To all Adwords users - I'd like to run a quick straw poll here, just to get an idea of how folks feel about Adwords: What are the Top 3 things you dislike about Adwords? Also please say how much you spend on Adwords, so I have an idea of how experienced you are. Thanks! P.S. Please post even if there's nothing you hate about Adwords.
1) lack of transparency - it used to be easy in the old days when your rank was simply bid*ctr. i think all this new goofy stuff they've added to the algorithm over the years has just created more opportunity for people to game the system if they care to take the time to do so. even match types don't mean what they did a few years ago. it hasn't created a better user experience, imo. 2) loss of focus on the search product - attempts to expand into other areas (i.e. radio, print, partner placements, etc.) have been somewhat poorly integrated and clutter the adwords user experience. more than once i've had ads showing where i didn't intend them to show because some obscure box that I didn't check was defaulted. 3) inconsistency of the tools - for example, the "campaign optimizer" tool tells me to add a bunch of keywords, and then shortly thereafter the "keyword performance" advice says remove it because it is a poor performer. I've been using adwords for about 5 years and have spent millions with them at my past corporate jobs. Currently, I'm only spending about $1k/mo getting my startup off the ground.