clients have harder time getting customers via ads, because most technical users don't click on ads

I suspect most technical users don't see ads anymore.

Re: Google and Facebook ad traffic is 90% useless

#208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly is "dumb" amounts of money? If by dumb, you mean enough for authors to get by, then you are probably in the minority. People love talking about how much they hate ads, and how, no, they're not cheap, they would totally pay for content. Let's be honest - internet users are cheap. They want stuff for free. And if site A starts charging, they will jump ship to site B, until eventually it's a race to the bot…

I believe ad networks (that rely on third-party scripts and cookies) days are numbered thanks to adblocking. The only ads I see surviving long term are affiliate links, sponcered content and static native ads. The problems with ad networks are too big to go on for very long. Poor user experience, Ad fraud, malware, the indiscriminate gathering and selling of user information. It's just a matter of time 'till everyone…

I'm not sure sponsored content is better.

Re: Google and Facebook ad traffic is 90% useless

#209
Adwords used to work really well for me, over the years the return declined and the system got more complex until it wasn't worth the effort anymore.

There is a good post from Andy Brice on this: https://successfulsoftware.net/2013/05/26/the-declining-prof...

Re: Google and Facebook ad traffic is 90% useless

#210
post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" I guess my point is the current situation, basically 2 companies controlling so much traffic, seems, well, bad for small business in this country " Why " in this country "? Isn't it a problem for the entrepreneurs in the rest of the world too?

Chinese businesses don't care, Russian businesses don't care, etc.

Says who?
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