On a recent PPCChat, the PPC world scored a coup – an interview with an Adwords representative. This was something we’d been asking for for a long time, and the members of PPCChat waited with anticipation for the chance to ask Google some hard questions.
While I was ecstatic that our fearless PPCChat leader Matt Umbro was able to get Matt Lawson (ML) from Google onto the chat, I was less than ecstatic with the answers ML gave.
(Let me be clear – Matt Umbro did a stellar job preparing the questions for ML and managing the chat. He rocked the house as always!)
One of the first questions was whether we’d ever get a tablet bid modifier. Bing Ads is adding a tablet modifier later this year, so one might think that Google would wise up and do the same. Alas, no such luck. ML toed the party line and maintained that “Our data suggests tablet and desktop behavior are closely aligned, but if that changes we’ll revisit in the future.”
Well, I don’t know what data he’s looking at, but it ain’t the same data I’m looking at. I don’t have a single client who gets the same results from tablets as they do from desktops. Most of our clients see about 1 conversion from tablets for every 4 from desktop. I tweeted as much – and got more favorites on that tweet than I think I’ve gotten from any other tweet:
While I was (and am) frustrated by Google’s continued insistence that tablets and desktop are the same, I was excited for the rest of the chat. Sadly, it didn’t get better.
Matt asked “Do you believe AdWords will ever enter the account management market and charge like an agency would?” ML’s reply? “I don’t believe so. I have former agency folks on my team, so I know how complicated that world can be. We want to focus on delivering a great product, and expanding to include direct account management would distract from that.”
Well, this is just plain BS. Maybe Google isn’t charging for account management, but they’re definitely doing it. I have heard from several people whom I trust that Google has approached their clients asking to manage their accounts, and is actually doing so in some cases.
Lest I paint too negative a picture, not all of the chat was bad. ML indicated that Google might actually consider separate bids or modifiers for search partners: “We’re always balancing simplicity with control. We have such a large customer base that we often bias toward simplicity, but we get that there are always going to be sophisticates (like you PPCChatters) who want more control. Despite the fact that it’s unlikely to change soon, it’s a valid request and one which we will continue to evaluate.” While this comment validates my claim that Adwords has been dumbed down, it’s good to know that some type of control over search partners is at least still on the table.
In fact, ML said that Google pays attention to PPCChat, and that our feedback gets passed on to the powers that be at Adwords. I was encouraged by this news.
ML also liked the idea of creating an advisory council comprised of PPCChat members:
They’d be wise to do so – after all, Bing Ads has had an advisory council for a while, and they share news, updates, features, betas, and more with the group. Having an advisory council goes a long way toward creating client goodwill. I’d be happy to be a part of a Google council.
My overall takeaways from the chat were these:
- I’m happy that Google agreed to the chat. This is a huge step in the right direction.
- I’m also happy about the possibility of search partner bid modifiers. I’ve been begging for this for years.
- However, overall it felt like ML was just restating the Google party line. That was disappointing.
- Finally, I’m not sure he was totally honest – and I’m not the only one:
Did you follow the Adwords PPCChat? What did you think – was it great to hear from Google, or were you frustrated with the answers? Share in the comments!
Postscript: Minutes after I finished writing this post, Adwords announced they were getting rid of the option to not include close variants of keywords. This is yet another blow to PPC managers who want and need more control over their PPC traffic. I don’t think Google is listening, do you?
Google AdWords is becoming more of a black box machine and less of a useful tool as time goes by. After 8 yrs managing adwords I’m doing my best to find a viable replacement for it. Sick of google’s constant meddling that makes it less effective for my needs. If bing had enough search volume here in Australia, I would ditch adwords totally.