The AdWord AdVenture ConTinues

by Sapphire (March 11, 2005)

I’m running my first AdWords campaign, and it’s just confirming my undying dislike of Google. I don’t hate them with a passion, but like every really big name in computer-related tech, they’re overblown and only skirting by because the people who don’t know what an URL is so vastly outnumber those who do.

Yesterday I complained that the AdWords stats are so far behind as to be useless if you’re in an aggressive campaign with superhot keywords. I’ll go a step further than that: I think it’s designed to let you rack up huge spending amounts before you realize it, and then it’s too late to fix it.

Today, I managed to set up a version of my campaign that had an acceptable budget (not my choice, but not more than I can afford to lose). And even so, the stats lagging so far behind make it really difficult for me to tinker with it and see what it’s doing. I’m not happy with my click-thru rate, but can I change it and see immediate affects? No, the general stats - impressions to CT - are there, but you can’t see which keywords are being displayed and clicked until 3 hours later or so.

Um, how hard is it for a company of Google’s resources to offer real-time stats? Why would paying advertisers put up with anything less? I have sites that are free, or that even pay me, and they manage to cough up real-time stats.

Given that it can’t be an issue of “can’t”, it has to be an issue of “won’t”. Why won’t Google give us real time stats? Same reason the IRS doesn’t want to give you a straight answer to a simple question?

Posted in PPC
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