Google has a flaw? Didn’t think it was possible.

First off, Google is king. Yahoo buying Inktomi and Overture puts
them back on top for now, but Google is clearly the Yahoo of the
00's. However, we do have a few particular beefs with the mighty
and mostly benevolent Google.

Google has a problem with one of their ad products, AdWords.
AdWords is the revolutionary keyword buying tool that lets small,
and now big, businesses buy keyword terms that show up in ads
alongside Google's organic search results. Studying and utilizing
the Google system has reaped some interesting facts and a few
flaws. Here are a few things we learned.

A. A technique for getting the most traffic and clicks (Sorry,
not going to reveal that, as this isn't a hack'em and rob'em
article.) Oh, and: WARNING - NO KEYWORD CLICKS
WERE HARMED OR STOLEN in the writing or researching
of this article.

B. How to find amazingly robust and cost effective search terms
(Again sorry, that technique separates a mediocre ad buy from a
great one and everybody who finds good words should keep them as
close to the vest as possible.)

C. A glitch in Google's system that can unfairly penalize top
performing search terms. That's the focus of this piece.

Picture this: Johnny T-Shirt Co. spends time doing keyword research
for terms suitable for marketing their business. JTCo is diligent
and finds a few ripe terms that larger competitors missed, like
let's say "Gold T-shirts". JTCo then sets up an AdWords campaign on
Google with a budget at $175.00 a day with a cost per click of
$0.25. The ad goes live. Customers see and click on JTCo's ads at
a 1.8% click rate. Pretty good. Business goes along for a few
months, Google makes some nice money and JTCo grabs customers ahead
of the competition. Now here is the glitch.

Google expects all ads within the AdWords system to garner 5 clicks
per 1,000 impressions. Fair enough. JTCo's ad for the term "Gold T-
Shirts" is rolling along at a 1.8% click rate (18 clicks per 1,000)
so not a problem. But, if JTCo fails to get 5 clicks per 1,000 ad
views just once, Google's default programming will trigger the
disabling of the word and give JTCo no clear way of making a case
for reinstating the word. It's akin to a father being wonderful to
his children then being late for dinner by ten minutes once and the
community ostracizes him as a neglectful father - FOREVER. We
studied a real world company, http://www.threedayweekends.com, which
had paid Google $1,092 over a month long period for a specific
word. The word had received a large number of clicks and hundreds
of thousands of impressions, yet when the term missed the five click
threshold just once, late on a typical Thursday night, the term was
shut down.

Contacting Google about this problem, sad to say, has been akin to
dealing with the phone company before competition. Headache,
heartache and misunderstandings. Calls to the Google AdWord call
center were met with either sympathy or apathy. One Googler said
they felt bad and that others had complained about the same problem
but his proverbial hands were tied. Another just couldn't get her
head around the issue and kept telling us "you need to re-write the
ad, re-write the ad" which was answered with "it has worked for
months without a problem; the five missed clicks are clearly a
fluke" the response "you need to re-write the, re-write the ad".
Lastly, a Google Phone Supervisor when asked out of frustration who
her boss was replied "I'm not telling, find out for yourself if you
can, but I'm not telling you". What? Now we have the name and ID
number of the said employees, but we won't reveal them even if
Google were to contact us. Why? Because, overall Google is a great
company with good customer service and sharp products. Also, no
reason to get involved with Google HR issues, the folks all seemed
nice - just not helpful. Okay, the Phone Supervisor was a little
craggy but no big deal.

Instead of waiting until Google solves this issue on their own, here
is a simple solution that can satisfy all, further lining Google's
pockets while earning small and large businesses qualified clicks.
Google should institute a system where ads that have performed well
over time are given a little leeway in regards to the 5/1,000 rule.
Much like a credit card, ads that have consistently performed well
over a set period of time would be given a higher "line of credit"
perhaps a minimum of 25 clicks over 5000 impressions. The click
rate Google wants is the same but the buyer is given a little room
when an anomaly occurs. Missing 5 clicks over a thousand
impressions is a fluke, missing 25 over 5,000 could be deemed more
of a pattern. Also, 1,000 impressions on a high volume search term
on Google can literally happen in four or five minutes. So even if
you've had months of success with "Gold T-Shirts", five minutes can
change everything. The weird part in the
http://www.threedayweekends.com case - the real example we studied ­
is that Google is turning down literally $75-125 a day in business.
Now we all know that the brains behind Google could solve a math and
programming issue like this quite quickly. In the meantime, smart
marketers like http://www.threedayweekends.com will have to search
for other terms and other places to spend the money Google doesn't
want.

About the author: John Romano is a former Analysis and Optimization
expert for i-traffic and SFInteractive. He now runs a company that
manages keyword ad buys. Please contact him at westplants@yahoo.com
or 310-281-1199.