Generating Google AdWords You've written the copy and
you've planned the budget. Now, what keywords are
you going to use for your ad?
Contributed by: [03/13/03 | Discuss (4) | Link to this hack]
Comments on this hack
Showing messages 1 through 3 of 3.
Google AdWords
2007-01-13 08:30:44
spelhank
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This is a complaint about Google Adwords. I signed up for an Adwords account and began making payments via my credit card. The results of these advertisements were very poor -- although I was paying 100 - 200 per month for the ads. During the first 3 months, I got very few results, and decided to cancel my account which started on September 10, 2006.
The first week I was charged $101 for the adwords advertising. This wasn't so bad I thought -- let it run and see if I get any results.
The second week I was charged $57, $97, $53, $72, then .... $214. I started getting worried ... the next day it was $390. I paniced and contacted Google suggesting that perhaps a competitor was running up my account on purpose. I opened an investigation on malicious clicks. Of course, this took several days, so by the time I heard from the results, I had been charged: $528, then $566. They said that they could find no evidence of malicious clicks. I told them that I was getting no results -- only about two leads so far. I was doing better through Yahoo at 1/10th the price.
I immediately logged into Google and stopped my account. I cancelled the account on 10/18 and paused my account (I thought). After cancelling, I continued to get charges. I was OK with the first charge after cancellation since I figured there might be some lag -- $553. However, then I got an additional charge of $415 posted to my credit card on 11/11 -- about 3 weeks after I had cancelled the account, I lodged a protest.
Google claims that these charges were legitimate -- resulting from "... accrued charges for legitimate advertising activity
between October 12th and October 18th while your campaign was active." and that this was agreed to in my original agreement for Adwords.
I still believe one of my competitors was maliciously clicking to drive me off of advertising, but, of course, I can't prove that. However, I do not feel that I should have to pay the remaining $415 and protested this amount on my credit card.
Now Google is threatening to turn my account over to collection. What recourse do I have --- Google is Google and therefore they are right?
My company is a very small one-person company. I cannot afford big legal fees to fight this. What can I do?
Ex-Adwords user
spelhank@centurytel.net
Google Adwords very limited !
2003-12-12 07:15:03
phphph
[View]
Hello
I found the below news on The Internet. Is it true what they say ? Actually it was my plan to subscribe for adwords. But now I doubt. Is there anyone who can give me advice on this ?
Thanks !
Peter Hudson.
News, Dec 11 2003.
Two weeks ago, Jan Mackenzie, a search-engine expert and president of The National SE-club approached us with interesting news about Googles’ Adwords Program.
Up to date Mr. Mackenzie was able to collect more than 3000 complaints from Google advertisers which, according to the expert will soon result in a 30-million-claim against Google.
The Club’s president is receiving an average of over 30 complaints/day, most of them with detailed information about how much the advertisers’ damage is and the period it occurred. The expert told us to be in in the final stage of the court case-preparations and added :
“ Our statistics show that the average damage is approximately $ 5000 per advertiser. Before we start the collective court case I’ll collect 3000 more complaints, which enables us to pay our lawyers. The ultimate claim will be approximately thirty million dollar. Every complaint we receive must include as many details as possible and fortunately most of them are very complete. Our lawyers expect they’ll be able to prove their case.
Finally Googles’ Adwords customers discovered the reason why so many keywords don’t work in Adwords : Google has disabled many keywords that are no Trademark at all. Examples are : home depot, beer and casino. Generic Terms that can be found in dictionaries can never be trademarked. Nobody can protect words like house, casino, church, beer, water, milk, hardware, home depot, furniture. But Google already disabled many of those keywords in their advertising program. Nobody understands why Google immediately disables a keyword after a complaint from a company claiming that the keyword is their trademark. Even without proof that it is a protected Trademark. That is an enormous disadvantage for Adwords customers. I think that Googles' customers are entitled to know exactly what is going on with trademarks. But Google doesn't react at all when receiving complaints from Adwords Customers related to Googles' Trademark Protection Policy. And Google refuses to provide her Adwords customers with the list of protected Trademarks. My conclusion is : think twice before you start with Adwords, its very limited. Before starting with Adwords, investigate very well if your desired keywords are allowed and even then things can still go wrong because Google keeps on disabling keywords on a daily base thus degenerating Adwords more and more.
Our Newsroom asked Google 3 times for a reaction and heard nothing from the Search Engine.
So at least Mackenzies' complaint about a silent Google seems to be justified.
Is the Giant afraid of dwarfs ?
The first week I was charged $101 for the adwords advertising. This wasn't so bad I thought -- let it run and see if I get any results.
The second week I was charged $57, $97, $53, $72, then .... $214. I started getting worried ... the next day it was $390. I paniced and contacted Google suggesting that perhaps a competitor was running up my account on purpose. I opened an investigation on malicious clicks. Of course, this took several days, so by the time I heard from the results, I had been charged: $528, then $566. They said that they could find no evidence of malicious clicks. I told them that I was getting no results -- only about two leads so far. I was doing better through Yahoo at 1/10th the price.
I immediately logged into Google and stopped my account. I cancelled the account on 10/18 and paused my account (I thought). After cancelling, I continued to get charges. I was OK with the first charge after cancellation since I figured there might be some lag -- $553. However, then I got an additional charge of $415 posted to my credit card on 11/11 -- about 3 weeks after I had cancelled the account, I lodged a protest.
Google claims that these charges were legitimate -- resulting from "... accrued charges for legitimate advertising activity
between October 12th and October 18th while your campaign was active." and that this was agreed to in my original agreement for Adwords.
I still believe one of my competitors was maliciously clicking to drive me off of advertising, but, of course, I can't prove that. However, I do not feel that I should have to pay the remaining $415 and protested this amount on my credit card.
Now Google is threatening to turn my account over to collection. What recourse do I have --- Google is Google and therefore they are right?
My company is a very small one-person company. I cannot afford big legal fees to fight this. What can I do?
Ex-Adwords user
spelhank@centurytel.net