Adwords Tells Linda to GIVE UP & Get out of Affiliate Marketing?

[Linda Buquet]

OK, so that isnt exactly what they are saying BUT
I'm really sort of incredulous about what just happened.

Wonder if anyone else has heard of someone getting this kind of reply
from the Google Adwords team?

Got an email awhile back from G INVITING me to take advantage of their optimization service, where an Adwords specialist goes into your account and recommends how it could be optimized. I thought about it for awhile, then decided to take them up on it and filled out the request. AGAIN they INVITED ME to take advantage of the service.

The campaign is for 5 Star, not any affiliate programs - simply to drive traffic to 5 star. Lots of basic key phrases like affiliate marketing tips, affiliate directory, super affiliates... My quality score on all my KW is good or great, so QS is not a problem.

Here is the email I just got from the optimization team. BOLD by me.

Hello Linda,

We appreciate your interest in improving your Google AdWords account. In reviewing your account, we noticed that you're advertising in a very difficult and saturated market. While we aren't able to send you a customized optimization proposal, I've included some helpful tips and resources at the end of this email.

From our experience, online advertising has a low likelihood of success in certain highly competitive markets. We've noticed that certain types of industries (such as the one you're in now) rarely earn positive results with online ads. Please take this into consideration as you assess your campaign performance and evaluate your overall success. Even with optimization, it's possible that you'll experience a lower than average performance as long as you continue promoting your current services.

Yes I realize affiliate marketing is saturated and competitive - I work in the industry after all. I've also had an Adwords account promoting 5 Star for years, so I think if it wasn't productive I would have stopped long ago.

I totally understand setting a clients expectations. I could see saying "the more competitive and saturated the market, the harder it is to advertise." Isn't that a given??

But in all the phrases below it sounds to me like they are saying, give up! This isnt going to work. OR if you want to use Adwords, find a different business to be in or a different service to promote.

"online advertising has a low likelihood of success in certain highly competitive markets... We've noticed that certain types of industries (such as the one you're in now) rarely earn positive results with online ads... Even with optimization, it's possible that you'll experience a lower than average performance as long as you continue promoting your current services."

Has anyone ever heard of Adwords sending an advertiser an email like this that is almost trying to talk them into dropping Adwords?

Or is this possibly a slight dis on the affiliate marketing industry? Somehow I can't see them sending this email to a bank, mortgage company or travel agency, can you??? (Your industry is too competitive and as long as you continue promoting your current services you may not have good results with Adwords.)
I doubt they'd ever SAY this to all those customers because they WANT their business!

 

[Larwee]

I have had a lot of correspondence with Google over the years and one thing I've noticed is that they often send canned replies that don't deal with my particular specifics. Sometimes, if I am very persistent and say the right things they will send another canned reply and then add a couple of lines that deal with my specifics.

Google needs to send lots of replies due to the volume they receive and they don't have the staff to give personalized answers to every question. Possibly that is something they might want to consider doing. As a results, many people will get canned replies that may or may not always tell them everything they want to know or be as helpful as they should be. But many of the replies do serve the purpose.

They sent you one of those "form letter" type of replies and even said that is what they are doing in this statement:

While we aren't able to send you a customized optimization proposal

There are saying the reply doesn't specifically apply to you.

It looks as if this is the standard reply they would send to anyone in the affiliate marketing field.

Granted many of those people would be newbies and the advice might be appropriate for some of them. But it looks as if this is the same thing they would send to very experienced and successful super affiliates.

This reply isn't one that could or should be applied to everyone involved with affiliate marketing. Obviously it wasn't the appropriate reply they should have sent to you.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Point taken about the cookie cutter replies and I realize that.

Larry said:

They sent you one of those "form letter" type of replies and even said that is what they are doing in this statement: Quote: While we aren't able to send you a customized optimization proposal"

But no they weren't saying they could not send a customized email reply - they were saying they could not "do the custom optimization I requested."

So form letter or not, my point is it seems odd they would tell anyone - in any market, that they are in too competitive of a market, that Adwords may not work well for. I honestly don't think they would tell a mortgage broker that!

The more competitive the market the more money G makes, so why would they want to discourage a customer from continuing to use their service.

I think the situation may actually opposite of what you said Larry. Corporate form letters are typically well thought out, reviewed and approved by upper management to be appropriate in a wide variety of situations. I think this may be more of an individual person replying that didn't really think about how it would sound to the customer.

 

[kevin7890]

.....
I think the situation may actually opposite of what you said Larry. Corporate form letters are typically well thought out, reviewed and approved by upper management to be appropriate in a wide variety of situations. I think this may be more of an individual person replying that didn't really think about how it would sound to the customer.....

Bingo. Knowing how some companies operate, probably an intern got your request and decided that s/he was too busy to "bother" with it and sent you a canned message!

 

[Darwin]

Linda,

When I was in the military we had a saying, "An action passed, is an action completed." Maybe this is a way of clearing their inbox. It is easier to send out some pre-made emails then to actually review all of the campaigns in a saturated market category. I would suspect such an email would discourage many people.

Just a thought.

 

[jcorkern]

Geeze, I am mad about that response and i was not even involved. I gave up playing their game a few years ago, They have lost touch with what made them the king of search. I understand that it is a tough market, but if they would have taken time to look, they would see that you already have substantial results which refute any need to send a negative email like that.

I personaly have always had a love / hate relationship with Google. But this puts the icing on the cake.

Linda, I would post a comment about it on Matt Cutts Blog. I am sure when he see's this he will get the ball and/or some heads rolling.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Jim you made me feel better. Glad you could relate to how I felt.

Ya I've gotten Matt involved in issues before and he was a fantastic help.
But not like I want to push to get the optimization, I don't really care about that.
They offered and I said, sure why not.

Their response was inappropriate IMHO, but I'm kinda over this one now.
Just needed to vent.

 

[bronnamdi]

It is amazing that Google can send such a mail to an advertiser. They are simply saying you should look somewhere else. This is sad. Very sad, for Google to treat their customers as such. They have simply said that they do not want your money and you should go spend it elsewhere.
What a pity and a terrible way to solve customers' problems.

 

[John Guanzon]

Hi Linda, I am good friends with Simon Leung the Google AdWords Optimizer and I have often heard him talk about "canned" responses like that that Google sends out (Some of which he admits he created during the time that we worked at AdWords as the chief optimizer, lol ) . Part of what this is about is the fact that although marketers make up a good portion of the AdWords revenue, they for the most part do not understand marketers and don't think the same as we do. Hence the recent Google slaps. There are ways to optimize your account so you can pay less for key terms and phrases, but that canned response is simply that. Any keyword in your request to be que'd that has a certain number of searches is going to be considered by Google to be "saturated".

 

[ppc coach]

Look at the bright side, they dont' "optimize" it for your benefit. They always optimize it for their pockets. I had one done years ago and the suggestions were ridiculous. Instead of phrase and exact matching several competitive keywords, they insisted I "just use broad match because you'll get more traffic".

Uh huh.

I'll get more traffic, but I'll pay 4x as much and not make any profit from it. I think you're better off not getting any optimization done. I don't think they have your best interests at heart, plus looking at the response you got, I think you had a scared employee who had no clue about your market. Instead of admitting that they took a weaker route out.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Good points PPC Coach. Probably a good thing in disguise.

 

[James Spinosa]

I've heard bad things about optimization myself.. heard a horror story on digitalpoint of google putting somebody into the optimization program without them realizing it, then charging $3 per click to get the "most possible clicks". No thanks

 

[Linda Buquet]

I got 3 more email invitations yesterday. SOUNDS like they REALLY want to help me get optimized bad right??? Not sure why I'd get 3 and REALLY not sure why they would offer again after they not so elegantly turned me down before. Here's one of the emails.

Dear AdWords Advertiser,

We've noticed that one of your AdWords campaigns isn't performing as well as it could. Google's Optimization Specialists would like to help!

All you have to do is request free performance tips. Then one of our AdWords Specialists will personally review your campaign and provide a customized campaign proposal based on your advertising goals.

Here are the potential benefits of this optimization service:
• Complimentary: It won't cost you a dime to receive a proposal.
• Effective: Keyword, ad text, and campaign structure changes might lead to increased site traffic and improved return on investment.
• Easy: Requesting an optimization takes just 5 minutes.
• Risk-free: You stay in full control over which proposed changes you accept -- you can accept them all with one click, or pick only those changes you'd like to keep.

To get started, simply request an optimization.

We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
The Google AdWords Team

Thanks, but no thanks Google. I think I'll just continue to run my under performing ads all by myself.
Of course if I really thought they were not performing, I would not still be paying all this money
for them now would I? I would have pulled them long ago.