PPC Advertising on the Google Content Network

I have been heavily experimenting with advertising on the Google Content Network via Google Adwords. The content network is a different beast and different rules apply. Here are some of the issues I ran into and how to avoid them.

 

-          Be extremely (!) detailed setting up your landing pages, redirects, and ads (you’ll see reason why shortly)

-          Have tracking in place because content network campaigns will not show in Google which keyword triggered the click. You have to catch it when the visitor arrives

-          Think through your ads upfront and optimize before uploading.

-          Never modify an existing ad. Rather create a new ad and pause the other one.

-          Do not add new keywords to an ad group. Always create a new ad group

-          Use only 50 keywords max per ad group. Google will ignore anything past the 50 marker

-          Do not pause a campaign to make adjustments and then re-enable it. Rather change the bid values to a lower price so that the impressions stop automatically  and raise the bid price to show your ads again.

-          Have more than one Adwords account ready. If you ‘toasted’ your campaign with one of the steps above, delete the campaign and upload the correct version into your next account to get a fresh start.

-          Use PHP includes on your landing pages to modify the content without modifying the time stamp on the landing pages itself. This will help to reduce the risk of a “review” pause = lower or no impressions.

 

What the QS slaps are in search campaigns are unvoluntarily paused (awaiting review from the adwords team) campaigns on the content network. Often when a campaign has been “damaged” by not following those rules above, you are either dead in the water or need to move the campaign to a new Google account. Don’t worry too much about Quality Score on the content network – it does exist, but is less enforced compared to the search network. Still, make sure you provide a good user experience and you should do fine. Also adjust your bid prices to meet the different requirements of the content network. No impressions? Check the rules above again.

Review Xtreme Conversions

Due to being much more active on the PPC side of things I have been looking for different ways of tracking keyword and campaign performance. I decided to test a) my own solution written in PHP, b) Prosper202 and c) Xtreme Conversions. The first 2 options are free, while Xtreme Conversions is paid software that does PPC Keyword Tracking.

I contacted the owner of Xtreme conversions (Amir  Darwish) via his support email (support@xconversions.com) asking if they had any sales specials going on and was able to receive a nice discounted package price. I purchased the software via PayPal and found it a little arkward having to make 2 purchases to get the PRO version of the software. Anyway – Amir provides an auto-installer and I had the software installed in no time. Everything looked pretty good up to that point.

I started playing with the software and watched the training videos. Soon it became clear that the software could not live up to what I had seen on other packages as well as it did not meet my requirements. Instead of wasting too much time on a product I would not be using, I asked for a refund using the 56 Day Money Back Guarantee (No questions asked).

This is where it became apparent that Xtreme Conversions is absolutely not what I expected. Instead of receiving a refund I was given the runaround. My first request to Amir was nicely ignored. Then I was contacted by a support person, but  that was not in regards to my refund. I pointed out that I had asked for a refund and the runaround continued. I had already submitted my PayPal information, just to be asked for my Clickbank receipt. I explained I purchased through PayPal and not Clickbank and attached my PayPal Sales Receipt emails. Result: No response

I send another email to Amir himself pointing out how disappointed I was and that I will file a dispute with PayPal and make sure that people know about this scammy way of doing business. I filed my dispute half a day later and that finally triggered a response by Amir. But instead of cleaning up the situation right away I received empty words. I emailed back that we could settle this all for good if he issues a refund, but so far I am still waiting for my money back.

While the software might satisfy in some regards, the fact how scammy and badly Amir and his support group treat customers worries me. I personally do not do business with people when I know that customer service and character do not meet my standards. Unfortunately sometimes you only find out after the fact. If you are looking for other reviews of Xtreme Conversions, be advised that most of what you find online is fake and rather promotes the product through an affiliate program.