James
Does Google adwords work? Nope, and here is why!
If you are a small business thinking about using Google ads to advertise your business then you might want to think again. Unless you are a lawyer, investment bank or a plastic surgeon where conversions are worth a considerable amount of money then Google ads will not be profitable enough to be worth your while.
Don’t be fooled by shills hired by Google to trick you.
If you search for “do google ads work” you will see a lot of articles about how great Google ads are.. but don’t be fooled.
Most of these articles are written by either advertising agencies that make money from managing Google ads for businesses or have been written by Google themselves! Take the second result for example which leads to an article named “The Real Reason AdWords Isn’t Working For Many Small Businesses” on Searchengineland.com this article is very misleading and disingenuous. With a few vague and worthless tips on how to make your ads work. This article is nothing more than an advertisement for Google. The article has the audacity to put the blame not on Google for THEIR ads not working but on Small businesses for not knowing how Googles the deliberately opaque and confusing system works… It is also worth pointing out that Searchengineland.com was founded by Danny Sullivan who works for Google.
Despite what the shills say Google ads are not profitable. According to WordStream, the average price per click of Google ads cost around $1-$2 and with an average conversion rate of 2.35% it does not take a genius to work out that this is NOT PROFITABLE for any small business selling low-cost products.
There are a few tactics that you could try to squeeze a little bit of profit out of your ads but you will be very lucky if they work. You could try to increase the prices of your products to accommodate Google extortionate ad fees. However, this would simply push down your conversion rate further and leave you in the same boat. Another way that is often purported by Google ads managers to decrease the cost per click is to raise your “ad quality score” that is based on unknown metrics that Google uses to determine how relevant your ads are to searchers. However, increasing your quality score is easier said than done and even if you manage to get a 10/10 quality score this still does not guarantee that you the cost per click will be set to an acceptable amount. It is also worth bearing in mind that even you are the only one bidding for a keyword Google will often artificially hike up the prices forcing you to spend more money than you should!
Sometimes increasing the conversion rate of your ads can be entirely out of your control. One of the biggest complaints on online marketing forums about Google ads is the huge amount of bot/zombie traffic you get from it eating up your ad budget. There is a lot of speculation about the motivation and what drives this bot traffic. Some believe that it is merely competitors using automated programs to click your ads and to sink your business, whilst others believe Google is behind it to squeeze as much money out of as possible. However who/what is actually behind the bot traffic is totally unknown thanks in part to Googles lack of transparency of how their ad network actually works, what we do know is that Google is not very good at combatting against it because at the end of the day it benefits them the most.
Even after a lot of hard work and expense you are able to boost your conversion rate past the average the best you can hope for is to break even and whats the point in that?!
Why is Google worth billions if their ads don’t work?
You might be wonderign why Google is worth so much money if their ads do not work. The simple answer is that Google uses its search engine monopoly to bully small businesses into buying their extortionately priced ads just to be seen by searchers and this has meant that they have been able to rake in billion every year.
Googles whole ad business model is based upon a fallacy. Most of the small businesses that advertise on Google are either:
- Big companies with deep pockets such as Amazon that make special deals with Google
- Websites that already rank highly in the normal search results meaning that their conversions are supplemented by this traffic creating the illusion that Google ads are profitable.
- Websites that have just started using Google ads and maybe using free vouchers to make it profitable.
- Scam websites set up to phishing peoples sensitive information or to sell products or services with no intention of delivering.
- Just like how Google avoids tax lots of advertisers do too! Many, often Chinese companies will avoid paying VAT on their products or services to make more profit.
Conclusion
Google ads are simply not profitable for most small business. The only companies that make a profit are those with deep pockets or ones that are up to no good.
If you tried Google and want to share your honest review in the comments section below.
