You definitely made a right decision by choosing to advertise with AdWords. The kind of reach, targeting options, and the tracking methodologies which this advertising system gives you is simply unparalleled. To tell you the truth, if you can’t reach out to the right segment of people online using AdWords, trust me, no other advertising platform can actually help you do that more efficiently. AdWords reaches out to almost of 90% of internet population. Doesn’t your potential customers fall under this radar?
I know, they do, but I am failing to reach out to them…
Is it what running in your mind at the moment?
If yes, you need to hold on and analyse if the AdWords expert or agency that you have hired actually understands your business goals well and all your campaigns are actually aligned to them properly. There are several other aspects which you need to be aware of while dealing with your agency. Make sure you are not being cheated on. Here are some of the most common bad practices that your AdWords agency may be thriving off, do keep a check on them –
Cost and performance of your advertising campaigns
You have all the rights to look into your account’s performance metrics. Some of the key factors can be – the number of clicks, impressions, number of conversions, your impressions shares, your actual advertising spend that is being paid to Google and other similar metrics. All the what’s, why’s, how’s etc… yes, everything.
And, if you do not have access to these all, and most importantly to your AdWords account, don’t think twice – Fire Your Agency RIGHT NOW.
Claiming to be from Google or having a special connection
I have faced it. Some of my clients have very often complained that their previous agencies claimed they were from Google and they were the most awarded Google Partners and so on…
For the first thing, when someone says they are from Google, check their email ID and see if it is something @google.com. If it’s Gmail ID, be sure you are being cheated on. Next, verify if they actually are Google Partners. ask for the link to their partner’s certification page, or do a search for their brand name at Google Partner Search.
You that you can’t see your ads yourself
Really? It’s like you ordered for a burger and you are asked that you can’t actually eat it. Come on, don’t be fooled. You are paying for every click. You have all the rights to see your ads and compare them against your competitors.
However, there’s a point when you are asked not search for your ads on Google. For obvious reasons, doing this affects your campaigns’ performance adversely. You search for your ads, you see them, but you don’t click them. As a result, your ads accumulate impressions but no click and it eventually affects your CTR, quality score, and your actual CPC badly.
But, that’s not the end of road. You can still see your ads without having any negative effect on your performance.
You can use Ad Preview and Diagnosis Tool to view your ads. This tool is especially designed for this purpose only where it lets you see your ads without giving any impressions count to your ads.
Bullying you against your website’s organic performance
It’s actually weird. If you are being threatened not to stop advertising and break your contract with an agency as it will affect your website’s organic search ranks, you are being misinformed and ticked. Bear in mind that Google’s advertising platform i.e. AdWords and organic searches that come from SEO are controlled by entirely different sets of algorithms. One does not affect the other, at all.
If you stop or pause advertising with AdWords or if you break your contract with an existing agency/expert, it won’t affect your website’s organic performance.
Confused or deceptive pricing
Different AdWords agencies or experts may charge differently for their services. It’s completely okay. But, there must be transparency.
Let me tell you that when you choose to advertise with AdWords, there are two kinds of charges that you bear. The first is the amount that goes directly to Google. Here, you are charged for clicks or impressions depending on the type of campaigns being used. And the second charge is for AdWords account management which goes to your agency or expert.
You should be clear on both these amounts, how much was paid to Google and how much to the expert?
Bear in mind that you can always ask for separate invoices. You can also log into your AdWords account and check how much was actually paid to Google. Google generates invoices for every payment. You can also refer to the billing section of your AdWords account to get all these details.
To sum up, you deserve to have all the details. You have all the rights to ask for explanations and if you are not given the required explanation, you should definitely fire the agency you are working with. After all, it’s you who are paying every penny. You’re the boss. Have all your rights, and exercise them.
Have you ever been into the situation discussed above? Do the good right now. Share them in the comment below, and save your fellow advertisers from being cheated on.
