Making Money Online... not

Adwords observations: Humor and addiction

Humor and addiction

I must confess, I do sometimes get a giggle out of the Google Adwords system.

First of all, it is quite bizarre that the majority of the online advertising industry is working around these tiny four line text adverts. When you consider the massive budgets and effort invested in my traditional advertising methods such as television, the little Google Adwords text adverts seem like something out the stone age.

But, as you know, these little context sensitive adverts are the biggest thing to happen to the advertising industry in, well, pretty much since they invented the television.

However, aside from marveling at how such a simple idea can be so globally effective, it is possible to get other experiences of high mirth value.

The best thing to watch is an adwords newbie. This might be somebody in your company, or perhaps a friend, or a client. They "discover" adwords, and, for a few days, act like they have just unearthed the Ark of the Covenant. They'll tell you endlessly how smart it is, and how smart they are for discovering it.

Yes Dear. I've heard it all before.

Next, the second stage to the Adwords humor. They sink vast week-munching swathes of time playing with it. Endlessly tweeking their Adwords campaigns. It is entertaining to watch. ;-) They'll sit there more or less all day pressing the "refresh" button every 30 seconds, and getting overly excited every time they get a click.

And lastly. Payday. At some point the adwords newbie will tell you how many sales he or she has generated using the adwords system. The correct response to this is to ask how much money they have spent on adverts. Getting the person to actually confess that they have blown the best part of $1000 in a couple of weeks is not easy. Then you point out of course that they've generated $100 of sales from that investment.

Mind you, it doesn't make a lot of difference to them. Adwords is highly addictive. Which is a bit like saying that gamboling is addictive. Gamboling is highly addictive. So is Google adwords. For much the same reasons. With adwords you are spending lots and lots of very small amounts of money over and over again, with the possibility of reaping a disproportional high reward.

Of course, a casino is fixed so that they make a profit. The Adwords world is also fixed in the same way. This doesn't mean Google themselves are cheats. No. But the environment which has grown out of adwords means that hitting a get rich quick vain is about as likely as making long term profit from gamboling. Can be done, but unlikely to be done by somebody with two weeks of experience.

This does make Adwords extremely dangerous. It is easy to loose a great deal of money if you are not careful. If you work in a company where somebody is starting on Adwords keep a close eye on them. Like gamboling debts, people are loathe to discuss how much they are spending on adwords and will try to cover it up. If you think somebody is doing this then they are out of control and need sorting out.

The correct thing to do from a business perspective is, urm, spend more money. Get in touch with a consultant who is experienced in matters of internet marketing. They will give solid gold advise on Adwords and many other aspects of internet marketing - I'd imagine a couple of days consultant fees at the beginning of a campaign will pay for itself many times over during the following few months.

I haven't looked bythe way, but I don't doubt for a second that there are websites about there for dealing with Adwords addiction.