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We Wasted $50K on Google Ads So You Don't Have To (2019)

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Re: We Wasted $50K on Google Ads So You Don't Have To (2019)

#121

Post by mguerville »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #67
shripadk wrote: post #43

Left a comment on the IndieHackers page. Keeping a copy here for those who aren't reading the comments section. I have noticed this a lot in various websites I have helped in ad campaigns. Their biggest problem is their landing page. Just like this article uses lots of jargons to explain simple concepts, their landing page reflects the same. For those of you wanting to know more about landing page optimization just w…

> Don't get too fancy with your taglines. People don't have time to understand what you are saying. People don't like fancy terminologies except for what is popular. It's worse than that. And it's my pet peeve about many startup landing pages these days. It's not like people don't have time to understand - there's nothing there to understand ! "Full stack adaptive delivery" is a near-meaningless phrase. It can be con…

That's one of my favorite tool to try to get a brainstorming session back on track, to point to the fact that one of the sticky notes or items written on the white board is so vague it could be used for {insert ridiculously out of place business}

Re: We Wasted $50K on Google Ads So You Don't Have To (2019)

#122

Post by shripadk »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #100
shripadk wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As someone who is trying to learn and some day launch something like this, thank you so much for this advice! Thank you. Just sharing what I learned from the masters in the field. The best of which is Isaac Rudansky. Marketing is made unnecessarily complex these days. It is not rocket science. Anyone can do it.

> Marketing is made unnecessarily complex these days. I have a cynical theory for that too! The reason marketing is made complex is because it's not just marketers pushing products to the rest of the world, but also marketers pushing marketing tools to each other. Just like a marketer may exploit my fear for health of my kids, or desire for social status, they can exploit other marketer's fear of low campaign success…

I agree with you again. I have come to the same conclusion as you have. Many of the tools that are used by marketers are absolutely pointless. I suspect it is used to beef up their presentations to prospective clients. How else would they differentiate themselves from the 100 other ad agencies that are doing the same thing? Show metrics from an obscure tool hyped up by an "industry expert" and show where the client lacks compared to competitors. The most prolific of these tools is keyword analysis tools. You just have to trust the data that is generated by these tools and then reports are created based on these approximations. No one knows for sure if the numbers are accurate or not.

Re: We Wasted $50K on Google Ads So You Don't Have To (2019)

#123

Post by shripadk »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #87
ryguytilidie wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do recruiting consulting and it blows my mind how every time I ask a startup how they differentiate from other startups and what specific advantages they want me to discuss, they give me a bunch of meaningless phrases. Its like founders are being taught a different language that they think provides value but makes no fucking sense.

I'd love to know where they learn that. In my university years, I used to invent such ridiculously overblown phrases for simple things I did, as a form of mockery of corporate culture and my general pastime. But at some point I did realize that these phrases are hashing functions - like the ones you use in a hash table to put objects into buckets. So for a particular thing I do, say "adding colors to terminal applica…

I never thought of it this way. Really nice analogy.

Re: We Wasted $50K on Google Ads So You Don't Have To (2019)

#124

Post by pgrote »

degenerate wrote: post #74
shripadk wrote: post #43

Left a comment on the IndieHackers page. Keeping a copy here for those who aren't reading the comments section. I have noticed this a lot in various websites I have helped in ad campaigns. Their biggest problem is their landing page. Just like this article uses lots of jargons to explain simple concepts, their landing page reflects the same. For those of you wanting to know more about landing page optimization just w…

Linking to the UDemy course, since you mentioned it: https://www.udemy.com/course/landing-page-design-best-practi...

Weird. If you go to udemy it says $9.99. If you logon to purchase, it says $199.99. lol

Re: We Wasted $50K on Google Ads So You Don't Have To (2019)

#125

Post by IggleSniggle »

EdwardDiego wrote: post #102
stef25 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keywords rarely involve complex jargon. The search volume for "Full stack adaptive delivery" is probably 0

Speak for yourself! I am routinely trying to find adaptive delivery for my full stack!

I'm trying to find a full delivery of stack adaptives, but my search results are always so filled with this other crap that I can never find what I'm looking for.

Re: We Wasted $50K on Google Ads So You Don't Have To (2019)

#126

Post by leeoniya »

asperous wrote: post #119
leeoniya wrote: post #45

> CTR is the most important component of Quality Score this is because that's how google gets paid. you can create a great ad that's not terribly relevant to a specific audience, get good ctr but poor conversion. some tips: make sure to watch your search query reports and continuously refine your [hopefully shared] carefully-applied negative keywords lists. avoid broad match like the plague. we use mostly phrase and…

While Google may be paid per click, the value of that click (how much companies are willing to pay), is directly dependent on their conversion rates. So Google is incentivized to get you the most converting clicks as possible.

i think it's safe to say that the incentives are not exactly aligned.

if i was google, i would make sure that the ctr was as high as possible while the conversion rate was just enough to be worth it.

there are a lot of fine-grained controls missing from the adwords backend which waste money. for example, you cannot segment iphones from android, or forcibly exclude ie11 because you have chosen not to support it any more and the site falls apart on it. you cannot prevent ads from showing to visitors who've already come and bounced. they keep expanding how much "modified broad" sucks in by making the matching looser - with little notice. and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

lots of things that can easily save you money do not exist in their backend. imo these are not oversights but are left out intentionally.

Re: We Wasted $50K on Google Ads So You Don't Have To (2019)

#127

Post by somecallitblues »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #87
ryguytilidie wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do recruiting consulting and it blows my mind how every time I ask a startup how they differentiate from other startups and what specific advantages they want me to discuss, they give me a bunch of meaningless phrases. Its like founders are being taught a different language that they think provides value but makes no fucking sense.

I'd love to know where they learn that. In my university years, I used to invent such ridiculously overblown phrases for simple things I did, as a form of mockery of corporate culture and my general pastime. But at some point I did realize that these phrases are hashing functions - like the ones you use in a hash table to put objects into buckets. So for a particular thing I do, say "adding colors to terminal applica…

Cryptic you were.

Re: We Wasted $50K on Google Ads So You Don't Have To (2019)

#128

Post by lsalvatore »

pgrote wrote: post #124
degenerate wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linking to the UDemy course, since you mentioned it: https://www.udemy.com/course/landing-page-design-best-practi...

Weird. If you go to udemy it says $9.99. If you logon to purchase, it says $199.99. lol

It's a new student discount. Now that I've provided valuable information to this thread, I'll just go and link my Udemy course: https://www.udemy.com/course/react-data-visualization-build-...

Re: We Wasted $50K on Google Ads So You Don't Have To (2019)

#129

Post by danvoell »

dangerface wrote: post #53

Op had some good tactics but an ass backwards strategy. Should have let the agency do the thing they where paid to do. > Lesson #1: Test and trim keywords sets before hiring an agency to scale things This isn't how agencies work. You did the keyword research and testing yourself and then paid some one else to do it again. I work in an agency, I won't work with you if you do this, because you will get the same results…

I like this discussion more than the article. Someone should do a follow-up. We wasted $50K and then we wasted a write-up of our learnings, so you don't have to.

Re: We Wasted $50K on Google Ads So You Don't Have To (2019)

#130

Post by travisjungroth »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #87
ryguytilidie wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do recruiting consulting and it blows my mind how every time I ask a startup how they differentiate from other startups and what specific advantages they want me to discuss, they give me a bunch of meaningless phrases. Its like founders are being taught a different language that they think provides value but makes no fucking sense.

I'd love to know where they learn that. In my university years, I used to invent such ridiculously overblown phrases for simple things I did, as a form of mockery of corporate culture and my general pastime. But at some point I did realize that these phrases are hashing functions - like the ones you use in a hash table to put objects into buckets. So for a particular thing I do, say "adding colors to terminal applica…

And if there’s a collision, just move to the next one!
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