Hi guys, This may seem a little bit cheeky but I am very new to using adwords and have been doing a little research as I have a job interview tomorrow for an agency. I have been told that there is a high possibility that I will be asked whether I have any ideas as to how adwords could be improved. I will recieve training on it (if I get the job) but they want to test how much knowledge I have at the moment. Can any of you guys who have had more experience with AdWords help at all? I only know the complete basics and wouldn't know where to start on suggesting improvements for effectiveness of the site at the moment! Many thanks!
I'm a little confused. The person that gets hired will be trained yet is expected to know about Adwords? I highly doubt you'll be asked about how to improve Adwords. But just in case they ask, I would say 1) not have the content network turned on by default on new campaigns, 2) same for Optimize/Rotate setting which is not even available until you create an ad (which means you have to go back to campaign settings), 3) show one decimal point of the QS. There a more likely chance you'll be asked on how to improve your ads, not the Adwords interface itself.
Yes I thought EXACTLY the same thing, although they have sent me a few links to online AdWords classrooms which I have used but still I think this is a lot to ask at interview stage. Just out of interest, why would you suggest having to opt in to the display network instead? I mean surely you are going to get more initial exposure as a new advertiser by having them both turned on? Thanks again
If I may jump in, I'll give my opinion on this. The vast majority of new advertisers don't know that they've opted into this - that's why you get so many - "I've got 600 impressions and no clicks" posts here. When they signed up to adwords they wanted their ads to show on Google search pages, and hadn't even thought about the badly written blogspots they were going to end up on. If as an advertiser you do decide to use the content network you do not ever want it in the same campaign as your search campaigns - you don't want the same ads, you may not want exactly the same keywords as content uses them differently.
My opinion is the same as Magda's. Not sure if Google is doing this on purpose. Maybe most advertisers use both so it wouldn't matter. But then, maybe most don't realize the differences. I think a better option would be to ask when creating a campaign "do you want to advertise on search or on content?". Even better, a campaign creating Wizard like you see in many other applications.
The biggest thing they can do to improve is stop being so mysterious about their system. If someone asks a direct question, then that person deserves a direct answer. On the same token, if Adwords does not want the business of a person, they should just say that. They shouldn't just dump a low quality score and make verse and waste more money trying to figure out their system.
No, they certainly will never let out their secrets. But you don't need to know all of them. Once you understand how the basics of how the system works, it's really not all that complicated. They do want your business. But not if you don't follow their policies.
Thanks for the advice guys, the interview has now been put back to Tuesday so I have a little more time to think and put these ideas together. I had a few more thoughts and didn't know what you thought to them i.e. Give the option to link up to an existing Analytics account on signing up given how useful it is and how well it works with AdWords. This is opposed to just signing up and having to manually do it later. Also I had a think about the future of geographical and locational targeting through mobile phones (especially as they have Android). I know this willl eventually happen but I'm thinking more along the lines of an advertiser paying slightly more per click for a user who is directly in the vacinity of their shop/point of sale and who is already looking for their product (something to eat maybe etc) What do you think?