I disagree. I manage a few small (<$10k/month campaigns) and Google is constantly advising bad moves. They recommend networks I’ve repeatedly turned off. They recommend geographic regions where I don’t operate. They recommend keyword combinations that have nothing to do with my site.
The default recommendations from AdWords are always bad for me and always very much more expensive. If I just accepted their recommendations and then their recommendations to up ad spend, I would easily pay 10x.
Maybe google is good for everyone but me. But maybe google just makes recommendations in their interest instead of mine.
Even with close attention, I find that I have to walk the line to not screw up because Google is trying to trick me. I feel similarly about Facebook’s changing privacy stuff. Like it’s me against the firm.
I've never had a consultation with one of Google's reps where the suggestion didn't increase my spend, while giving a worse ROI. At this point, I don't believe it's incompetence, it's systematic malice.
But I wasn't talking about using any of Google's suggestions, by phone or their automated recommendations. I was just referring to simple a/b testing and systematic use of negative keywords and fine-tuning settings.
11pm-5am is universally disabled for all my campaigns for example. My customer base simply isn't awake and buying at these times, because they have jobs. This alone dropped ad spend by 25% while only reducing conversions by 5%.
Not to mention that they repeatingly shows ads that I have taken the time to click "Not interested" on, to which they have answered "We'll try not to show you this ad again."
They either lie or they have just failed badly so far.
So some poor smuck - or rather a wealthy owner of a number of scammy sites - is getting fleeced, month by month, as AdWords keeps insisting on insulting me by suggesting my current family isn't good enough.
The default recommendations from AdWords are always bad for me and always very much more expensive. If I just accepted their recommendations and then their recommendations to up ad spend, I would easily pay 10x.
Maybe google is good for everyone but me. But maybe google just makes recommendations in their interest instead of mine.
Even with close attention, I find that I have to walk the line to not screw up because Google is trying to trick me. I feel similarly about Facebook’s changing privacy stuff. Like it’s me against the firm.