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Google is not your friend

Marketing, social media, advertising

Real Deal Denver

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Man, have I been going back and forth with Google. First of all, they don't want to be found, nor communicated with. I did manage to connect with them through a help feature. And then the game began.

I'm trying to "verify" my business website. Once it is verified, I can adjust the details of my company, such as add photos, add hours of operation, etc.

Get ready for this. The way Google does this is by mailing you a postcard with a 5 digit code. Once you receive that, you enter the code into "Google my Business" - and your business is then verified, and thus listed by Google so people can find it.

A post card. They say it usually takes 5 days to get the postcard. I requested it on 12/7. On 12/23, I requested it be sent again. Never received the first one, which as been 22 days and counting. That may not have been Googles fault - who knows what happened. Fine. So I asked them to speed things up because I have waited weeks, and I don't want that to turn into months. I plan(ned) on using AdWords. Now I have a bad taste and might not use Google any more than I have to for anything. So they speed up the process. IF I go to my office at a set date and time, they will call me with a video call and I can walk through a video tour showing them all the parts of the office, so they know it does exist. We did all of that on 12/27.

On 12/28 they send me an email that they want me to change the core identify of my company to reflect my name only. Right now it is a "team." I'm in real estate. Teams are among the most successful people in the business. I have had my website and my team in place for over a decade. This is not new. My office has been in existence for well over 20 years. If you want to know anything about me, my team, or my office, guess what? You can GOOGLE IT!

I answered their "request that I consider" changing my identity in everything I do and how I do it - for well over a decade now - with a firm NO. I told them they will NOT dictate to me how to run MY business, and I am furious that even THINK they can do something like that.

So I might not work with Google after all. If that's the case - I will spend the next DECADE or so directly attacking them on all fronts in the media and any other way I can conceive of. Don't think that's effective? Let's visit our friend, Mr. Math to see some cumulative (compound) math. Tell 5 people a day, and each of them tells 5 people a day, and so on. Every person tells ONLY 5 people and then stops. Day 1 is five people. Laugh at me! Day two is pretty impressive, as it grows to 30 now! Still laughing? In 9 days the results will be something like 2,441,405. On day 10: 12,207,030. Day 30 - the universe as we know it.

In other words, one person can do a lot.

The purpose of this post is twofold - one to see if anyone has ever been toyed with by Google like I have been. Number two, to prepare one of my launching pads when I implement the power of 5 divide and conquer method of getting Google's attention. And I haven't even gone into the talk show circuit! I think 20/20 might be interested in a story like this too. Could be interesting.

Be careful where you step. That little plant you smash down might be a thistle. All it takes is one prick to make you jump up and take notice! Love the analogy - don't you?
 
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redrenegade

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Hmm that's quite bizarre. I do SEO and have had to verify my clients' businesses and have never encountered that before. I have had to do a video verification call for a real estate agency here and it was fine.

That said though, your mileage does vary between different reps. Some are fairly easy going and just need to call you to make sure you're legit, and others like the real estate agency I mentioned had the video call and I had the licensee on the line at the end as well so the rep approved it right away. But none of them have ever asked to change a business name.

If you need help I can try and see if I can do anything to get it actually verified.
 

Real Deal Denver

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Hmm that's quite bizarre. I do SEO and have had to verify my clients' businesses and have never encountered that before. I have had to do a video verification call for a real estate agency here and it was fine.

That said though, your mileage does vary between different reps. Some are fairly easy going and just need to call you to make sure you're legit, and others like the real estate agency I mentioned had the video call and I had the licensee on the line at the end as well so the rep approved it right away. But none of them have ever asked to change a business name.

If you need help I can try and see if I can do anything to get it actually verified.

Two items to note:

First, Google seems to have trouble understanding that I am NOT ReMax (I am only using that as a well known example to make my point) but am an agent (team actually) working withIN ReMax. Who doesn't know that much? Any 6th grader.

Side note - maybe Google isn't smart after all - maybe they're more like a librarian putting books on shelves in a certain order to be organized - but they themselves know little to nothing. That's why the BOOKS are there.

Secondly, the two people I've talked to have extremely thick accents. I know and work with many people from different cultures. I have very little trouble understanding them. But not with Google. I think they outsource this to some third world country - and those people are doing their best to make it LOOK like they're doing something important. Their lack of basic understanding and business sense is costing me time and money. I have no tolerance for that; ESPECIALLY from a so called business leader that makes the RULES on how business will actually be managed/perceived for the masses. With awesome responsibility comes awesome expectations. But I'm easy to get along with - just get me a 6th grader.

I'm glad you had experiences with this earlier. I need references for the movie version of this. May I call you Mr. Brando? Has a nice ring to it...
 

redrenegade

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Two items to note:
Secondly, the two people I've talked to have extremely thick accents. I know and work with many people from different cultures. I have very little trouble understanding them. But not with Google. I think they outsource this to some third world country - and those people are doing their best to make it LOOK like they're doing something important. Their lack of basic understanding and business sense is costing me time and money. I have no tolerance for that; ESPECIALLY from a so called business leader that makes the RULES on how business will actually be managed/perceived for the masses. With awesome responsibility comes awesome expectations. But I'm easy to get along with - just get me a 6th grader.

I'm glad you had experiences with this earlier. I need references for the movie version of this. May I call you Mr. Brando? Has a nice ring to it...

You can call me Ms Brando. ;-)

Yeah they're all from India. The reps are so different and have different 'personal rules' or 'personal systems'.

What you can try is to verify it under your name/team name and then when it is done, you can change it to ReMax Real Deal Denver Team.
 
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It's more an issue of the size of the company (which to be fair, is also why you care so much about getting listed on their service).

It's not possible for a big company to consist solely of bright and efficient people (as much as they try to get as many as they can), and it's not possible for a company of their size to provide good quality customer service -- their customers are in the hundreds of millions region.

For this reason, any customer service you get is more likely than not going to come from some useless bottom-rung moron who most likely makes $5/hour and can barely understand English.

So it's more "big companies are not your friend" rather than Google specifically.
 

Real Deal Denver

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I'm heavily studying Facebook. By many accounts, Facebook is a much superior way to market.

Even if Google gets this straightened out, I have strong feelings about who I associate with. They are borderline back stabbers. But, for now, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and presume that I stumbled upon idiot buck fifty an hour employees that have no understanding about how business interacts with what Google does.

It is going to get interesting. Never touch another man's Rhubarb. If you remember that quote - and you should - you're a big Batman Fan. (The Joker, played by Jack Nicholson, said that just before he shot Batman)
 

Andy Black

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Get your listing and move on. It’s the eyeballs on Google that you want a relationship with, not Google.
 
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Real Deal Denver

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Get your listing and move on. It’s the eyeballs on Google that you want a relationship with, not Google.

I don't know what you mean? That's exactly what I'm trying to do. I have landing pages, for example. I want to do AdWords.

My site is not verified (recognized) by Google at this point. So I can't rank in AdWords. I think... maybe I'm wrong about that?
 

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I don't know what you mean? That's exactly what I'm trying to do. I have landing pages, for example. I want to do AdWords.

My site is not verified (recognized) by Google at this point. So I can't rank in AdWords. I think... maybe I'm wrong about that?

You don't need to get verified on Google MyBusiness to use Google Ads.
 

Andy Black

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I meant don’t get het up about it. You’re dealing with a big business outsourcing tasks to call centers. Don’t waste more energy than needed to get over this hurdle.
 
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Real Deal Denver

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You don't need to get verified on Google MyBusiness to use Google Ads.

Well that's good to hear!

How about all my landing pages? If my "business" is not verified as a business, then will my landing pages come up when searched? So far they haven't - and I do an EXACT match of keyword phrases. They are not anywhere to be seen. Only TWO pages come up with that exact keyword phrase - so I would be the third one that has that phrase - as my page title! Can't get more exact than that! My page name is the keyword phrase.

As far as I can see, the only way to find my landing pages is to type in the URL exactly - and it's lengthy, so nobody is going to do it. The keyword phrase is 7 words, separated by hyphens - and after my domain name - so you can see it's really a sentence in itself. But the other two pages that have that "exact keyword phrase" come up in positions 1 and 2.

Not knowing this, if I pay for this exact keyword phrase am I guaranteed then to come up as at least position 3, since I am an exact match?

Thanks for the insight. I'm hacking through this jungle one step at a time.
 

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Sounds like you want to appear organically for an exact match search. That’s SEO.

(It also sounds like your domain name could be a bit unwieldy?)

Google Ads (they’re no longer called AdWords) gets you to the top of the listing quicker - if you bid enough and get a good enough CTR on your ad.

You can’t make sweeping generalisations that Facebook Ads are better than Google Ads, or vice versa. It depends.
 

Real Deal Denver

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I meant don’t get het up about it. You’re dealing with a big business outsourcing tasks to call centers. Don’t waste more energy than needed to get over this hurdle.

I agree. Wish "they" could do their jobs, and then everyone would be happy.

It's been 3 weeks. That's way too long. Remember, I spent 3 months putting all my marketing methods in place. Made everything from scratch. It was a huge amount of work. So now I'm ready to launch, and I have to deal with idiots? I played along - spent a few hours playing the video office tour game, which is ridiculous for me, having this website (not in its current form) for over a decade. And my office being "verified" for over two decades.

If they want to see who I am - that is the purpose of my website. GOOGLE IT! Then anyone smarter than a turnip can see exactly what it is all about. I'm an agent, that is part of a team, working for XYZ Real Estate. There is NO room for misinterpretation. Unless you're an idiot, of course. Example - they wanted me to show a utility bill to the camera on the video bill with my name on it. They couldn't fathom that this is not my company - but I do work there... I know - it is hard if you're not a genius.

And they pay these people? Pffffffffff.
 
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Andy Black

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I agree. Wish "they" could do their jobs, and then everyone would be happy.

It's been 3 weeks. That's way too long. Remember, I spent 3 months putting all my marketing methods in place. Made everything from scratch. It was a huge amount of work. So now I'm ready to launch, and I have to deal with idiots? I played along - spent a few hours playing the video office tour game, which is ridiculous for me, having this website (not in its current form) for over a decade. And my office being "verified" for over two decades.

If they want to see who I am - that is the purpose of my website. GOOGLE IT! Then anyone smarter than a turnip can see exactly what it is all about. I'm an agent, that is part of a team, working for XYZ Real Estate. There is NO room for misinterpretation. Unless you're an idiot, of course. Example - they wanted me to show a utility bill to the camera on the video bill with my name on it. They couldn't fathom that this is not my company - but I do work there... I know - it is hard if you're not a genius.

And they pay these people? Pffffffffff.
They’re trying to stop spammers.

Think positive. All these problems are barriers to entry when you overcome them.

Now then. Have you listened to the call with Contrarian in my signature? I always wonder if people spend too long building before launching...
 

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Relax. I really hope this post is a joke. Google doesn't have anything against you. They are so big they are bound to have issues like the ones you described.
 

Real Deal Denver

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Sounds like you want to appear organically for an exact match search. That’s SEO.

(It also sounds like your domain name could be a bit unwieldy?)

Google Ads (they’re no longer called AdWords) gets you to the top of the listing quicker - if you bid enough and get a good enough CTR on your ad.

You can’t make sweeping generalisations that Facebook Ads are better than Google Ads, or vice versa. It depends.

Thanks for the insight.

Let's go with two things that I will do.

1) I have a landing page with the EXACT keyword phrase that is searched in this market area 320 times a month. I've researched this. The CTR rate is $2.50.

2) If I set up Google ads for that EXACT keyword phrase, and pay them $2.50 for each click, I WILL be in the number 3 spot when that EXACT keyword phrase is typed right?

Seems simple to me. Hope I'm right.
 
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Real Deal Denver

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Relax. I really hope this post is a joke. Google doesn't have anything against you. They are so big they are bound to have issues like the ones you described.

I only WISH it was a joke.

I waited weeks. Tried to call/email them. Finally got through and arranged this video tour to verify that I'm not an evil spammer, or whatever.

NOW they move the goal posts and want me to change my entire company image. Website - printed material - everything.

Some yahoo (funny choice of words, but true) from India is taking it upon themselves to decide that I'm not a team - or who knows what this crap for brains idiot is thinking - and "rebrand" myself. Cause he "thinks so."

Remember - I've had this site up for over ten years. This isn't new. But it is new in that it has been redesigned.

All I want for them to do is to do their job, for which they are paid for. Since they can't do that - for whatever reason - I simply want to cause someone higher up at Google headaches, like they cause me headaches - for no reason, other than to use their super powers to protect the world from "spammers" that have evil intentions... like me.

By the way, I'm carefully documenting all of this too - so if and when I do make a website showing the world what idiots they are, I am not just ranting - I will have a complete "story."

One more tidbit. Try to google "Google sucks" Of course nothing comes up. No surprise. Go to the bing browser and do the same. Now, lots and lots of hits come up. They can't even let their detractors have a say. Typical predatory business that is way too big for their britches.
 

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Thanks for the insight.

Let's go with two things that I will do.

1) I have a landing page with the EXACT keyword phrase that is searched in this market area 320 times a month. I've researched this. The CTR rate is $2.50.

2) If I set up Google ads for that EXACT keyword phrase, and pay them $2.50 for each click, I WILL be in the number 3 spot when that EXACT keyword phrase is typed right?

Seems simple to me. Hope I'm right.
(CTR is click-through-rate, CPC is cost per click.)

The $2.50 is an estimated bid price for your ad to appear on the first page. It’s an estimate, and I take it with a huge pinch of salt.

The 320 is an estimate too. You’ve no idea the volumes actually out there, and what you’ll get for your bid price.

Launch and learn. Check out the AdWords Posts link in my signature for a thread of that name, and one on how to use AdWords to get profitable or fail fast.
 

Andy Black

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I only WISH it was a joke.

I waited weeks. Tried to call/email them. Finally got through and arranged this video tour to verify that I'm not an evil spammer, or whatever.

NOW they move the goal posts and want me to change my entire company image. Website - printed material - everything.

Some yahoo (funny choice of words, but true) from India is taking it upon themselves to decide that I'm not a team - or who knows what this crap for brains idiot is thinking - and "rebrand" myself. Cause he "thinks so."

Remember - I've had this site up for over ten years. This isn't new. But it is new in that it has been redesigned.

All I want for them to do is to do their job, for which they are paid for. Since they can't do that - for whatever reason - I simply want to cause someone higher up at Google headaches, like they cause me headaches - for no reason, other than to use their super powers to protect the world from "spammers" that have evil intentions... like me.

By the way, I'm carefully documenting all of this too - so if and when I do make a website showing the world what idiots they are, I am not just ranting - I will have a complete "story."

One more tidbit. Try to google "Google sucks" Of course nothing comes up. No surprise. Go to the bing browser and do the same. Now, lots and lots of hits come up. They can't even let their detractors have a say. Typical predatory business that is way too big for their britches.
What people are saying is you’re spending way too much energy and time ring annoyed about this. Sure, vent. But then move on.
 
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Niptuck MD

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First of all, they don't want to be found, nor communicated with. I did manage to connect with them through a help feature. And then the game began.

LOL. Linkedin is the same way. I just deleted my linkedin. No support no service whatsoever. Pure Rubbish. Google is too big to fail so you have to do as Andy black suggests as it is vital for your service-product.
All i am saying is that duckduckgo is the way I go. (i know its not as high any mighty as google but give it time I am sure more and more people will start using this).

Privacy and service go hand in hand these days. I urge everyone to get on the TOR and use NORDVPN as well as mail services like protonmail (incredible service) and search engines like duck duck go. Trust me folks.

Just waiting for south park to make a mockery of google like they did with apple when the ipad came out @Raoul Duke remember that lol
 

Real Deal Denver

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Get your listing and move on. It’s the eyeballs on Google that you want a relationship with, not Google.

Launch and learn. Check out the AdWords Posts link in my signature for a thread of that name, and one on how to use AdWords to get profitable or fail fast.

What people are saying is you’re spending way too much energy and time ring annoyed about this. Sure, vent. But then move on.

I received the same form letter from Google once again. My response was intense, to say the least. The idiots I am working with can't do their jobs. That's fine - until it affects my job.

I'm very surprised that you don't understand that if is VERY important that my website is verified. It's not the end all of everything - it is ONE part of my marketing.

If that doesn't happen, then all my SEO content will be wasted.

And there's no reason for that situation to occur.

Since they made me drop everything for their "video tour verification" I'm not going to just "rant" and move on.

This is my business. Kind of important. To me at least. I'm not letting some third world primate one level above an ape get in my way.

Google is going to hear from me in about 8 or 9 hours. They try very hard to NOT be able to be contacted, except through some weak "help form" via their web pages. I'll be "in touch" with them somehow. Even if I have to find someone to pay them an in person visit. I have connections - I can find someone that knows someone...
 

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This is my business. Kind of important. To me at least. I'm not letting some third world primate one level above an ape get in my way.

Google is going to hear from me in about 8 or 9 hours. They try very hard to NOT be able to be contacted, except through some weak "help form" via their web pages. I'll be "in touch" with them somehow. Even if I have to find someone to pay them an in person visit. I have connections - I can find someone that knows someone...

I feel for you, I really do, I've gone through similar things with Amazon, eBay and PayPal over the years. There is one thing I learnt however. Letting it consume you is a totally pointless and counterproductive exercise.

You think spending valuable time and resources creating an anti Google site will move your needle forward and at the same time hurt them? You are wrong, soooooo wrong. MOVE ON. All it will do is hold you back. Take it from someone who has the t-shirt.

I'm sure you will get your verification issues sorted but don't go full tilt in the meantime.
 
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Real Deal Denver

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I feel for you, I really do, I've gone through similar things with Amazon, eBay and PayPal over the years. There is one thing I learnt however. Letting it consume you is a totally pointless and counterproductive exercise.

You think spending valuable time and resources creating an anti Google site will move your needle forward and at the same time hurt them? You are wrong, soooooo wrong. MOVE ON. All it will do is hold you back. Take it from someone who has the t-shirt.

I'm sure you will get your verification issues sorted but don't go full tilt in the meantime.

I appreciate your input.

I'm not going full tilt. This all started 12/7/18, so it's going to be a month in a few days.

I think I've been very patient in that time. I've only become mad at them when they wanted me to change the name of my business identity to my name, instead of the "team" I have had it identified for... wait for it... a DECADE now - and counting.

These idiots need to be reeled in, first of all. Who do they think they are telling me how to run MY business?

Secondly, they need to hear from one mad business person that DOES do work, and does NOT allow some buck fifty idiot interfere with their business.

I'm 100% in the right. I've played along with them for more than 3 weeks longer than this should have taken. And I have a lot to do. Number one on my list - kick them in the head in a few hours. Might not get anything accomplished, but that's okay - that's the way it's been already for far too long. Time to learn a new dance. I'll take the lead in this one - they follow.
 

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Sorry but that sounds like full tilt to me.
 

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How many have you sold since 12/7?
Time to shift focus and let the admin call them......
 
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Real Deal Denver

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Sorry but that sounds like full tilt to me.

If you want to water ski, you get a full tilt speed boat. If you want to putz around, get a pontoon. If you want to relax and fish, get one of those 10 footer row boats.

This is my biz, so yes I'm going full throttle. Pulling three beefy guys behind me, with two knock out beach bunnies on their shoulders. Five total. Might leave a wake behind me that will swamp that pontoon. That's the chances you take when you go full tilt. Read on...

How many have you sold since 12/7?
Time to shift focus and let the admin call them......

Took the bull by the horns today. And then the gonads. Surprising how docile bulls get when you apply pressure in the right place.

I found out their support people are based in the Philippines. That in itself answers a ton of questions. Now I know who I'm dealing with. As I worked up the ladder, I eventually connected with a very smart guy that was super helpful to me. I asked him if they had real estate agents in the Philippines, as the idiots I had been working with couldn't grasp that oh so complicated business model. He laughed and said of course they have real estate agents there. (Google entrusts these idiots to help run "my" business? Thanks Google. With help like that, I don't need enemies/competition.)

We went over a lot of the details I needed to clarify for AdWords. They call them ads now, and funny thing, they don't use the phrase "ad phrases" which kind of surprised me, because I am going to be keying into very exact phrases - not mere words.

The CPC was a bit lower than I expected in cost, and much higher in CTR, so I was pretty happy there. He was surprised that I was precisely dialed into what I wanted to do. And... just to be nice, he reviewed my website and gave me some feedback for content, design, and load speed - all good marks.

Tomorrow at 3:00, the managers in charge of the "Google my Business" part of Google are going to be calling me so we can get PAST this insanity of their people not knowing what they're doing and wasting my time.

Pretty good progress today. I'm happy. Hope tomorrow is as good.

I did have to poke them a bit. I said that although I was planning on using their "ad" marketing (AdWords), since I have been jerked around for almost a month now, I might just go 100% with Facebook, as I know several people that use that and have very good things to say about it. I also said I wanted the idiots that have been jerking me around fired - when he asked me "what I want."

Very direct and to the point. I think they were surprised at how I squared off with them head on. I know they were surprised (because he told me) when he saw my multi-page website, with an already developed blog, and six landing pages ready to deploy. All ready to go. Just have to get the monkeys out of the way so I can move forward.

Full flippin tilt. Head on full speed, and my brakes don't work. Get out of the way or get run over.

They sent me a survey today also. Ten little smiley faces for each question. I rated them all "frowns" as the worst possible service/results possible. The feedback text boxes had plenty of feedback. Used a lot of adjectives like stupid and incompetent. A few nouns sprinkled around, like idiot. Not difficult to extract the exact meaning I was trying to convey...

Somebody somewhere is going to get a jolt. I may be one tiny weak simple minded cry baby to them. But this little baby will kick their a$$ across the planet if necessary. Refer to my "power of 5" info I posted earlier if you want to see how that is possible. As for my needs - Zuck the man can take care of everything I need. Google is no longer running the entire show anymore.

Stay tuned.

Zuck.gif
 
Last edited:

Andy Black

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They’ve been Google Ads for a while now. You can call them what you want of course, but eventually everyone will call them Google Ads, the same way everyone calls them Facebook Ads. I think it was smart and overdue of them to change from AdWords to Google Ads.

We bid on keywords not ad phrases.

Top tip: don’t call what people type into Google “keywords”. SEO guys do that. Google Ads guys should call them search terms.

If you’re going to use Google Ads then be super clear and accurate with the words you use, and use the words other people use rather than rail against it and choose your own.

I don’t understand what you’re saying about CTR being higher than you expected. Have you run a live campaign yet?

If your goal is to run a Google Ads campaign, then what’s stopping you?
 

poseidn

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This is comical. Why are you making all these threats to google? Do you think they are going to see your post and change how they do business? A multi billion dollar corp? Really. Cmon.

This "power of 5" nonsense is the funniest thing i've heard all week. Sounds like some sort of Sci-Fi sith lord cult.
 
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CareCPA

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I think your basic premise is correct - Google doesn't care about you. The reason they don't care about you? As a real-estate team, you make them very little money.
This isn't a dig at you, it's a fact. You are selling a targeted product in a targeted area. Your ad spend may be a couple hundred a month? Just a guess here.

I know people spending $40k, $50k, $60k a month on Google Ads (and those are small players). Those are the people Google cares about.
 

Andy Black

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I think your basic premise is correct - Google doesn't care about you. The reason they don't care about you? As a real-estate team, you make them very little money.
This isn't a dig at you, it's a fact. You are selling a targeted product in a targeted area. Your ad spend may be a couple hundred a month? Just a guess here.

I know people spending $40k, $50k, $60k a month on Google Ads (and those are small players). Those are the people Google cares about.
This.

I worked for a company spending €120k+ a day. It didn’t stop Google pulling the plug and preventing them running campaigns - overnight.

The people Google really cares about are the visitors to their search engine. If they get a cr@p enough experience then they won’t return. No eyeballs, no advertisers. No advertisers, no revenue.
 

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