Marketing & SEO Discussion List - LED Digest

> During the month Google was turned off sales
> decreased by less than 2%... I do think that about
> 25% (max) of the money I paid to Google was
> because of click fraud. Still, ditching Google six
> months ago has had literally no impact on my sales.
        - Gregory Marquess, LED 2247

I provide PPC management and in many cases, I avoid using Google unless the client specifically asks for it. I've had (and witnessed) mixed results with Google but there is simply too much "secrecy" and too difficult to gauge where to allocate bid dollars, etc.

I understand (or at least I think I do) the BIG PICTURE and what Google has been doing over the past few years but it seems that they've been alienating marketers that actually have the desire to carefully plan their marketing campaigns. When it comes to Google PPC campaigns, too many marketers are being forced to approach it with an 'I hope this works' attitude as opposed to a 'based on my research and analysis, I am quite sure this will happen' attitude -- which by the way, is the whole basis of pay per click... guaranteed results, remember?

In case you haven't noticed, I like Yahoo! Search (Overture). Relatively speaking, they have far better reach and do more in terms of combating click fraud than their competition. Yahoo! Search puts out a good product that is superior to what is currently out there (again, based on reach and results). Google, to me, is the hands-down champ when it comes to organic search but when it comes to their PPC program, let's just say secrecy remains the number one priority there.

Ivan Jimenez
SmarterClicks.com