Hi! I'm new to the forum and what better way to bond than over war stories. I'll start. Long ago, I plunged $500 into my AdWords account and chose the most specific broad keywords that I could, made sure to have ads that people would love, sent them to the home page of my site and I decided to let AdWords control my bidding.... Ahhhh what beginner mistakes I made. Let's just say that I learned my lesson quick. Within hours I was out $500 and with little data on what I did wrong. I was burnt on AdWords and did nothing but bad mouth it for quite some time. Well there is mine. I hope you guys share your experiences with AdWords too; for the good or bad.
I'm in 2 minds about this as moaning isn't my way. Anyway I was chugging along with my Adwords account, losing and learning but losing less (I think!). Then I was accused of violating a pollicy they hadn't made yet. Two to three weeks later they banned water into gas ads but they were legal when I first ran them. They said one more violation would result in being banned. When the policy became official I was just instantly banned without me violating anything else, and there's no way back from there. I've heard that there are ways around it but it must involve being 'very smart' if you get my meaning. I stick with Bing: I understand it's better for some things anyway. I'm not big onPPC in any case...
I find Bing more user friendly. With Adwords, I had more the feeling that I was on my own. A combination of that and that they were talking at me from altitude. I have never ever had that impression with Bing - not even vaguely.