It used to be that AdWords Express was easy enough for a business owner to set up and maintain and the results were pretty good for low budget accounts. But lately, Google seems to be delivering untargeted results.
Here’s an example. A client asked me to set up an AdWords Express account. They wanted to take a low budget route to get exposure on AdWords. Typically for clients with a $200 per 30 day ad spend who were okay with a 15 mile ad delivery radius around their business location, this seemed like a very low cost way to get fair results.
Now, Google has nearly totally automated keyword selection in AdWords Express accounts and if you really look at the 27 pages of keywords that Google is showing for one ad, you’d be shocked at what Google is delivering clicks on. The phrases and your ability to control what your ad shows on is now marginal at best.
With these changes, Google has automated the process, but at the expense of quality. On set up you can select one category from Google predetermined list, then select five or six predetermined terms by clicking a check box, but this is when the trouble starts. Google extrapolates high activity keywords for your account so if you selected permanent eyebrows Google now shows your ads for terms like semi-permanent makeup, eyebrow makeup, and cosmetics. Yikes!
Because of Google’s delivery change and inability to once and for all control the search phrases – ones you delete keep popping back into the account, I’ll be changing my program and recommending that only do it yourselfers who have loads of time on their hands use AdWords Express. The lack of controls is very concerning and makes me give it a thumbs down!