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A Google Adwords Bug That Cost Us

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Re: A Google Adwords Bug That Cost Us

#21

Post by rbinv »

coliveira wrote: post #17
golergka wrote: post #10

It really bothers me, how bad the Google's support is, especially for the products that make them money. It's common knowledge that they can close your advertiser's profile, lock the money and you won't be able to reach them about it. But at the same time, nobody is making a lot of noise about it, although it is a multi-billion dollar company and it is the product that they make most of their money from. Most of B2B…

Google adwords is not for small advertisers. Period. It may work fine if you spend millions of dollars or if you have so much time and experience in your hands that losing money is not a problem, but it doesn't work for the general population.

This is absolutely not true.

Re: A Google Adwords Bug That Cost Us

#22

Post by imdsm »

No credit to the account? Definitely pursue this! Absolutely, definitely pursue this. Find out why the number was wrong, find out why the technical team had to change it, find out how long it was wrong for, establish whose fault it was, tot up how much it cost you, and definitely ask for a refund!

Just think if this was your personal money, what would you do? If you just take the hit, the money doesn't mean enough to you.

Re: A Google Adwords Bug That Cost Us

#23

Post by imdsm »

simonswords82 wrote: post #11
simonbarker87 wrote: post #4

Google should really refund the money to you for that - they must be in breach of a terms of service?

I need to second this, you've done a great job of keeping a level head and focussing on getting the issue sorted. Now it is sorted and they've admitted fault it's time to follow up and ask for your money back.

I hate when people do this but totally thirding this. If you don't get the money back from them, something is seriously wrong here.

You have admission of fault. Right there.

Re: A Google Adwords Bug That Cost Us

#24

Post by JonLim »

I hope you got a refund?

We spend quite a bit of money on AdWords every day, and I started managing the account a few weeks ago (hand-off from an agency) and it's been a fantastic challenge to brush up on that part of my skill-set again. However, it's kind of weird that their numbers never really match up with ours, typically overreported, and I pray that we never run into an issue like the one you have had.

On the bright side, at least AdWords numbers are predictably off (about 15% overreported, on average.) Facebook Ads numbers overreport anywhere from 10% to 100%, so that's the one I worry about on a day to day basis.

Re: A Google Adwords Bug That Cost Us

#25

Post by JonLim »

coliveira wrote: post #17
golergka wrote: post #10

It really bothers me, how bad the Google's support is, especially for the products that make them money. It's common knowledge that they can close your advertiser's profile, lock the money and you won't be able to reach them about it. But at the same time, nobody is making a lot of noise about it, although it is a multi-billion dollar company and it is the product that they make most of their money from. Most of B2B…

Google adwords is not for small advertisers. Period. It may work fine if you spend millions of dollars or if you have so much time and experience in your hands that losing money is not a problem, but it doesn't work for the general population.

I'd count us as a relatively small advertiser, but it works perfectly well for us. Since I've taken over our accounts, I've made quite an impact in terms of traffic and conversions, and we don't spend that much compared to big brands.

That, and I've gotten them on the phone for support a few times already, answering random questions I have, pretty satisfactory.

Re: A Google Adwords Bug That Cost Us

#26

Post by rcarrigan87 »

coliveira wrote: post #17
golergka wrote: post #10

It really bothers me, how bad the Google's support is, especially for the products that make them money. It's common knowledge that they can close your advertiser's profile, lock the money and you won't be able to reach them about it. But at the same time, nobody is making a lot of noise about it, although it is a multi-billion dollar company and it is the product that they make most of their money from. Most of B2B…

Google adwords is not for small advertisers. Period. It may work fine if you spend millions of dollars or if you have so much time and experience in your hands that losing money is not a problem, but it doesn't work for the general population.

Size of business really isn't important, life time value of a customer is really the primary metric when evaluating whether or not a paid channel will work for your business.

If you can convert a lead profitably then it makes sense to advertise in that channel.

If you spend $400 per lead and you convert 1 out of every 10 leads to a paying customer, then it costs you $4,000 to acquire that customer. If the life time value of the customer is $10,000 with a 50% profit margin ($5,000), then you just profited $1K!

PPC is really a game of arbitrage. Where it gets hazy is calculating correct LTV (considering customer turnover, referrals, etc.) and properly tracking conversions. It's not an exact science but good advertisers can get accurate enough.

Re: A Google Adwords Bug That Cost Us

#27

Post by Cthulhu_ »

JonLim wrote: post #24

I hope you got a refund? We spend quite a bit of money on AdWords every day, and I started managing the account a few weeks ago (hand-off from an agency) and it's been a fantastic challenge to brush up on that part of my skill-set again. However, it's kind of weird that their numbers never really match up with ours, typically overreported, and I pray that we never run into an issue like the one you have had. On the b…

> I hope you got a refund?

Seconded; the support people basically did state it was an error on their side, so a full refund sounds obvious. Maybe even a compensation for damages, since you probably lost a lot of potential customers.

Re: A Google Adwords Bug That Cost Us

#29

Post by ksk »

golergka wrote: post #10

It really bothers me, how bad the Google's support is, especially for the products that make them money. It's common knowledge that they can close your advertiser's profile, lock the money and you won't be able to reach them about it. But at the same time, nobody is making a lot of noise about it, although it is a multi-billion dollar company and it is the product that they make most of their money from. Most of B2B…

>It really bothers me, how bad the Google's support is, especially for the products that make them money

In what way was the support inadequate with regards to this article? It seems to me Google responded pretty quickly and resolved this persons issue.

Re: A Google Adwords Bug That Cost Us

#30

Post by rfergie »

rcarrigan87 wrote: post #26
coliveira wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google adwords is not for small advertisers. Period. It may work fine if you spend millions of dollars or if you have so much time and experience in your hands that losing money is not a problem, but it doesn't work for the general population.

Size of business really isn't important, life time value of a customer is really the primary metric when evaluating whether or not a paid channel will work for your business. If you can convert a lead profitably then it makes sense to advertise in that channel. If you spend $400 per lead and you convert 1 out of every 10 leads to a paying customer, then it costs you $4,000 to acquire that customer. If the life time v…

The key difference for small businesses is that the fixed costs of learning and managing the system can skew these numbers.

For bigger advertisers these costs are insignificant in comparison to the media bill

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