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The declining profitability of Google Adwords

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Re: The declining profitability of Google Adwords

#81

Post by kevingadd »

geetanjalityagi wrote: post #35

The OP probably needs to optimize his ads (i.e. tune them) and the conversion funnel. In my five years of working at Google as an AdWords manager (I don't work there anymore), I've seen cost-per-click and bids rise consistently especially for Google search. This has a lot to do with competition and limited real estate. However, Google maintains something called Quality Score which is analogous to page-rank that deter…

Does that mean that if your quality score isn't high enough, Google will pocket your adwords money and never actually show your ads? That sounds incredibly dishonest.

Re: The declining profitability of Google Adwords

#82

Post by geetanjalityagi »

kevingadd wrote: post #81
geetanjalityagi wrote: post #35

The OP probably needs to optimize his ads (i.e. tune them) and the conversion funnel. In my five years of working at Google as an AdWords manager (I don't work there anymore), I've seen cost-per-click and bids rise consistently especially for Google search. This has a lot to do with competition and limited real estate. However, Google maintains something called Quality Score which is analogous to page-rank that deter…

Does that mean that if your quality score isn't high enough, Google will pocket your adwords money and never actually show your ads? That sounds incredibly dishonest.

Google charges you only when someone clicks on your ad. So you don't get charged for your ad showing unless someone clicks on it. The way it all started out was to show good quality ads to people. Just like search results the idea is to make ads also as relevant as possible to the user. Not defending Google, just stating facts. Some changes they have made recently (enhanced campaigns) may not be as advertiser friendly as promoted.

Re: The declining profitability of Google Adwords

#83

Post by kposehn »

To some degree the OP is right.

A static campaign, sending traffic to the same landing page, not increasing the bids to account for changes in CPC, will be less successful than before.

Over the last several years, the barrier to entry has dropped but the barrier to success has risen extremely high. It is much more difficult to profit when most of your competitors are using every tool at their disposal to crush yo.

The two things that could easily make/crush his conclusion is average position and quality score. I want to see the average position on search and quality score over time as that will indicate:

1. If he has not kept bids in line with the market 2. If his site has continued to be updated with sufficient fresh content to appease the googlebot 3. If he has continued to improve his ads (CTR is one of the components of quality score!)

Those things will indicate where his efforts have fallen down.

Re: The declining profitability of Google Adwords

#84

Post by veesahni »

megrimlock wrote: post #80
veesahni wrote: post #54

Another aspect of this is Google's inflationary tactics that continue to rack up rates. I had written a post on this: http://www.vinaysahni.com/how-google-inflates-adwords-bids Their inflationary game has still not ended. This week I got a coupon in the mail for $200 AdWords credit if I spend $50.

Hey Vinay -- I just wanted to remark that supportfu.com looks great. Even though I'm not in a business where I'd need such a thing, I found your copy compelling enough to imagine myself running such a biz and how to provide the best possible support, and concluded that I'd want something very much like what you offer. Best of luck.

Thanks for the kind words :)

Re: The declining profitability of Google Adwords

#85

Post by csdreamer7 »

michaelt wrote: post #18
cjmb wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the OP's premise is extended to all others in his peer group, I read this as the implied "long-run" outcome. Whether that's true or not is another argument...

If the problem is that he's getting a worse return as people are outbidding him for the best words/placement, it could be the opposite.

agreed

Re: The declining profitability of Google Adwords

#86

Post by cynwoody »

So, just for fun, I googled "event table planning". No paid ad for his app appeared.

However, a quick scan through the first page shows he did get at least three freebies: two of the four image results are screen shots from his homepage, and the second search result is his site and includes a to-the-point abstract.

Re: The declining profitability of Google Adwords

#87

Post by lostlogin »

veesahni wrote: post #54

Another aspect of this is Google's inflationary tactics that continue to rack up rates. I had written a post on this: http://www.vinaysahni.com/how-google-inflates-adwords-bids Their inflationary game has still not ended. This week I got a coupon in the mail for $200 AdWords credit if I spend $50.

An advert for ads.

Re: The declining profitability of Google Adwords

#88

Post by hermitcrab »

cbr wrote: post #58
tonyedgecombe wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think he said his sales were flagging, just that Adwords was becoming less profitable.

He said "conversions" were falling, which means sales: http://successfulsoftware.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/adword... But he doesn't say whether conversions-per-incoming-click are declining.

CTR and conversation rates have remained pretty constant throughout.

Re: The declining profitability of Google Adwords

#90

Post by Imagenuity »

You can't just display an ad at any price, even if there are no other ads. There are too many spam ads now, but it used to be quite a bit worse. Setting a minimum price sets the bar high enough to make it not worth the cost to spam. It's gotta be a juggling act for Google to keep prices within reach of legitimate advertisers while keeping out the riffraff.

The only other solution is to manually approve all ads before they go live.

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