Comments on: My AdWords Are Turned Off [Edit: Resolved]

By: Wufoo + Free Incentivization = Cheap, Effective User Surveys: MicroISV on a Shoestring

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 15:52:43 +0000

[…] My theory for why Google didn’t anticipate this failure mode is that Google assumes you care about your customers about as much as Google cares about its customers, and at Google forwarding customer complaints to Siberia would double the likelihood they were actually read. (Do I sound bitter?) […]

By: Arcada

Arcada — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 22:37:11 +0000

Oh! This Google.

They switched off my adwords ads after 1 month without any explanation.
And their support email answer was as useless as yours.

I looking for Adwords alternatives a.t.m. But somehow I have not seen any drop in visitors after Google blocked my account.

Probably people still can find my website in the search result.

Patrick, have you seen a decline of visitors when your adwords was blocked?

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 14:29:11 +0000

“How do you test conversions, when Google is so strict about “don’t click on your own ads!” and such?”

Drive across town to a wi fi so you click with a ‘not own’ IP address?

By: Patrick

Patrick — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:51:01 +0000

My answer to that has always been “Pray customers buy from me!”

By: Rich

Rich — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:45:49 +0000

How do you test conversions, when Google is so strict about “don’t click on your own ads!” and such?

By: Dan Grossman

Dan Grossman — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 06:21:55 +0000

I once signed in to my AdWords account after a month of autopilot to find my “monthly spend” at about $14,000 more than my monthly budget.

I was surprised and a bit panicked to say the least.

Somehow someone had hijacked my Gmail account (which I didn’t use) then used that to add my AdWords account as a sub-account of his My Client Center account (getting complicated!). Then was able to change my budget and add a bunch of expensive ads for some airline affiliate program being paid out to him.

Google replied to my inquiry the next day to let me know I had two choices — pay the extra $14,000 and wait for a refund for the unauthorized ads, or go offline until the next business cycle when they would subtract the costs of the ads I didn’t place and I’d only pay for my normal advertising. I chose the latter option, naturally, and only lost a few weeks of Google ads, which wasn’t a disaster.

So, there are humans out there somewhere, if you’re lucky enough to get in touch with them.

By: Yakov

Yakov — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 19:44:11 +0000

Patrick,

I know that sinking feeling when you realize that your Google Adwords campaign expired. I’ve had this happen to me 2-3 times and it sucks — suddenly, business drops and takes weeks to recover.

Thanks for posting this.

By: Phil

Phil — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 14:34:36 +0000

It is indeed very scary how Google holds the keys to my business (in both AdSense and AdWords) and yet like the gods of ancient Greece, can turn these on and off on a whim.

By: Richard

Richard — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 12:50:19 +0000

I think the “Try Now – no download” button could be just “Try Online” or “Create A Bingo Card Online Now” or something. The no-download part is just confusing the simple nature of it, imho.

By: Peter Severin

Peter Severin — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 10:20:30 +0000

Those Google support replies are something unbelievable. I’ve had to contact their support once, got one of those replies and never heard back from a real human. Automated support sounds nice in theory and apparently it works for Google, but they’ve lost me as a customer.