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Small Ads agency using Google Ads for clients
December 20, 2018

Small Ads agency using Google Ads for clients

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Google Ads (formerly AdWords)

I use Google Ads to generate leads and build awareness for clients, and our own business. My Clients are typically small businesses and do not have multiple business units. Several of our clients are looking to increase their sales funnel and Google Ads helps them do that in a cost-effective way.
  • The ability to target by FSA in the postal code is quite helpful, as several of our clients are local businesses with local clientele.
  • The reporting functionality is robust and customizable, as well as fairly easy to use.
  • The user interface is fairly simple and straightforward, especially compared to other advertising platforms.
  • The ability to target users by creating custom affinity groups is quite handy and allows us to segment our audience well.
  • The biggest concern we have is the potential for fake clicks, particularly with display advertising. A good number of our clicks come from tiny, obscure, or fake websites that generate 50%-100% click through rates. This behavior seems unlikely to be real people clicking because they're interested, and more likely a click farm or some fraudulent behavior.
  • While the reporting feature offers lots of ability to customize, the graphical reporting functionality is lacking. It's not very attractive or customizable.
  • Automated behaviors are difficult to use and could use simplification. Custom scripts are often required to achieve the desired behavior.
  • Several of our clients have been able to increase their net revenues by using Google Ads, since we end up generating more revenue per lead than our CPA.
  • At least one client ended up wasting thousands of dollars on Ads with little to no return. Despite trying different variations of ads and targeting, we couldn't get a positive return for them and recommended allocating that spend somewhere else.
  • One of our newer clients recently allocated spend to Ads that had formerly been allocated to newspaper advertising, and saw a significant increase in revenues as a result.
Google Ads biggest advantage over Facebook ads, as I see it, is the ability to grab attention right when a potential customer is searching for a solution to their problem using Search ads.

Google's Display ads typically don't work as well as Facebook advertising - there just seems to be too many wasted or fake clicks on Google Ads.

Also, Facebook offers more options when it comes to generating actions, such as lead generation. Google Ads lags behind in this area.
We've found that Ads is suitable for well-defined products/services. If a product falls within a new or niche category, it's less effective. YouTube advertising can be effective at educating an audience, but targeting a desired audience can be difficult.

It's also easy to waste a budget by using overly broad targeting. Like many tools, it can help you when used right or hurt you when used wrong.