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Google Ads

Google Ads
Formerly AdWords

Overview

What is Google Ads?

Google Ads (formerly AdWords) is Google's pay-per-click online advertising program. With Google Ads users set their budget and choose where their ads appear in search listings, and on partner websites. Google Ads uses cost-per-click (CPC) bidding.

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Recent Reviews

Ad Management with Google Ads

10 out of 10
January 23, 2023
Google Ads is a very platform to manage paid advertising that is sought to be shared within the Google search engine as well as the allies …
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Best Ads Campaign Tool.

9 out of 10
October 12, 2022
We use Google Ads to reach prospects with very high intent. We have been using this for more than five years now, and it has always worked …
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Google Ads = ROAS

8 out of 10
May 17, 2022
Incentivized
We use Google Ads to support priority campaigns to drive traffic to certain areas of our site, specific products, etc. The platform offers …
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Worst customer service ever!

1 out of 10
May 04, 2022
I use it to advertise my services. The problem is that my ad was suspended and it is impossible to get in touch with a human to figure out …
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SAVE YOUR MONEY THEY ARE A SCAM

1 out of 10
March 17, 2022
SAVE YOUR MONEY!!!!!!!!! THEY ARE THIEVES. FIRST THEY OVERCHARGE FOR PPC ADS, THEN THEY WILL SUSPEND YOUR ACCOUNT FOR NO REASON AND WHEN …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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What is Google Ads?

Google Ads (formerly AdWords) is Google's pay-per-click online advertising program. With Google Ads users set their budget and choose where their ads appear in search listings, and on partner websites. Google Ads uses cost-per-click (CPC) bidding.

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Product Demos

5 Minutes Guide: How to Setup Google Ads Account [2021]

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How to create Google Ads Tracking Template URL with example? Campaign URL Option in Google Ads 2021

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Upload to AdWords (Demo)

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Google Analytics tutorial for Beginners

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Google Web Designer for Google Ads Demo

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Quick Start Guide To Google Ads For Beginners: Create Your First Campaign In 20 Minutes

YouTube
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Product Details

What is Google Ads?

Google Ads (formerly AdWords) is Google's pay-per-click online advertising program. With Google Ads users set their budget and choose where their ads appear. There's no minimum spending commitment, and the program can be paused or stopped at anytime. With Google Ads the user reaches people as they search for words or phrases as they browse websites. Ads can appear in Google search listings and on partner websites. Remarketing and retargeting techniques can be applied to increase return traffic and make sales. With cost-per-click (CPC) bidding, Google Ads charges users when visitors click on ads.

Google Ads Technical Details

Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

Google Ads (formerly AdWords) is Google's pay-per-click online advertising program. With Google Ads users set their budget and choose where their ads appear in search listings, and on partner websites. Google Ads uses cost-per-click (CPC) bidding.

Reviewers rate Support Rating highest, with a score of 8.9.

The most common users of Google Ads are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(1282)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(26-50 of 114)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
AdWords is currently being used as a marketing tool to support other channels such as Paid Social and Programmatic. As AdWords works lower down the funnel it helps to generate leads and increase revenue via selected targeting, either it is B2C or B2B marketing. It is currently being used by our specialist Paid Search teams that use AdWords and BingAds.

Overall, AdWords solves many problems, these include but are not limited to, low organic search rankings, finding new customers, driving more users to your site, as well as allowing the business in question to increase their overall revenue.
  • AdWords utilizes audience lists very well. These are lists that are created either with cookies, first-party data (from the business) or by using Google's own created topics. Audience lists are a strength mainly because it allows the business to target users who are more relevant to them, this, firstly, reduces spend on less relevant users and also increases revenue and conversions, which can really help a business grow.
  • AdWords also circumvents the problem regarding low organic search rankings.
  • For many businesses, organic search rankings could be very low for many non-brand related terms. AdWords gets around this by allowing you to bid on the first 4 positions on the search results page. This is essential to increase the visibility of the business, as well as allowing you the choice to bid on certain terms.
  • AdWords also provides Ad Extensions, these are extensions to your usual PPC ads and allows you to add additional information that you may not be able to fit into the character limit. The ad extensions include sitelinks (links that take you to various pages on your site), callouts (a list of unique selling points that will entice the user to click), Call extensions (a phone number).
  • These extensions allow your business to firstly take up more space when the advert is shown on the results page, which takes attention away from competitors and thus, vastly increases the likelihood of a user clicking on your ad. These extensions would not always be available if you run your business using SEO only.
  • AdWords editor doesn't allow for the editing of Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) campaigns. I would like for this to be changed, as I prefer to see my changes before they go live, however for DSAs you are unable to do this and all changes have to occur live in the account.
  • I would like to see a functionality that allows you to apply an audience list to a device, without the need to create a separate device-specific campaign. This would be beneficial if you see a certain type of user is more likely to click on a specific device.
  • I would like to see the user interface to change slightly to allow for more visibility of overall performance in a graph. This could be done by setting primary and secondary KPIs in the account and then these could be displayed on a top-level chart. The idea of this is to see where drops and peaks occur and where you could investigate it more.
AdWords works very well as a lower funnel channel, this means that you are able to target users who are already expressing interest or intent to buy or sign up for a specific product, it works very well as a B2C product, where you have a product to sell, or you want to push a certain product.

I think AdWords is less suited when it comes to a branding piece if you are trying to give your business more exposure in the public eye. This could work as support to other channels, such as out of the home, or paid social.
William Copeland | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Reseller
I have used Google ads for over 5 years, at this point in my professional career. The ads platform is utilized to drive new business leads and sales. We are not using Google PPC for anything other than marketing.
  • It’s Google so everybody uses it.
  • You can lose as much money as you want and have full control over the speed in which you lose money.
  • When there is an issue you get the pleasure of chatting with an AI bot who will repeatedly email you the same auto-response with links to policies, no matter what question you ask it!
  • If you make a mistake and accidentally talk to a real human they will quickly route you to the correct bot to send you repeated and useless emails.
  • [I believe] regardless of any government and legal requirements to start and run a business, Google will determine if you are allowed to have customers.
  • Customer service is non-existent, unless you’re maybe spending millions.
  • No visibility to ad delivery. You simply must trust that your ads are targeting your customer profile.
  • You’ll likely get flagged as some type of scam and have your account suspended, while you also get bombarded with actual scams.
Here is the core problem with Google. [I believe] nearly every consumer is using Google, which means every business is somewhat dependent upon Google. Since they’ve become so fundamental to society they’ve taken the approach of being so big they don’t have to care about their customer base. Google is now much like the IRS. [In my experience] nobody wants to pay their taxes, but you simply must. Same with Google ads. Don’t want to use it but a business is no business without advertising.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Google Ads for its intended use... pay per click advertising. We target our customers based on location, age, and income - all of which Google Ads allows us to narrow down. It is a great marketing tool to get new customers. We set up many of our clients on the platform to attract customers for them as well.
  • Target Marketing
  • Ease of Creating PPC Ads
  • Great Reporting Features
  • If you don't know what you're doing, it will be a costly mistake. You need to target ads, and it is difficult the first time to do that.
  • There isn't a feature to run an add for a couple set date spans, just hours you want to run them or a single date span.
It really depends on your business. Some businesses will benefit greatly from pay per click ads and some will just waste endless money. Not only does your customer need to be searching for the keywords you are using, but the ad has to be enticing for them to click on it. We have also found that only advertising with Google Ads gives us better results than advertising with their search partners (like YouTube).
Alek Babaa | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Google Ads (formerly AdWords) every single day to manage the accounts of other businesses. We have various campaign types that we manage, between search, shopping, display, video, app, and local campaigns. The campaigns are designed to facilitate one of three things: brand awareness, leads, or purchases for our clients.
  • Data collection. Not in the sense of privacy, but in terms of numbers it gives owners or of the accounts an immense amount of data to use for the management of the campaigns.
  • Integrations. For the most part, you can find ways to integrate Google Ads with other digital platforms in order to ensure that you are collecting the right information.
  • Provides multiple types of campaign options for different campaign objectives.
  • The user interface is too gimmicky at times and does not cater to the more experienced user.
  • If you are inexperienced, they do not do a good job of explaining how the system works and try to push you to automation, which can lead you down a bad path. If you do not know what to look for then you can find yourself in trouble and may spend a lot of money thinking you are doing a good job.
I wouldn't recommend Google Ads (formerly AdWords) for personal management to someone who does not have the time to devote to it. If you are running a business and are already spread very thin across multiple departments, do not try and take on Google Ads (formerly AdWords). If you do have the time, then I highly recommend it to someone who is looking to build and scale their business, as it can be an extremely useful tool to ensure visibility to potential customers.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized
Google Ads is utilizing by the entire paid search department and is a big part of our whole organization. Google Ads delivers premium search traffic volume on a cost-per-click basis. The volume it can reach is bar none in the industry and is the leader in the marketplace.
  • Search traffic
  • Management of budgets and bids
  • Control over delivery
  • Service team
  • Analysis reporting team
  • Revenue management
Google Ads is well suited for any business looking to advertise. he paid search media vehicle is the lowest funnel initiative & opportunity in paid media, while Google Ads is at the top of volume contributors. So therefore it would be good to test any low or initial marketing budget on Google Ads to begin to get your feet wet any evergreen advertising ploy.
Lee L Kennedy | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Google Ads [(formerly AdWords)] is mostly a middle and bottom of funnel marketing channel for our ecommerce brands. We have some success in top of funnel, but it tends to be quite expensive and typically not worth it. We use it for search ads mainly, from capturing branded clicks with the additional real estate, to bidding against competitors on non-branded search terms.
  • Google Ads is the best in class at search ads.
  • The setup of their campaigns is relatively simple, and their support is decent.
  • They have a big display ad network as well, although display campaign management can be difficult.
  • Google's heavy dependence on AI makes many of the campaign behavior inscrutable and, often, it performs poorly as a result.
  • Their responsive ads, for example, which are heavily recommended by them, often perform significantly worse than normal text ads.
  • Their support, while relatively quick, becomes useless if you need any deep insight/help.
Google Ads [(formerly AdWords)] should be your go-to when running search ads. Branded terms, non-branded terms, and shopping ads are especially powerful. With some extra experience/skill, YouTube ads can be powerful as well. Top of funnel is a bit more difficult though unless you create and manage some very powerful display creative.
Ruben Diaz | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use Google Ads (formerly AdWords) to manage multiple business search campaigns--over 1,000 keywords and 20 campaigns. SEM solves many issues with regard to brand awareness and product awareness. Utilizing Google Ads (formerly AdWords) allows us to conquer all aspects of marketing. I'm able to add images and reviews of our products so that our potential clients see our products and see how great our products are.
  • Drive traffic
  • Keyword research
  • Campaign analytics
  • Smart bidding
  • Conversions
  • Smart bidding audience adjustments
  • Smart bidding bid adjustments
  • Distinguish between new and existing potential leads
It's basically monopolizing search because Google doesn't allow other companies to bid on Googles SERP. Google is basically everywhere and thus is the SERP of choice. Google is suited to showcase your website based on the keywords you want to be seen under. I honestly wish they kept the BMM modifiers in broad match. Switching it over to phrase match sucks.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use Google Ads to advertise my apps mobile platforms to get new installs and for retention. I usually create either short campaigns or long running campaigns. Google Ads is used each time for a different product, we usually create targeted ads that are targeted for a specific audience. We try to be as [...] targeted as [much as] possible.
  • Easy to use - possible to create a campaign within minutes.
  • It has broad audience and millions of users.
  • Relatively simple interface.
  • It takes 2 weeks for a campaign to optimize itself.
  • The system is over engineered from a security perspective - there are many false positives.
  • High cost - higher than Facebook Ads.
Google Ads is well suited if we want to reach any specific audience. It has lots of traffic and there are many options to create targeted ads. It is relatively easy to use and learn, therefore it [fits] well for beginners. Google Ads is less appropriate when you want to use short campaigns (below 2 weeks) because it takes time for a campaign to optimize itself. It is also less appropriate if you need to utilize social targeting - in this case, Facebook Ads is more appropriate.
Sydney Lovegrove | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
In my last role, our company used Google Ads across our whole marketing department. It was an option we provided to clients but only about a third would choose to utilize Google Ads. It was a great resource for driving applications at financial institutions which were our main goal. Google Ads was only one portion of our whole marketing strategy - it is a great tool to drive brand awareness! I love that you are getting right in front of your desired audience when they need you most and are searching directly for you and your business's service.
  • Reporting Dashboard
  • Ad Setup Wizard
  • Geographic Targeting
  • Keyword Pricing
  • Reporting Dashboard Organization
Google Ads is great because you can target essentially anyone - the reach is limitless. It is a good resource when you are wanting to get relevant content directly in front of the right people. It's also nice that you only pay when someone actually clicks on your ad. The platform itself does a nice job gathering any and all data you would ever need to continue improving your campaign performance.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We used [Google Ads (formerly AdWords)] across the marketing and sales dept. We hired an outside ad agency that helped us with SEO and Ads. I was in charge of the agency account and kept them on track and on budget. I reviewed and supplemented the ads before publishing and helped create the keywords and ads for Avidex.
  • Making it easy to create and publish the ads
  • Helps with budget and timing
  • Product support is great!
  • Suggested keywords based on previous content
  • Help with ad timing and imaging
  • Better detailed explanation of ideas
There are many how-to videos online to help with Google Ads newbies. Google also has lots of information regarding keywords, starting your ads account, SEO, and any specific questions you may have regarding set-up. Using Google Ads is very beneficial if done correctly and goes well with other marketing campaigns. I would recommend it to any marketing professional looking to increase website traffic.
Kristopher Harris | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are using Google Ads [(formerly AdWords)] as a digital advertising engine. It allows us to create, manage, analyze, and edit advertisements on Google. It is mostly used across the entire organization and across many different teams.
  • Create and manage advertisements on Google
  • Provide keyword and ad planning tools
  • Provide data on search traffic and queries
  • UI is sluggish and buggy at times
  • Optimization/recommendation tool has to be continuously monitored and recommendations have to be dismissed multiple times
  • Google has started limiting search query report tool and hiding low traffic search terms
Google Ads [(formerly AdWords)] is well suited when researching, creating, managing, editing, or analyze advertisements on Google. It is solely for advertisements on Google, so if you want to manage ads on other platforms, you’ll need to use those respective engines or a management tool (like Google’s SA360).
Darien Chaffart | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
As a non-profit organization, we use Google Ads through the Google Ads Grant and as such have setup numerous search ads to help people discover our organization or to promote big searchable events. Currently, it is only used within our communications/marketing team, but we plan to expand usage to create targeted ads for each individual area of interest within our organization, as well as to eventually run ads targeting questions people frequently ask about Christianity and religion that would link back to an in-depth article about the subject in question.

Google Ads helps address the problem of getting our organization in front of potentially interested people, and has helped boost us ahead of other larger organizations that currently rank ahead of us in terms of SEO.
  • Keyword Research - Google Ads has a handy built in tool that helps determine important keywords to target both for Ads & SEO
  • Intuitive Analytics Dashboad - Google Ads makes it fairly simple to see and analyze important metrics on how your ads are running week after week
  • Intuitive Setup - Google Ads makes it easy to figure out how to run ads with little to no training (although training is highly recommended to run effective ads), as their interface is clean and easy to figure out (unlike competing products).
  • Google Ads allows you to make and manage multiple ads accounts; the downfall being that if you ever click "New Ads Account", that accidental account can seemingly never be deleted/removed from your login page.
  • Google Ads offers two separate dashboard views - "Summary" and "Detailed". Both are useful, however summary seemingly removes 3/4 of the features I frequently use. This only became an issue however when Google Ads first decided to change me to "Summary" view without asking my permission or informing me how to return to the "Detailed" view.
  • No matter what kind of Ads account you setup (using the non-profit grant or not), you get the exact same Google Ads account - with all the features. For non-profits under the grant, this means you have to be careful not to test that cool new feature Google is promoting that will immediately disqualify you from the grant.
  • Google Ads tries to make things simple by giving you suggestions, and will sometimes penalize you if you ignore their suggestions. The issue is when their suggestion is to add misspelled words and improper grammar into your ads - which, if you ignore, decreases your optimization score, and comes back no matter how many times it is reported.
As we only use Google Ads for search ads (under the Ad Grant), I cannot speak to their display, discovery, smart, shopping or video ads. However for our goals, which is to help people searching for an organization such as ours get connected to us, with proper setup Google Ads is very effective. We have had great success running Ads for our organization, helping hundreds of people click on our website and visit our location; and we've had great success running ads targeting big events we put on for things such as Easter and Christmas.

The only time Google Ads would not be appropriate for our usage is if we were to use it to try and target something people weren't searching for, or if we did not do our due diligence in keyword planning.
Scott Walker | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Google [Ads (formerly AdWords)] on behalf of our clients for a variety of different success metrics. Many of our campaigns are focused on conversions: purchases, calls, or bookings for services. Though measuring these conversions can be a bit tricky (as with any system), Google Ads is probably the easiest to measure the actual performance. Additionally, Google Ads uses machine learning to ensure that you are optimizing your ads and placement for maximum conversions for the ad spend. Other campaigns focus on win-back and remarketing, overall web traffic, and brand recognition (awareness) campaigns. Something new we've started doing for certain clients is using the Local Services Ads (Google Guarantee). These have been tremendously helpful and are one of my new favorite tools for certain industries.
  • Automatic Ad Creation
  • Machine Learning-based refinement
  • Keyword Research
  • Performance Planning
  • Display Advertising
  • Search Advertising
  • Search Term refinement
  • Reporting is powerful but clunky
  • Budget Management leaves a lot to be desired (no monthly maximum spend option)
  • Recommendations are almost always trying to increase budget
  • Quarterly Google Ads techs are often less experienced than average user
  • Appeal Process is very vague and doesn't allow for explanations
There's no mystery here: when it comes to Search Engine Marketing, Google reigns supreme. Though you can still get decent performance from Yahoo and Bing, if you want to reach most searchers, you need to use Google Ads [(formerly AdWords)]. And, with the power and polish in Google Ads, there's rarely any reason to use a third-party ad purchasing platform. Display Advertising may be better with an different platform, but Google still has some of the best display placements and prices available.

I used to think local services (think plumbers, repair shops, etc) weren't very well suited for Google Ads [(formerly AdWords)], but recently their local inventory options and their new Local Services Ads have really made Google a powerhouse for local businesses.

There are certain business types that might find Google Ads [(formerly AdWords)] difficult to use. Google has an extensive yet confusing list of products and services it won't allow you to advertise, such as weapons, fireworks, pharmaceuticals, gambling, etc. And these categories and policies will often prevent similar or related (though not disallowed) industries to get blocked as well. So, for industries even tangentially related to risky industries, you may find Google Ads to frustrating to deal with.
Patrick Stephens | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is used solely in my department. I do use it on consulting assignments, and have often taught individuals how to use it, so my experience lies in several facets with the program. Ultimately, it addresses our need for digital marketing.
  • Options. It gives you plenty of ways to customize and build your ads as you wish (obviously within their parameters).
  • User Functionality. While it would be burdensome (see weaknesses) for some, if you are familiar with these types of programs then you will be able to navigate around Google Ads pretty easily.
  • Budget Friendly. You can set your own budget. That, in and of itself, is key for us.
  • Support. Almost every account rep we've had has been a bully. They've harassed our employees to get to me, all to tell me that they think I need to raise my budget (mind you, as a school we aren't able to simply raise a budget just because someone thinks we should). In another instance, an account rep was claiming to help us (this was several years ago), and made changes on the ads - they ended up making the ads for something we were not affiliated with.
  • Not for Beginners. Many marketing companies use the expansive display as a way to stymie clients, making it seem like the overview is more complicated than it seems. If you are new to the program, you will be fooled. Be mindful that this facet of Google Ads allows for manipulation.
It can be a great deal of your marketing. If you study how the program works, and how the ad space runs, then you can make this work for you very well. For us, we have run ads for many years on Google Ads, refining the budget very carefully. We have been able to suss out competitors' tactics based on how the bids in our area look. It has not just readability for you, but for your industry.

Just be mindful that the representatives are there to raise your budget, first and foremost. Most marketing companies will go out of their way to confuse you by downloading the Overview and making it seem like they put in hours of work, especially if it nets them profit. Many industries just need someone to train an in-house person to handle the ads (which is also better because then you can avoid the third party not fully knowing your brand). Once you get it, you get it.
April 09, 2021

Google AdWords

Missy Geyer | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Google Ads is being utilized for our digital department. We run AdWords campaigns on behalf of our clients. We run anything from your typical search campaign, to display campaigns, shopping campaigns, and YouTube campaigns. We are a digital agency that can pitch and fulfill a client's Google AdWords campaign. We manage hundreds of clients on a monthly basis.
  • A strong audience
  • An easy to use UI
  • A great value proposition for clients
  • Many targeting capabilities
  • Could use some help in the ad builder, it would be great to have examples of ad copy to use.
  • The set up is easy, but it is a long process from start to finish.
Google Ads is perfectly suited for a number of client verticals. Real estate, home services, retail, restaurants, and general services, etc. It works well when there are a promotion or special driven offers to get more of a call to action. It is something great to have to run all year long and update throughout the year based off of seasonality and special offers!
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Many companies I work with have used Google Ads to effectively distribute their message to different target audiences. With Google Ads, we are able to fine tune both the intended marketing message as well as the type of consumer that will be interested in that message. This platform has had continued success with high clickthrough rates and conversions.
  • Finely tuned messaging
  • Real-time analytics
  • Ability to quickly react and adjust ads to industry trends
  • Typically more expensive than some ad channels such as Facebook
  • Algorithms are constantly updated with major affects to current campaigns
  • Some ads are disapproved for unforeseen reasons
Google Ads is a requirement for any company that is looking to increase sales and brand awareness. However, the most successful results will be seen by organizations that are willing to set a significant marketing budget and put in the time to constantly manage ads and bids throughout the changing industry climate. Smaller companies may not see Google Ads as money well spent for this very reason.
March 25, 2021

Google Ads Review

Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Simply opened up an account to familiarise myself with google ads. It was going to help us gain visibility on the web and gain more prospects.
  • It is probably the best methods for reaching out to prospects, BUT sadly we have no other choice due to GOOGLE's monopoly as a research engine in western nations.
  • Ergonomic interface
  • Easy to setup an account
  • A support team that is rude and unaware how their processes work
  • They didn't know that google ads requires your payment details to sign up
  • They don't know how a campaign is set up
  • They conned me with the free voucher
  • They automatically started a campaign for me, billed me 128 euros and don't know how to activate the voucher on this bill, even if the voucher has been granted.
  • They need to fuse : Google ads, google mybusiness and google analytics, so many accounts to create if you are a company
Biggest bully on the planet ! They already have one the biggest business empires and they still take (steal) money from a small startup in France.
Beware at the beginning ! When signing up, they require payment details.
Beware when trying to request a voucher "to try" a google ad campaign, they launch it without validation (maybe a mistake on my behalf, but unlikely i would validate a campaign with my website not ready. Now they are not able to tell if i can redeem the voucher on my total bill ! Absurd! Then they tell me, "our email must be in your SPAM" . You are sending an email from google ads to a gmail?! How can you not rectify this !? Sorry, don't really have a good point for them, except google ads is only suited to you if you are in the right sectors and your clients have the good demographics







Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I am expanding my business as a vacation rental owner. I currently utilize various vacation rental websites that charge service and subscription fees. I am seeking other independent avenues to promote my vacation rental property to generate more business. This will allow me the opportunity to book reservations at a lower cost and to give my guests more personalized service.
  • Google Ads lures in new clients with great front-loaded discounts/credits.
  • Service representatives are slick with unrealistic goals for small businesses.
  • Google is world renowned and one would assume high expectations.
  • The Google representative prematurely activated my Ad Campaign before my website was completed. Subsequently, my credit card was charged for 1000's of 'clicks' and zero, not one booking inquiries.
  • There is no system in place to differentiate who or where the 'Clicks' are coming from. From me, my Google Ad Campaign representative, or one of Google Ads terrible service support team.
  • Good luck trying to get customer service to resolve any issues that pertains to specific complaints about the Ad being run prematurely or getting any kind of refund.
  • My initial contact with the Google Ads sales rep was just before Thanksgiving 2020. I started getting billed and paused the account on January 1. Since then I received a partial refund AND another bill for almost $300!
Once the Ad Campaign was initiated at the end of November 2020 my 'slick' Ad Specialist would not answer my emails or take my calls. When I noticed that my credit card was being charged I filed a complaint through Google Ad support link. Since that time I have received countless auto-response emails and have been directed to the 'support link'. This resulted in even more auto-response emails from Google Ads for promises that someone will call me or that my complaint has been forwarded to their review team. I was even sent emails stating that a phone call was attempted but "there was no connection"! What?!
More than I month after pausing the account on Jan 1, 2021 I received a partial refund. A week later I was billed again for almost $300! 3 weeks have gone by with several emails sent and phones calls made to Google Ads. Still no resolution. No explanation. No refund!
February 22, 2021

UNETHICAL GOOGLE ADS

Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Google Ads works well around 7 months of the year, but then they arbitrarily cut your ads without telling you, and because you haven't changed anything, you don't think to check. But you do notice that your phone doesn't ring so often. The you find out that they have blocked your ads, but allow your competitors to advertise the same services. When questioned, the staff seem clueless as to why your ad is blocked but just recite back the notices appearing on the screen. This time around it took 5 days and 8 contacts to determine that Google suddenly doesn't like you to advertise what it terms as "addiction services." This includes helping people to quit smoking, which, as a hypnotherapist, I happen to be very good at. When asked why others can advertise this service but I cannot, they tell you to fill out a form.<br>I asked them directly if they take payments from clients to block the competition. As you would expect, they denied it. So now, even after deleting any reference to quit smoking, my ads are still blocked, and yet my competition prosper. I must be quite a threat! This recent experience has made me realise just how tenuous it is to rely on Google Ads, because they are UNRELIABLE. I also believe that they are UNETHICAL. So where does that leave me - TV, Radio, Street Signage - ANYTHING BUT GOOGLE.
Google Ads is not working for me AT ALL currently. Its customer service is appalling. It is unethical in its preferential advertising of certain clients over others, quite apart from the bidding that it is based on - I'm talking about competition blocking. As a small operator I guess I was getting too big for one of my colleagues, who seems to still be thriving with their Quit Smoking ads, while myself and many others have been cut.
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We are using Google Ads for about last 6 years. We are not able to make any profit using google Ads even after consulting numerous Google ads employees and external consultant. There are many marketing companies, who charges around 10% of the whole budget, even we consulted those companies. These kind of marketing companies simply run your Google Ads campaign and at the end of day, they do this to make some money. <br><br>Before you appoint any consulting companies, Ask them some minimum assurance on the ROI. If you are spending x amount of money ask your marketing company to get return of at least 3x or 4x or some amount. Marketing agencies might say, need few months to show results, after few months, you will be with empty pockets and no results using Google Ads.<br><br><b>Google Ads is completely bogus scheme and it is a big fraud. I request you all to read this carefully and if possible please share it with others.<br></b>1. In display Ads, there are lots of fraud clicks happens. You cant get refund for the same. There is no easy to get refunds. <br>2. In Google search Ads, there is no option to block repeat clickers...it means that, any competitor can keep on clicking your Ads.<br>3. Simply buy some AWS servers and keep rebooting the servers and click on your competitors...this is what told by one of the person involved in marketing.<br>4. Google comes up with too many features, too many changes within a year, It is NOT IMPROVEMENT TOWARDS THE SYSTEM. It is to confuse people with distraction. Just compare the Google Ads interface with today and whats there about 2 years ago, you will understand my point. The same way, Google confused SEO agencies for years.<br>5. Google Ad platform is a blackbox. - As a customer, you dont know what is happening inside the bidding. (who is bidding / how many other people bidding)<br>
  • Google Ads is too good to take your money away, It is very easy to spend tons of money within hours, without any result.
  • Easy to setup a campaign and lose your money
  • There is no easy option to get refund of the fake/fraud clicks.
  • Google can block all bot clicks or competitor's click on Google search, but it will not, because it will lose revenue
  • Too fast, too many changes in features and too many experiments in Google Ads, simply to waste the money of customers.
  • It is definitely game played by Google without considering the results and return of investment by their customers. Google is simply interested in the money
  1. It is surely not useful for small and mid size companies
  2. If you are looking for good ROI, come up with other Ad platform, do not use Google
  3. DO NOT TRUST the marketing agency and insist on ROI
  4. Google Ads forces to get too many fake clicks from Mobile platform, even though I want to focus only on Desktop platform.
  5. DO not click on their recommendation or suggestion, It is a sure shot way to lose all your hard earned money.
  6. Their recommendation will only waste your money, without any results.
Anamaria Setti | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I signed up as a new Google Ads user based on a promotion for new users. I don't have any prior experience using Google Ads. I tried the service to increase traffic to my website.
  • It has detailed tracking tools.
  • There is an app so you can monitor progress on your mobile.
  • You can customize settings to view stats most important to you.
  • Transparency and clarity of terms and conditions, especially for new customers.
  • Making the web interface more intuitive for new users.
  • Enable specific audience targeting in Smart Campaigns (this is done exceptionally well in Instagram ads).
  • Differentiate how Smart Campaigns are run by business size and category.
This is not a tool I'd recommend to small businesses or people new to Google Ads. Unfortunately, I responded to a Google Ads promotion aimed at exactly the aforementioned categories and got burned.

The promotion is a $150 credit for new users but the terms are vague and misleading. It should more clearly state that the credit will only apply towards a second campaign and that new users will have to pay for their first ad out of pocket. Since the promotion targets new customers it's obvious that many won't fully understand the process. I found out once the promotion completed and I saw an unexpected charge for the full cost of the campaign.

Like many other companies, Google is capitalizing on the pandemic and targeting businesses that are struggling and looking to earn new customers. Small businesses are particularly vulnerable due to limited knowledge of ad campaigns and a lack of funds. Perhaps Google Ads is far better suited to larger, more established businesses with experience running ads, a well-defined audience and the ability to spend on multiple campaigns.
Jason Krzeminski | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Google Adwords was being used to direct potential customers to our website. It is seemingly easy to set up and places our website closer to the top of the page. Campaigns and ads are easy to create. However, just like every big business, customer service is lacking. When you ask for help because there is an issue on your account, you get automated messages. Moreover, unless you are a professional, you are wasting your money. I spent hundreds of dollars per month to get calls from people that were not local or wanted a completely different product. This product is not good for a small business.
  • Charging your credit card
  • Ignoring your requests for help
  • Sending automated messages when you ask for help
  • Customer Service in the support department.
  • Allowing people to speak to human beings that are actually there to assist you when there are issues with your account.
  • Directing your ads locally.
  • Costs a lot to get it to begin to show progress.
  • Lots of rules that a layman would never understand. Their resolution for that is a web page utilizing ad language that never actually helps you resolve the issue. When you attempt to reach someone for help they redirect you to a website and state that all you can do is reach them by email. Then rather than answering your questions, they send the same response to you over and over and the problem is never resolved.
  • Uses a platform that you feel you are stuck using because they are so well known.
If you are a small business, I would not recommend Google Ads. Use a company that will appreciate a customer who has spent over $30k on advertising with them and is willing to help and actually allow that company to speak to a human being if there are issues on their account.
Sarah VanDunk | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I decided to try using what was then called AdWords, about a year ago, as part of my marketing campaign for my real estate career. Unfortunately, it did not work because I got calls from Paterson, a city an hour away that I do not work out of. There was no way to focus the leads any closer. So every time someone even just googled my keywords and clicked on my link in Paterson, I was being charged for it.

So I canceled. Fast forward approximately a year later, I find out that Google Ads, which it is now apparently called, had been charging one of my rarely used credit card accounts for 3 months! Even more so, the account they charged was NOT the account that I had even used back then. They somehow, without authorization, acquired it and proceeded to charge me month after month for a bogus campaign I had absolutely no part of!! What a nightmare. Beware. And they to this date, refuse to delete the campaign so that it doesn't happen again.
  • It could help people find your business.
  • If you have unlimited funds and time, it could be a good tool to obtaining leads.
  • Many leads came from way outside the acceptable geographic radius
  • You must pay for those clicks, calls, etc.
  • The program (ad campaign) has a major glitch so beware, I was charged for a campaign that I never created
  • It is difficult to stop the campaign once created.
  • You can only "pause" a campaign. There is no option to delete a campaign.
  • This is problematic because somehow, these campaigns will start on their own, meanwhile without knowing, you are racking up tons of charges for leads that you never had any interaction with
If you do not have the advantage of having access to a good amount of funds, you will spend more money than what you will see in return from leads.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Google Ads for paid ads on Google Search. Google is the biggest driver of traffic to our website and has the highest volume of monthly searches for keywords relevant to our product offerings, so Google Ads has been a good choice for ensuring that we top the search results, especially where we don't rank via organic terms.
  • Helpful Resources - Given how long Google Ads has been around, there are a lot of resources you can tap into to get started and create high-performing campaigns
  • Easy to Set up - Overall it is easy to set up and get started with Google Ads
  • In-Depth Reporting - Google Ads has some very in-depth reporting capabilities. It can be overwhelming at first, but once you understand the reports you can find some really actionable information
  • Google Ads can get really pricey really quickly. You need to monitor the account and really think about ways to optimize your spend
  • Best practices are not intuitive. Although getting started is really easy, it is not intuitive to follow best practices. Going to a class (in person or online) can be very beneficial.
If you have search traffic coming from Google, you should really consider using Google Ads to augment your search efforts. This is especially true for keywords or phrases that you are not ranking highly for organically. Investing properly in Google Ads can drive high-quality traffic to your site and boost your performance overall.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our organization uses Google Adwords to promote varies products and lines of business. We have a nonprofit arm that uses it to promote events and involvement for free using the Google Adwords charitable grant.
  • Boosts website visits
  • Boosts phone calls
  • Boosts company visibility
  • It has a very confusing user interface.
  • It requires a lot of testing in order to achieve the desired results.
  • It can be difficult to increase the click-through rate.
  • It was difficult to contact customer service (based in India).
Google Adwords is well suited for very specific products and lines of business. The more generic something is, the less likely it is to be seen.
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