adwords a scam

by 20 replies
24
i used a voucher for adwords and i just got a mail in the message telling me to pay them.
#search engine optimization #adwords #scam
  • More details please. Timeline and amount of ads you placed would be a good place to start.
  • Welcome to the "Adwords" complaint group lol. I signed up for adwords and within 1 day i got 3 emails from them. One saying that my ad was disapproved. Another one saying that is in violation. And another one saying that my account was closed.

    Lol if you can make Microsoft Adcenter work, go for it.
  • Ad Words is a scam in that they still send out these coupons and lead people to believe that the average person can still do it. If your not a large corporation with deep pockets you need not waste your time. IMO
  • Always make sure you have automatic billing off if you want to use those coupons. I feel bad that most actual small businesses using these coupons run ads but have no idea how to make it convert, they just 'assume' it's helpings.
    • [1] reply
    • This is so sad. Google was built by the small affiliate who wanted to make money. That is not the case anymore. Google now caters to large retailers with even larger budgets. They are the ones who get the cheap clicks...the rest of us are banned. I get upset when I see Clickbank product owners tell their new affiliates to use Google adwords and try to get cheap clicks. As far as Google is concerned, its over for the little guy. Your business is not worth their time.
      • [1] reply
  • adwords is not a scam and works perfectly fine. We do client as well as personal spending on there daily. Do you have to follow guidelines? Yes! Are there tricks to utilizing adwords effectively and ways to never fully lose an account? Yes! Are these publicly talked about? No.

    Just be smart in how you use it. It's like adsense, many people don't research it when first starting and lose their account for something simple.


    Adcenter is definitely lighter as far as denials and banning, but also is lighter on the traffic. Use that if you get toasted by adwords and aren't sure how to rebound.
    • [1] reply
    • Of course it's not a "scam" per se, but it needs indepth knowledge the average Joe, commercial site owner etc. DOES NOT HAVE. Likelihood is that a huge majority of people getting the coupons who never had any experience with Adwords will throw tons of money away.
  • It *is* very possible to make money using adwords, but it is harder than it used to be. This doesn't mean it is a scam, it just means that it is more popular than before. I've got a couple clients doing very well with Adwords. There are a couple of things to remember - long tail keywords (highly targeted) are a lot cheaper than broad general keywords, and you must keep track of the costs for your entire sales funnel. If you are able to say "I spent $400 on AdWords and got $700 profit out of it, you have the beginnings of a viable business model.
    • [1] reply
    • Not a scam, made a fortune with them when it first was introduced, but wow, not anymore, my revenues have dropped like a rock even with ten times more traffic, so makes me question anyone who says they are still killing it with Google.
  • It's strange that people will conveniently call adwords/adsense/etc a scam when they failed to follow instructions or read the fine lines...
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • I totally agree Joseph!

      Google has rules for a reason, not because they are capricious and bored (maybe they are, maybe they aren't ;-) ), but to protect the integrity of their money tree for both themselves AND the legitimate advertisers who are using it.

      Anyone who has got their account banned has just done something stupid, wrong &/or against Google's TOS.

      No advertising is "walk in the park" easy - just ask those businesses who spent a fortune on a dumb full page ad with Yellow Pages in the past.

      Ever seen a tv or print ad that was SOOOO DUMB you just knew it was never going to get any business? Guess what - that's the business person's fault for not knowing what they are doing, not the advertising medium's fault.

      Caveat Emptor - buyer beware.

      This doesn't just refer to avoiding scammers, it also means know/understand what you are getting into.

      In the case of AdWords, learn how to use it BEFORE you burn your money.

      Google has a HEAP of free quality training on how to use it. I bet most newbie advertisers never bothered spending even 1 hr reviewing it. They just charged ahead without thinking and shoot themselves in the foot.
  • AdWords allowed me to populate my membership site in record time, and under budget. There's no way article writing would have done it in the same time, even with 1000 Fiver gigs!

    Making money from advertising is hard work, but the successful amongst us will earn $$$$$.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Adwords is definitely not a scam... But then again it is not cheap clicks as well..Aside from the price, it sure is pain to adhere to all there TOs.
  • I agree with you that they lead people to believe that the average person can do it. In fact, yes, anyone can do it. The real question is, can most people do it well and the answer to that is no. Does that make it a scam? I don't think so. People have to understand what they are buying and if they want to succeed, they have to educate themselves. The vast majority don't and fail. I never understand why an owner would put his business in jeopardy by not understanding what he's buying into and not put resources into it (time and money to learn if he wants to do it himself or get someone who does know).

    That's not true. Only a small percentage of Google revenues, I estimate 10%, come from affiliates. The vast majority are businesses are retailers or selling their own products.

    Those businesses are not just large ones with large budgets. The majority are small businesses and many are mom-and-pop types. Take a close look at those ads next type you search. That also applies to all but a handful of my clients.

    You get banned because you don't follow rules. Neither are a large portion of CB product owners. Don't listen to them, they know nothing about Adwords, probably got banned themselves. They tell you this so that you pay for advertising to sell their product.
  • i wuld personaly say adcenter is a much better alternative
  • Banned

    Send them a post dated check with a memo saying don't cash until after you make some money on Adwords.


    • [1] reply
  • If you call adwords a scam , then you can't find anything which is not scam. Just follow the rules and understand the PPC concept . Google services can never be scam , but they are strict on their rules thats all (for some reason)

    PS: being said this I am not recommending PPC for all business , before getting in to PPC , you should have a good landing page which converts well to get the max out of these campaigns. Also PPC is not an asset building exercise , its just spend and reap returns kind of model. When you stop spending your returns also ends. So do a through research before you start getting into these adwords game.
  • you have to submit your billing information and at least put a few dollars in the account...after you do that you should be able to use the coupon code.

Next Topics on Trending Feed