Korean Job Discussion Forums

[bassexpander]

I've been trying to promote my website with Google ads. In the first day or two of the campaign, it worked great. I had search words that were bringing me good clicks. I began to tailor my campaign to work on the search words that cost the less, yet brought me the most hits.

Oddly, the search word that brought me the most hits for the least amount of money was "North Korea." That was costing me just 5 cents per click when someone clicked on it. Searching on ESL Korea, or ESL jobs, for example, cost me something like .50 cents per click.

I was getting far more "impressions" and far more clicks overall with "North Korea" than I was from ESL Korea. Google, however, decided to lock me out from using North Korea as a search word, citing that it wasn't a good value for me ... so many impressions, yet the percentage of clicks was low.

That's bull$hit.

The number of clicks I received from that search string was 3 times higher than anything else, and cost me 5 times less per click. And they came quickly.

I don't care about "impressions." I care about clicks, and what my average cost per click is. An "impression" simply means it showed up on the page and was either ignored, or more likely, wasn't even noticed. I care about what gets noticed, that it gets clicked on, and how much I pay for it when they do click.

Google cares about one thing: increasing your average cost per click to their advantage, so you pay more. And if you find a search string that gives you a lot of hits for very little money (even if it pertains to your campaign) Google will find a way to block you from using that word.

With "North Korea" as a search word, I was drawing far more web traffic overall, and my ad was appearing as the only one on the page (drawing more attention). And it was costing me just pennies per click.

[JustJohn]

Very interesting. Try messaging google and tell them that it's a good value for you and you want it back.

Keep us posted.

[bassexpander]

There are some things I don't yet understand. For example, the bid for "North Korea" used to be like .05 cents. It's shot up to over 50 cents. Almost nobody else uses that word (maybe one ad sometimes), and never has. I can't figure out why lowest bids required for a word can be so high, yet it only costs you 5 cents when someone actually clicks on it. It's like they throttled my bid price on the word after seeing that I was getting so many impressions and clicks.

Very confusing. Their interface program kind of sucks as well.

[bassexpander]

Hmmm.... I am finding this:

http://www.patrickstuart.com/archives/2005/11/05/how-google-adsense-sucks/

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=656264

http://forums.seochat.com/google-adwords-more-39/adwords-sucks-3076.html

[losing_touch]

On the other end of the spectrum, I am an adsense publisher on several websites which supplements my income. I don't know how many websites you have, but I hope you are not referring to your podcast site. Your site is about ESL in South Korea. Your ad would not fit well with a page that didn't have to do with the North.

Please explain more fully. I am interested in the other side too!

[bassexpander]

I worked in advertising for nearly ten years. According to Google, my add wouldn't fit well. They say that because they want to control (as best as possible without seeming like big brother) where people are advertising for the most profit. That's why they set up their system to nudge you somewhat forcefully into certain areas and not others. If they didn't the advertising would be too expensive for little guys like me. Google profits heavily from the little guys, and keeping them thinking that their ads work (sometimes they do).

A search on "North Korea" on the English side of things is very much in my market. And for the money, it's a far better bargain that ESL related keywords, which cost up to 10 to 20 times more to run in.

Why? Because I'm targeted to South Korea and English versions of Google. Now take a guess what people in Korea are going to be running English Google? My target base: teachers, expats, etc.

So for about .05 per click, I can draw from teachers and expats in Korea who are looking up North Korea using English Google. That, or I could use ESL something, and pay 10 times as much for the same people.

Psychologically, if a teacher or expat does a search on North Korea, and is faced with a page full of North Korea stuff -- but one lone Podcasting ad is on the right hand side surrounded by a lot of space -- my add will do well, and has a better chance of drawing their attention.

[losing_touch]

I like your podcast. I listen to it when it comes out. If you want a link from my page, I am happy to put one up for you. I am still working out my main site, but it is coming along. PM me if you are interested. I like to link to those that contribute something worthwhile.

[bassexpander]

Sure, thanks.

I'm testing searches on the word Dokdo today. We'll see how long it is before Google boots me from that word.

Google is sort of twisting the way advertising works to make their point. What they say would be very correct if I were paying per impression. But that's the thing -- we don't pay per impression -- we pay per click. So impressions mean a lot less than people think. Google doesn't want us to have incredibly high impressions. They want people to click on my ad, but at a higher price. In effect, it costs Google more for me to have higher impressions if no one else is bidding on that word because I'm getting my share for less.

Google's formula is to say, "Hey, you've got 100,000 impressions from the keyword 'North Korea', but only 100 clicks, so we're blocking you from that word so it doesn't eat away at your budget."

They're all hyped about impressions, which mean jack squat in the world of tiny text ads -- it's clicks that matter. But what's important to me is that I got 100 teachers/expats from SK to click at .05 each.

Sure, on the search string "ESL Korea" I get a higher percentage of clicks per impressions (say 10,000 impressions and 15 clicks) which appears to be a better reach of my customer base, but I'm paying 50 cents per click (ten times more) to each of those people!

Google would much rather I pay 50 cents per click from these people advertising under a popular word like ESL.

See why I'd rather have a worse ratio of impressions to clicks and pay less?