Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Carpet Dawg on March 07, 2014, 10:02:56 pm
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Ok so yesterday I got 5 impressions and 4 clicks for one keyword. 75% CTR. I got that before lunchtime.
My average for 30 days is well below 10% CTR (I don't want to give away the exact figure). I've had few days like this. I really do think its competitors clicking ads, the clicks come in at some random times as well and in two and three's. But the conversion rates are crap compared to when my site was ranking.
I called google yesterday to discuss it but they told me to wait as the system takes time to update. (yeah while my ad is now not showing as its used up its budget!). But its now the next day and they have still added those clicks to my billing statement and the impressions is still showing 5.
Anyone got any ideas or tips? are they any software I can use to track clicks?
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Ian Harper uses some software to track this - ask him for a link (sorry I don't know it).
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have you got a google analytics account. don't know how to set it up myself as I have a chap do these things for me but it is free!
will tell you number of visitors, whether they came to you via generic search, direct or a referral from another site, like this one. will also tell you which pages have been looked at which town or area visitor is in. it also tells you if they are repeat visitors or new.
its not perfect but may give an insight into whats happening on your site
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yeah I had analytics (not googles) but removed them ages ago as I was trying a few news things with my site.
I'll re-add it and figure out how to set it up to show adword results. just been using adwords last couple of months.
is there a link you can use to report dodgy activity?
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I've also had quiet a few recent issues with adwords regarding dubious clicks and ad positioning.
Although I use analytics, it has not been able to give me a definitive answer to as to what's been going on.
Rather than talking to google I'll be looking at the awstats files provided by my isp to find the answer..
Performance of adwords for me in recent months has been abysmal.
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I have come off adwords because I know for a fact that I was getting clicks which wernt legitimate.
Yes google took some off, but not all.
I even blocked ip addresses but all it means is I will not show on the result for that IP address. Most ip addresses now are 'floating' or something. Basically changing on a daily basis so it's near impossible to block.
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I'm also on the verge of dropping adwords altogether myself.
Today I had a couple of clicks from:
uk.zapmeta.com
They seem to be showing full blown google ads despite my google settings being set for search network only.
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Does most people have these sorts of problems with adwords or are these random cases. I am just going to start using Adwords but this is kinda putting me off.
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Some swear by it and others not.
Ive had mixed results with it.
In the past ive had some great jobs from it but in recent months its not been all that great.
I would say, suck it and see. It might work for you.
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Dan
A lot of carpet cleaners in my area seem to use it and have done for a long time. So unless they don't care how they spend their money then it must be working for some people.
For me its an expensive way to get clients. I converted A LOT better when my website was ranking.
For example today, I had a call she said "Hi, is that *****?" (the carpet cleaners name) "nope you've got the wrong number", so obviously she was trying to contact a carpet cleaner she has used or spoken too. THANKS LUV! that just cost me £2.**! lol
Plus I have noticed I have been getting more sales calls since joining adwords. I presume who ever is scraping the phone number is doing it via a google search? maybe clicking adwords occasionally?
I mean what's stopping a competitor clicking on your ads via their mobile?
I have looked at all the online checklists and read numerous articles regarding adwords and this is where I have gotten. I'm either missing a trick or just being too tight, maybe its normal to spend loads and not get much in turn?
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Before I started in this business I worked with a guy who was a bit of a geek and he told me to always click the paid adverts as this kept the internet free :(
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Before I started in this business I worked with a guy who was a bit of a geek and he told me to always click the paid adverts as this kept the internet free :(
Idiot (him, not you :))
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You get more sales calls because companies see you are paying for Adwords so might pay for whatever crap they are trying to flog. Plus they click you ads to get your details which costs you.
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Suck it and see. It's definitely open to abuse but it's also worth giving a go. But I think this will come down to individual circumstances on how much abuse you get I.e location, number of competitors etc.
It takes around a month to find your feet with it if doing it yourself. So I'd suggest 3 month review and take it from there.
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Like Carpet Dawg, my conversion rates were far higher when my website ranked. So Ill be dropping adwords and focussing on improving my ranking.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who has lost so many man hours attending to the adwords baby :)
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Got this today from them....don't understand it...how is it duplicated? There is only one authorised owner at this address.
Hello,
We’d like to inform you that Google Places no longer accommodates more than one authorised owner per business location. Your listing has been identified as a duplicate of another listing and as a result, the information that you provide will not be shown to Google users any more
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I got the same email, checked my account and I had a second listing from an old address which should have been deleted when I did a places page with my google + account.
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Where did you find this Mike...I'm totally clueless with Google.
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Been living at this address since 1989 so can't be that.
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It seems I have a Google account and a Places account which to delete??
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Sorry for the delayed response but to be honest I'm a bit lost with it as well :-\
I was hoping someone with more google knowledge would chip in.
I've just checked google and the listing I deleted is still coming up as my main listing a big box at the top of the page with a map and my 3 yr old business address which I' no longer at
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It make take a few weeks to change Mike. Google places is very buggy too.
JandS, your google account is what you need to access your places listing.
You should have one of each, if you have two places listings I'm guessing you need to claim the second one in order to delete it.
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Will look into that then cheers.
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Totally confused now...when I go to listings am asked to transfer ownership so do as it says and click on manage listings only to get a message saying can't do it from here???
Also says this about transfer of ownership
"When an owner transfers ownership to someone else, the old owner automatically becomes a manager of the page. The transfer of ownership happens immediately – no confirmation is necessary from the new owner.
How can you transfer ownership then you become the manager.
All this is totally confusing and it doesn't help that there doesn't appear to be a phone number to ring.
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Google has been automatically upgrading Google Place listings from the old system to the new Google Places dashboard. With this upgrade, there may be conflicts that prevents the upgrade from completing. The latest conflict is that there are duplicate listing issues and Google needs you to step in, fix the issue and then complete the upgrade process.
Google has recently began sending out notices of the duplicate place listings conflict via email to those impacted by this issue. The email reads:
We’d like to inform you that Google Places no longer accommodates more than one authorized owner per business location. Your account contains one or more listings that have been identified as duplicates of other listings and as a result, some of the information you provide will not be shown to Google users anymore…
Jade Wang from Google posted a detailed how to fix this issue in the Google Business Help forums where she summed up the issues two-fold:
(1) Your account and another account that you don’t control became verified for the same business using the old Places dashboard.
(2) You may have verified the page multiple times using accounts you control.
Each has their own method of resolving, which Google has either emailed the business owner or you can read them below in more detail.
From Jade of Google:
In one scenario, your account and another account that you don’t control became verified for the same business using the old Places dashboard:
Additional unknown verified account(s) from the old Places dashboard: Google Places no longer supports multiple verified business owner accounts for the same business location, so we are letting you know that your account has a listing that’s a duplicate of a listing in another account. By logging into your Google Places for Business dashboard, you can view the duplicate listing, which will show a banner reading, “You cannot update this listing because it has been marked as a duplicate of another.” If you no longer want to manage this listing, you can remove this listing from your dashboard. Alternatively, you can request administrative access from the current owner of the listing using the link to Learn more in your dashboard.
It’s possible that someone else in your organization, or a third party whom you once worked with, verified the business in another account. If you don’t believe anyone else could possibly be active in managing this business information, other than yourself, you can always contact support directly to help restore your account’s access to the listing.
Or, you may have verified the page multiple times using accounts you control:
Multiple known verified accounts from old Places dashboard: You may remove the duplicate listing from the dashboard in the account we emailed, which won’t affect the information on Maps. Then, please simply use the other account to manage the listing.
Verified same business in both Google Places and in Google+, same account: You had a listing that you created on Google Places as well as a local page that you created in Google+, using the same account. You PIN verified the local page in Google+. The system now has identified that the listing you have in Google Places and the page you have in Google+ as duplicates. We have marked the listing from Places as duplicate. If you log in to Google Places, and you should see your local page (from Google+) as well as the duplicate listing, which will show a banner reading, “You cannot update this listing because it has been marked as a duplicate of another.” You can remove this listing from your dashboard, and continue to manage the business using the account with the listing which is connected to Maps.
Verified same business in both Google Places and in Google+, different accounts: You or someone in your organization used different accounts to verify the Google Places listing and the local page in Google+. If this is the case, please use the latter account to manage this page. You should be able to do so via Google+ or Google Places. You can remove the duplicate listing from the account we emailed in Google Places, which won’t affect the information on Maps.
In any of the above 3 scenarios, you can keep the duplicate listing instead of the active one if you really want. First, remove the active listing from that account Then, you should contact our support team, who can help make the duplicate listing active again.
If you have questions or concerns, please contact our support team.
So there seems to be a g dance in g+.
I did get a message regarding a page with duplicate content,dont know where the page came from,deleted it.might be causing my ranking drop.
*
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That's cleared the confusion then!!!!!
Seriously thanks for putting the effort in and posting this, at least it gives me a fighting chance.
Still can't see how someone I don't know, could or would want to open an account in my business and verify it.
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Hi Guys
With regards to Adwords you looking at it the wrong way.
The customer pays for adwords not you. customer acquisition is the first cost in any business. then you have you runing costs and wages. then the profit.
so if you paid £10 for one customer acquisition. ( this would be the number of bookings by the cost of adwords for that day, week or month) Not the cost of each click or the total number each customer clicks on your advert.
Next you have the running costs and wages. we run a balance sheet each month that tells us this number. then the profit margin, which you decide or judge for your self depending on your positioning in the market.
This gives you the price you charge.
if the cost of a customer was £50 the it just moves the end price up. This is the market at work.
This is why customer acquisition costs are always first in accounting, because its a variable number thats out of your control. you can control running and wage costs and decide what profit you want to make but not the cost of a client.
I learnt all this from Dan Kennedy stuff, when ever he talks about marketing its always related by cost of a customer. numbers are marketing.
"Definition of 'Economics'. A social science that studies how individuals, governments, firms and nations make choices"
If you look at my number you will see that the cost for a customer goes up and down so if The £38 one is only a £40 job that a loss but thats only one job, it might be that that customer was £200 its how they pan out over the week or month. the bottom line is that I don't pay that cost, its determined by the market. as long as i make profit and make my wages then its all worth it. And lets not forget the ROI numbers I published I know that I get that money back.
http://cleanonomics.cleaning-carpet.co.uk/cost-of-a-customer/
http://cleanonomics.cleaning-carpet.co.uk/carpet-cleaning-roi/
BTW the reason that i cant do pink flyer is my low price if i decide to up my price then the numbers will work for me, just like the guy in my area that has it working for himself.
The numbers quoted are averages. you have to do it this way it would not be workable to do it for each customer
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That's good Ian, but how do I stop competitors clicking my ads?