WTF Google Adwords clicks?

[ttrox]

This is probably more of a vent thread, however, I just wanted to ask to all of you that use Adwords if you experienced the same thing.

I've been trying Adwords with a low budget to try it out (no much more than 20u$s) however I must say that I'm pretty dissapointed. Either I choose the wrong keywords or my website isn't a good seller because none of the leads converted (which strikes me as odd as I can achieve conversion rates of around 7~%).
Now I can start assuming things in a paranoical way; that Google might send bot clicks, fake clicks, whatever but that doesn't really matter that much at this point.

What strikes me as strange, and really pisses me off, is that I'm seeing clicks which have already been discounted from my general balance and they're absolutely nowhere to be seen on my website analytics (not Google's). I've set-up a special url for my Adwords campaign and it isn't the first time I have seen that clicks don't match with the amount of visitors on my website. I hardly doubt I can claim this to Adwords though, and it probably wouldn't be worth the hassle.

Does someone else experience this? It'll probably be the last time I will use Adwords.

 

[mrblackjack]

All you describe is common behavior with Adwords, except from the claim that Adwords sends Click Bots (you seem too paranoid, though click bots do exist, but not on Adwords behalf). However, you cannot really deduce anything regarding conversions, the right keywords etc from a $20 budget, this is simply not enough to come up with some solid conclusions.

 

[ttrox]

All you describe is common behavior with Adwords, except from the claim that Adwords sends Click Bots (you seem too paranoid, though click bots do exist, but not on Adwords behalf). However, you cannot really deduce anything regarding conversions, the right keywords etc from a $20 budget, this is simply not enough to come up with some solid conclusions.

Yeah, I know that was just a paranoic thought, I don't actually have anything to back it up. What you say about conversions is totally true as well, and I'm afraid you'right. What just seemed strange to me is that there are clicks that have been charged when there was no hit on the specified page. And honestly, if that happens with such a low amount, I don't see how it would stop happening with even a bigger budget.

Why do you say that it's common, though?

 

[mrblackjack]

The pattern you describe (being charged for hits never appeared in your tracker) matches Mobile traffic. Ever since Google has implemented the "enhanced campaigns" where you cannot differentiate traffic types, users get more and more mobile traffic that are not interested in (I'm not talking about users who prefer Mobile traffic by defualt) which causes huge click loss. I suggest you log in to your Adwords account and sort the traffic by "device" to find out the losses. I'm 100% positive that the loss is by Mobile traffic.

Now, why Mobile traffic is hard to track? there are so many reasons, main one is: connectivity issue. Since mobile devices usually connect via 3G, connectivity is very dynamic. people are moving, walking, driving, so their device resets the connection numerous times a day when reaching points with no signal for ex.

read more about the problems here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_web_analytics

 

[anne831]

Google AdWords works very well but you need 2 things: a very good AdWords campaign made by a professional and secondly to have a really good build website which enables possible customers to make actions like: click on your products, sale, telephone etc The conversion Rate will improve after a few months working on the AdWords Campaign with a higher budget also. But you have to take into account the possibility of changing your website interface to be more "selling".. Good luck!

 

[ttrox]

The pattern you describe (being charged for hits never appeared in your tracker) matches Mobile traffic. Ever since Google has implemented the "enhanced campaigns" where you cannot differentiate traffic types, users get more and more mobile traffic that are not interested in (I'm not talking about users who prefer Mobile traffic by defualt) which causes huge click loss. I suggest you log in to your Adwords account and sort the traffic by "device" to find out the losses. I'm 100% positive that the loss is by Mobile traffic.

Now, why Mobile traffic is hard to track? there are so many reasons, main one is: connectivity issue. Since mobile devices usually connect via 3G, connectivity is very dynamic. people are moving, walking, driving, so their device resets the connection numerous times a day when reaching points with no signal for ex.

read more about the problems here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_web_analytics

I also thought about the possibility of it being mobile visitors, but didn't think they would be this huge amount of the traffic (around a 45% of the traffic). To me, it's completely useless and I'm around 99% certain that it wouldn't convert.
I just searched a bit and saw that it's possible to avoid mobile traffic by setting a 100% decrease bid on them... well fuck... I thought it wasn't possible to restrict it totally and thought I would have to pay even more for desktop users.

Google AdWords works very well but you need 2 things: a very good AdWords campaign made by a professional and secondly to have a really good build website which enables possible customers to make actions like: click on your products, sale, telephone etc The conversion Rate will improve after a few months working on the AdWords Campaign with a higher budget also. But you have to take into account the possibility of changing your website interface to be more "selling".. Good luck!

Thanks for your advice. I'm no Adwords expert as you might have figured by this thread, but wasn't also willing to try with a much bigger amount of cash unless I saw at least some interesting results.

Thank you guys for your answers