Help! Something has happened to my adwords!

[schwags]

I have been using adwords since I started 6 years ago and it has always worked great for me. I have tweaked and optimized, even got Google (yes, actually google) to optimize the campaign. Everything was working great until December 7th, then nothing! I mean this isn't a 10% decrease or something attributable to chance, it literally went from 10+ clicks per day to 0 for the last 30 days straight! I talked to my Google rep, she gave me some pointers on general keyword management etc...but nothing concrete. I asked if the ad placement algorithm has changed, or anything of the like and she knew nothing.

So, has anyone else seen an obvious change in their adwords performance after the first week of December? I would really like to know if this is just me, or something more common. If so, how did you fix it?

 

[Magic Miguel]

How far up were you in the ad listing? What happens when you use the ad preview and diagnosis under the keywords section? Does your ad show up?

 

[schwags]

That's the strange thing, all of Google's diagnostic tools showed my ad as showing. I am usually pretty high up. I find that unless you are the top 3, people don't click. So, I used to have adwords set to put me in the top three spots, but less often. For the last year that option seems to be missing, but it didn't really seem to matter.

Since my op I have gone through and modified my keywords to be more specific per the advice of the google girl, and now they are showing again. I didn't really change much. It's almost like I needed to kick-start my campaign by making some changes...weird.

 

[inetuk]

Here in the UK I noticed a increase in costs from £1.21 to £4.14 for the same Keyword, also less clicks and exposure during November. Due to this I did not advertise with Google during December.

I found in November after Google reviewed the ad I was not getting any click, so change dmy keywords back and started getting click! I removed "+" from my keywords
Will try again latter this week, will keep you posted.

 

[inetuk]

OK So I have ad words running for over a week now:

Position Desktop: In the to 3 this varied on search keywords!
Mostly top of right hand column.

Mobile Device: Never in top listing always top of the bottom listing and the end of the first page.

Bids set for automatic cost must higher per visitor than previous.

What about you?

 

[maclaptech]

Maybe you have more competition now. Try to increase your daily budget and raise your CPC and see if it makes a difference.

 

[schwags]

I did end up raising my budget and converting a lot of my broad match keywords into broad match modified (add a + in front of the word). That seems to have brought the beast back to life and I am getting clicks again. The thing that made me think it was not all just budget related was that my impressions did not decrease, in fact they increased. I think Google was trying to show my ad more often in an effort to get people to click. (they want clicks too, that's how they make money!). Anyway, it seems to be resolved now, but that was a very strange hiccup.

 

[OCWI]

are you guys actually making any $$ from adwords? I just redid my site and am thinking of trying AW...I know there is a science to it and I have a inhouse web designer who can do it just wondering if it actually works or if like all other advertising that is just tons of money flying our the door?

 

[schwags]

When I started my business, Adwords was my only source of advertizing. Now I have many different kinds of advertising, but adwords still brings in the majority of my new customers.

 

[callthatgirl]

I'm still torn on doing AdWords or not. I just did my Jan marketing and almost 50% of my revenue was from Google, not AdWords. yeah, I did this...



All from my blogs people are searching.

I'm sure adding on a $100 for AdWords will help, but just sayin'

 

[CLC]

I'm still torn on doing AdWords or not. I just did my Jan marketing and almost 50% of my revenue was from Google, not AdWords. yeah, I did this...



All from my blogs people are searching.

I'm sure adding on a $100 for AdWords will help, but just sayin'

I get most of my residential customers through adwords, it's worth it for the price especially if you target a certain area. If you are going for a wider area you have to pay a lot more.

 

[OCWI]

When I started my business, Adwords was my only source of advertizing. Now I have many different kinds of advertising, but adwords still brings in the majority of my new customers.

may I ask what you spend a mo on adwords?

 

[jamiesev]

I got a voucher for $50 when I launched my new website, so far Adwords has made me $20 and around 4 calls.....

 

[MDenton45]

Have any of you looked into or heard of Perry Marshall? There is a lot of great information on his website about Adwords. I haven't used Adwords before, but have learned a lot from his site.