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On Friday we ran a poll asking Would You Allow Google to Manage Your AdWords Account? I am honestly not surprised by the answer, where an overwhelming majority of the responses were basically, "no way!" In short, people feel that the Google AdWords representatives who manage accounts in Google for advertisers cannot do as good as a job as an SEM company or someone who manages it themselves.
Just take a look at the pie chart, 87% said no, they would not allow Google to manage their AdWords campaigns. That is out of about 150 responses from our readers.
The other responses said that they would allow Google do the set up of the initial campaign but then take it over from that point going forward. In my mind, that means, no, they won't allow Google to manage their campaign.
What does this say for Google? But what I find interesting is that I would have to guess that a nice percentage of Google AdWords campaigns are managed with Google employees. What does that say for those who pay for those campaigns?
Forum discussion continued at WebmasterWorld.
Comments:
Nick
09/16/2009 01:09 pm
I'm curious to know if Google runs Adwords campaigns more often for "traditional" agencies that don't specialize in SEO / PPC and have no resources in-house to manage them. Clients might be asking to reallocate resources if print/radio/TV is not working.
Matt
09/16/2009 01:52 pm
Interesting numbers, but not surprising at all. I've stopped accepting Google's "help" when it comes to optimizing some of our campaigns as they have not improved a single one, and the last one is actually doing a bit worse in terms of CPA.
Melissa
09/16/2009 01:57 pm
First, no one can get a clear answer out of Google so if they were to mess something up we would never get an answer. Second, what would be their motivation to do the very best for me or my clients? They wouldn't have that same motivation, it would just be something that needed to get done.
Tyson
09/16/2009 02:22 pm
In my opinion, Google employs sales reps, not marketing analysts. They always try to push for additional budget and using the content network, but 99% of the time when I implement these recommendations, overall ROI decreases.
Zach
09/16/2009 02:34 pm
A Google Reps Thought Process = CTR...Spend More...CTR...Increase Your Budget...CTR...Raise Your Positioning...Did I mention CTR? Job Security Is Bliss :)
Mike
09/16/2009 03:59 pm
A marketing manager told me a long time ago that "Google does not make your decisions."
No Name
09/16/2009 05:12 pm
I wouldn't either. I'm really not surprised by these responses.
Ryan Rose
09/16/2009 07:04 pm
I would be curious as to the reasons given for the 13% who would let Google run their AdWords.
Chrisotos Kyliakoudis
09/16/2009 07:18 pm
NO way Google to manage my campaigns. I have followed 2 times their recommendations and in the end i had to change account.The quality , ctr , cpa, absolute conv. all went down. No way. They are only capable to troubleshot.
Melinda
09/16/2009 11:45 pm
Oh heck no. Has anyone ever had and dealt with the Google Account managers? They're a joke. They don't know half of what I know to run a campaign. Very generic, very basic. You couldn't persuade me even if you promised to cut my spending in half.
Alan Mitchell
09/17/2009 03:51 am
Perhaps because Google strive for 'maximisation' and businesses strive for 'optimisation', and of course they are two very different things.
Elizabeth
09/17/2009 03:46 pm
Some of the optimizations are coming from India as well, which can lead to some culturally wonky ideas. I also received a recommendation once to replace GA tracking code from them (India) and found that they had completely ignored that it was an e-commerce site and gave me the wrong code.
Michael
09/24/2009 01:21 pm
I've worked with Google account reps extensively on several accounts. I'd say that their interests are aligned with yours because if your campaign is not successful, chances are you'll shut it off. In order for them to succeed, you need to succeed.