How in the hell does ANYONE make money with G Adwords?

21 replies
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They have gotten so picky and so expensive I am having a hard time believing anyone can make a good take with them...

Just venting a bit I suppose after continually getting ads denied when I see hundreds just like my denied ads running all the time.

After waiting 3 weeks to get my last submission denied I am done with them. Hello Yahoo and MSN I've had it...
#adwords #hell #make #money
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  • Profile picture of the author winebuddy
    It all depends on the campaign and the followup sequence and the offer.

    I do it every day.

    It also depends on the niche. Some are VERY inexpensive.
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    • Profile picture of the author Christian Fox
      Originally Posted by winebuddy View Post

      It all depends on the campaign and the followup sequence and the offer.

      I do it every day.

      It also depends on the niche. Some are VERY inexpensive.
      I agree but Damn....

      I can snoop into my competitions pages, examine their ads, their keywords, the landing pages, everything. I am doing the same exact thing yet my CTR and conversions are not enough to justify the price...IF I can even get an adgroup approved after a month of trying....

      I think some are content to lose money to get an opt in or whatever...

      I am going to have to aggressively go after niches with little to no PPC competition with Google this is the only answer as far as I can tell. I have been having better luck with Yahoo and MSN.

      Also trying Adbrite and possibly Zango soon...
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      • Profile picture of the author Fox30
        Originally Posted by Christian Fox View Post

        Also trying Adbrite and possibly Zango soon...

        Careful with adbrite...i've tried them with no luck what so ever.
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  • Profile picture of the author Wham
    well its not google determining the price but the people themselves, obviously if you go for highly competitive keywords you're going to have to pay more then other to get your ad shown.

    As for the denied ads I can't say I've ever gotten anything denied.

    It is a pain though, which is why I don't use it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Fox30
    I've set up a couple of really simple campaigns with Google Adwords in the last couple of days with no problems. My landing pages have everything that they require. Home, Contact, Privacy, Sitemap, Blog(not required, but a good idea).

    Most of my ads were approved right away.

    Read their guidelines...long read, but worth it. You can also call an Adwords Representative for help, after all, you are their client. I've done that before and they gave me a lot of really good tips.
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  • Profile picture of the author winebuddy
    my ads - even for brand new campaigns - show up within minutes
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    • Profile picture of the author Fox30
      Originally Posted by winebuddy View Post

      my ads - even for brand new campaigns - show up within minutes

      same here.
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  • Profile picture of the author Christian Fox
    my ads - even for brand new campaigns - show up within minutes
    This has ALWAYS been my experience as well. I had some bad campaign performance in the past but have studied PPC Classroom and others quite a bit. I think my account has been flagged as a non performer....Google is like an bitter elephant, they never forget and they can't tell you why they are upset with you. Annoying...


    I've set up a couple of really simple campaigns with Google Adwords in the last couple of days with no problems. My landing pages have everything that they require. Home, Contact, Privacy, Sitemap, Blog(not required, but a good idea).
    Same here, I made the site using the 'slap Google back' method, followed it exactly...
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  • Profile picture of the author gabibeowulf
    You must be doing something wrong .. Maybe you are trying to direct your links to an affiliate page ? Maybe you are trying to promote a shady CPA product? Maybe it's a problem with your ad or landing page ?

    My ads show up just fine couple of minutes later and getting traffic .. Well .. as long as they are not image ads .. for those I usually have to wait about 2 days to start seeing first impressions ..
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  • Profile picture of the author JasonHicks
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    • Profile picture of the author gotdmw
      adbrite has alot of fraudulent traffic coming from india and other foreign countries, if ur going to use it only use the US, and other established countries
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      • Profile picture of the author Christian Fox
        Originally Posted by gotdmw View Post

        adbrite has alot of fraudulent traffic coming from india and other foreign countries, if ur going to use it only use the US, and other established countries
        Yeah I have noticed this already... I stick with USA Can Eng Australia pretty exclusively. Even then I found banners hidden behind CPA offers, etc...

        I have been using them but I stopped them because I was not getting the traffic I wanted. Ridiculously low CTR ratios.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jose Francis
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    • Profile picture of the author Christian Fox
      Originally Posted by Jose Francis View Post

      Try ppv instead!
      Yes I know, looking into Zango for that.
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  • Profile picture of the author MR.MOE
    Here is a few that I would recommend:

    Ezine Articles:
    Instead of paying for google adwords why don't you pay for great auricles and put a link at the end of the article. It'll get you a lot of traffic and you won't invest that much.

    Contextual traffic:
    I would recommend Clicksor, Validclick, and pulse 360

    PPV:
    Mediatraffic, AdonNetwork,trafficvance

    You can target long tailed keyword or urls

    Hope this helps

    Moe
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    • Profile picture of the author Christian Fox
      Originally Posted by MR.MOE View Post

      Here is a few that I would recommend:

      Ezine Articles:
      Instead of paying for google adwords why don't you pay for great auricles and put a link at the end of the article. It'll get you a lot of traffic and you won't invest that much.

      Contextual traffic:
      I would recommend Clicksor, Validclick, and pulse 360

      PPV:
      Mediatraffic, AdonNetwork,trafficvance

      You can target long tailed keyword or urls

      Hope this helps

      Moe
      That is good advice thanks.
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    • Profile picture of the author Instructor
      Originally Posted by MR.MOE View Post

      Here is a few that I would recommend:

      Ezine Articles:
      Instead of paying for google adwords why don't you pay for great auricles and put a link at the end of the article. It'll get you a lot of traffic and you won't invest that much.

      Contextual traffic:
      I would recommend Clicksor, Validclick, and pulse 360

      PPV:
      Mediatraffic, AdonNetwork,trafficvance

      You can target long tailed keyword or urls

      Hope this helps

      Moe
      From what I've been reading eza is giving alot of people the blues these days so be patient.
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      • Profile picture of the author Steve Faber
        Originally Posted by Instructor View Post

        From what I've been reading eza is giving alot of people the blues these days so be patient.
        Oddly, I've had exactly the opposite experience the last week or so. I had one article approved in two days, and the last two approved within 24hrs. I was quite surprised, but definitely happy.
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  • Profile picture of the author nicholasb
    you have to be willing to lose money or break even on the front end, adwords is mainly for new customer and lead generation from my experience.

    you have to test, track, and tweak to figure out the lifetime value of your customers.

    while constantly improving conversion rates.
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    • Profile picture of the author sweetfranky
      I've used adwords for a long time and had a lot of success with it but only for large products. I think it would be ten times harder if you are dealing with a $24.99 product. I saw that you were thinking about Yahoo. Stay away from them, they are complete garbage. MSN is not bad though, just not a whole lot of traffic.
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  • There are a whole lot of small and mid sized advertisers that have pulled out. This should create space for others... who knows.

    Bottom line is there are also a lot of big companies who are flush with cash that are simply buying out all their competition. They have the resources to dominate industries and crush the competition while still turning a profit with high PPC costs.

    That's just how it is. I used to make pretty good money "back in the day". But anymore it is so much work to manage and stay on top of everything PPC that I have really scaled it back. It's definitely not a game for people who don't want to do the math and keep at it every day.
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    • Profile picture of the author Christian Fox
      I've used adwords for a long time and had a lot of success with it but only for large products. I think it would be ten times harder if you are dealing with a $24.99 product. I saw that you were thinking about Yahoo. Stay away from them, they are complete garbage. MSN is not bad though, just not a whole lot of traffic.
      I agree, but typically the CPC rises with the profit potential of the offer. They have done a great job of slimming the margins down to nothing. Now you can not really have a squeeze page, nor a popup on your landing page. Makes it hard to grab an opt in.

      I finally got my ads approved today (they did not like the word 'modchip' on my page apparently) but had to shut them off after 2 hours because in spite of following the slap Google back method and optimizing my page in every way I could find for a good quality score or CPC I ended up w a 7/10.

      My CPC right off the bat was not profitable. Sooooo does not really leave much on the table.

      Yahoo and MSN cost me less than half as much.

      More traffic that cost too much to turn a profit on is more than useless to me.

      Many of the bigger players are using Adwords merely for testing for media buys or other ventures., or so I have heard.

      I am getting into direct mailing soon and may use it to test a few things but that is about it. Pretty sad that I can buy a targeted list and send a direct mailing for about half of what it costs for a simple 'click' pathetic really.
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