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> Luckily agencies act as a middle man, if not for that, the abuse would be so much more widespread I ran such an agency. As someone who is proficient in PPC,

> Luckily agencies act as a middle man, if not for that, the abuse would be so much more widespread I ran such an agency. As someone who is proficient in PPC, the AdSense sales team was inexcusably poor at their jobs. They'd offer to setup campaigns for free with thousands of barely relevant keywords and would push upping the budget past what was reasonable. Their tactics were so bad for my clients that I stopped accepting their "free" help and did the campaigns in house. I hate to think how many agencies simply went along with their advice to the detriment of their clients.

partiallypro 8y ago
If what I've been told by people that used to work on those very Google Adwords teams, it's not that they are "bad" at their job, it's that they are meant to meet a certain quota of spend and nothing like ROI etc matters. What's the solution to campaign doing badly? Up the budget! They know it's not optimal, their managers know it's not optimal, but the goal is for Google's bottom line. This stops once you reach a certain spend tier and they know the burn out rates for those companies improve and they want the longer term revenues. (This is also good for larger agencies, since they will also get the good treatment from being a premier partner.) The lower tier spends are basically "boiler rooms" peddling fake penny stocks. People trust them because "It's Google!" but that is so so far from the truth. Sometimes it's not even Google, it's a company they've outsourced to, and sometimes they even work in the same building as Google.
- everdev 8y ago
  Yes, I figured as much. I'm sure the reps were "just doing their jobs", but the result was poor service/advice as you mention.
  - dwd 8y ago
    Doing there jobs basically entails increasing your spend: whether by broadening your keyword phrases, adding irrelevant keywords, expanding your geo-location region, or increasing your bids. Worse is when you get billed for clicks for inactive campaigns, even ones that were never enabled.
trolleyhacker 8y ago
You seem to mean AdWords (now Google Ads). AdSense is for publishers.
- everdev 8y ago
  Yes, good catch!

partiallypro 8y ago

If what I've been told by people that used to work on those very Google Adwords teams, it's not that they are "bad" at their job, it's that they are meant to meet a certain quota of spend and nothing like ROI etc matters. What's the solution to campaign doing badly? Up the budget! They know it's not optimal, their managers know it's not optimal, but the goal is for Google's bottom line. This stops once you reach a certain spend tier and they know the burn out rates for those companies improve and they want the longer term revenues. (This is also good for larger agencies, since they will also get the good treatment from being a premier partner.) The lower tier spends are basically "boiler rooms" peddling fake penny stocks. People trust them because "It's Google!" but that is so so far from the truth. Sometimes it's not even Google, it's a company they've outsourced to, and sometimes they even work in the same building as Google.

everdev 8y ago
Yes, I figured as much. I'm sure the reps were "just doing their jobs", but the result was poor service/advice as you mention.
- dwd 8y ago
  Doing there jobs basically entails increasing your spend: whether by broadening your keyword phrases, adding irrelevant keywords, expanding your geo-location region, or increasing your bids. Worse is when you get billed for clicks for inactive campaigns, even ones that were never enabled.

trolleyhacker 8y ago

You seem to mean AdWords (now Google Ads). AdSense is for publishers.

everdev 8y ago
Yes, good catch!