Reality is that most web development agencies are not aware of the full power of web today, letalone clients themselves
Google are very keen on promoting the relevance of their AdWords and AdSense programmes, but what is the real state of play with these?
Just like any other company in the world I was amazed to realise some time last year about the fact that Google are prone to sales pitch bulls**t through an interview which I was having with one of their sales managers in France for a Google Analytics position I was head hunted for.
I was being asked about questions on how I would optimise client's web site in order to achieve more conversions and more traffic.
I spoke about many different creative and interesting (good practice) ways of achieving this, through SEO and some usability testing, content reshuffling, copy re-writing and individual page optimisation.
My logic behind this was that Google promote the whole idea of 'don't be evil' and improving the quality of the web as a whole, both of which I think are great ideas and fully believe in them.
My excitement of being in the 3rd round of an interview with Google was really large and I kept on running out of breath, since I prepared really well. This was my 'dream job'!
However, to all my well-researched and well educated responses the guy on the other side kept on simply saying: 'Yes ... and ... what else? What else would you do to get a client more traffic'.
This question was being asked in the context of a client already having spent money on AdWords and looking to achieve even more with their on-line marketing campaigns.
So I failed to give him the right answer because I did not pronounce the words: 'Sell them more AdWords'.
At the point when I realised that selling more AdWords was the main objective even from Google, I started thinking much differently about this fascinating company.
I was quite disappointed really, since I though Google were innately different in their overall approach to business.
The overall relevance of Google AdWords campaigns is sometimes ridiculously low or totally not there.
Once I ran a search for the keyword 'Prince Nazeem' (note that I misspelled the second word) and got an offer to buy this popular English boxer on eBay.
Another bizzare example is the Expedia AdWords promotion for the keyword 'mine maps' (mines as in the weapons used for killing infantry).
Other examples still work today and I suppose Google thinks that these sort of ridiculous AdWords campaigns are worth while for eBay and other major conglomerates on the web.
Why does this happen? What is the point of these AdWords promotions being thrown up on Google? Isn't this totally counter-productive for Google and the brand?
Furthermore, I also find that AdWords are often used by self-employed quasi business-men who are often looking to make a ridiculously quick buck by selling nothing other than AdSense ads on their one-page 'web sites'?!
Why does Google allow this and what is the point of supporting this?
The only answer can be the fact that Google are making money from it and their clients do not have capacity to track this fact down, while Google are keeping quiet since it is adding to their purse all the time.
I thought I will not write about this, but after long contemplation decided to blurt it all out in this blog post.
I am really interested to hear about other people's experiences with AdWords and whether it has helped them, or whether they have been seeing some of these ridiculous ads pop-up on Google.
6:15 PM 
(1)
