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Google AdWords charged me for clicks in Istanbul while location-targeting the US

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Re: Google AdWords charged me for clicks in Istanbul while location-targeting the US

#91

Post by tobltobs »

pheug wrote: post #53
unreal37 wrote: post #38

I'm surprised that you're surprised. You worked for Google. You should have known this before today.

Why exactly should he have known this, especially as an SWE? Google is a gigantic 110k+ people company by now. It's totally possibly to spend years head deep in code specializing on some obscure parts of codebase with near zero understanding how everything else works outside of your narrow area of focus.

He has been working for two years in the AdWords team. Sure it is possible to work somewhere for two years and don't get even an basic understanding of the product, but it is unsurprising if somebody would call that surprising.

Re: Google AdWords charged me for clicks in Istanbul while location-targeting the US

#92

Post by temp20160423 »

tehwebguy wrote: post #6

Google bundles bad clicks like a pile of stinking, rotten subprime mortgages and then peppers them with some good clicks and sells them to you like JP Morgan in 2005. Did you read the fine print? Doesn’t matter, you can’t redline it anyway so it’s take it or leave it.

a) How do we know these clicks are bad? A sample size of 3 is pretty early to make any conclusions. b) If clicks are not delivering value, advertisers should lower their bids. As Google encourages advertisers to switch to bids set on hitting ROI targets, what really matters to advertisers is that they achieve their targets. If the clicks are "bad" and conversion rates are poor, then bids will be adjusted down, presumably by everyone.

The fact that prices are set by an auction makes the system inherently sustainable unless you think many of the bidders are irrational.

Re: Google AdWords charged me for clicks in Istanbul while location-targeting the US

#93

Post by temp20160423 »

stinkycatfart wrote: post #28

Being a SWE on Ads gave him an inclination to use Google products?! Honestly I think this highlights how divorced eng is from real world usage, otherwise he'd know this shit happens. every.damn.day. ad tech is a house of cards and makes me reconsider working at Google every day.

You work on ads at Google and feel that ad tech is a house of cards?

I actually disagree, primarily because of the auction. It's an incredibly clever way to ensure Google's incentives are aligned with the advertisers'. Assuming rational bidders, Google can only charge more per click if the clicks deliver more value to the advertisers. If Google just sends a bunch of garbage clicks to the advertisers, they will just lower their bids.

Re: Google AdWords charged me for clicks in Istanbul while location-targeting the US

#94

Post by tomaszs »

Google changed it lately without any special notification. Unfortunately. There are more things to watch out.

For example if you set a budget of 100 dollars per day, Google can, and most likely, will, spend 200 dollars in short campaign per day.

Another thing: in display campaign, on default, most of the budget will be drained by mobile fraud applications that generate fake clicks. And also by video clicks made by babies on YouTube. And Google removed an option to disable mobile apps altogether lately.

Keyword targeting - on default Google uses broad matching including variants etc. Eventually you can pay for clicks for non relevant keywords that will also drain most of the budget.

Another thing: Google advises to put ads on your company name. It is a neat strategy, because you pay for something you had for free. And campaign seems to have better statistics.

Another thing. You wont believe it, untill you see it. Aprox up to 80% of ad traffic are bots. And advertising platforms does not recognize it or refund.

And so on... I am working on Google Ads campaigns for several years now. Always say to my client two things:

1) Google and Facebook will spent every penny you want to spend

2) Spend on ads only such amount on money, you can live without, and keep it running for a longer time without interruption.

3) Optimise often

Re: Google AdWords charged me for clicks in Istanbul while location-targeting the US

#95

Post by HereBeBeasties »

temp20160423 wrote: post #92
tehwebguy wrote: post #6

Google bundles bad clicks like a pile of stinking, rotten subprime mortgages and then peppers them with some good clicks and sells them to you like JP Morgan in 2005. Did you read the fine print? Doesn’t matter, you can’t redline it anyway so it’s take it or leave it.

a) How do we know these clicks are bad? A sample size of 3 is pretty early to make any conclusions. b) If clicks are not delivering value, advertisers should lower their bids. As Google encourages advertisers to switch to bids set on hitting ROI targets, what really matters to advertisers is that they achieve their targets. If the clicks are "bad" and conversion rates are poor, then bids will be adjusted down, presum…

Define "sustainable".

Seems like it encourages companies to get in a bidding war against each other in a race to zero profit margins, while Google pockets what could have been their revenue.

Re: Google AdWords charged me for clicks in Istanbul while location-targeting the US

#96

Post by pjc50 »

ohazi wrote: post #78
ProfessorLayton wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To my surprise yes ads are very effective. Without getting too specific, my close relatives run their own business as home improvement contractors. In the early days, before they had their reputation built, I setup a google adwords campaign for them — having never run an ad campaign before. It was a simple PPC campaign that included keywords in google search results and geofenced it to the SFBay. Here are some number…

That's not exactly a shining endorsement... "Yeah, Google was robbing us blind and kind of scamming us with their geofencing shenanigans, but we were making enough money that it wasn't worth fighting, and eventually we figured out how to stop buying ads from them."

But in order to run a business you have to get customers from somewhere. And referrals aren't an option until you already have customers.

Re: Google AdWords charged me for clicks in Istanbul while location-targeting the US

#97

Post by tomaszs »

godtoldmetodoit wrote: post #66
VBprogrammer wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not saying you are wrong but brand awareness ads are, if I'm reading correctly, exactly the kind of wasted ad money the parent was talking about. They are the cluster bombs of the advertising world. I think the Parent was actually advocating surgical PPC management of the style patio11 has written about extensively.

Branding is a moat. There's a reason Coke and Pepsi spend hundreds of millions on branding ads and I am sure they know there is a ROI there.

Brand campaigns are good if you use vast multichannel campaign to make people remember your product. I dont need to say it is extremely expensive but works.

Other reason to use it is when you dont want to be screwed by fake clicks, and are 100% sure people will find your product anyways and buy it.

Re: Google AdWords charged me for clicks in Istanbul while location-targeting the US

#98

Post by tomaszs »

puranjay wrote: post #80
echelon wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who has adblocked everything since my teenage years, the whole ad industry seems to be making orders of magnitude more money than it should. I just don't understand how anyone comes to buy things shown in ads. Are ads really effective? I don't buy advertised products. Do we really trust ad tech accounting? They've been caught inflating numbers over and over again. The whole house of cards seems like it cou…

Ads are massively effective. My friends and I launched a physical product over the weekend last week. I put together a basic landing page and bought some Instagram ads. We spent about INR 250 (around $4) before I stopped the ads to do some optimization. That $4 in spending brought us 1 customer who placed 2 orders worth $35. He also referred 2 other customers who placed an additional order of $35. $70 in revenue for…

The problem starts when you want to scale actually

Re: Google AdWords charged me for clicks in Istanbul while location-targeting the US

#99

Post by ifdefdebug »

izacus wrote: post #84

So HN wants Google not to track prople but still exactly and completely accurately know the location of each and every one of them for Ad targeting? That sounds incompatible.

What about just not serving the ad to an IP in Turkey without even looking at the person using it?
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