What Is Happening? PPC Plagues and Website Weirdness

Dangers and Deadlines

Once up on a time, I wrote about the danger of having too many projects working at the same time, hence, advice to my new friends: a good reason to find a solid niche and to stick with it.

And recently, I wrote about how time flies when you're (not) having fun-- well, sort of. This post is a bit more of that. And why not? I started them at the same time. It seemed like the best thing to do since nothing else was working that day and I had two cool heading images to use.

Now I will continue with the subject of time flying, fun, or not, since this story actually commenced in April and only now am I coming close to resolving it.

PPC Ad Promotions

In my previous blog, I also touched on how I jump into projects without knowing much ahead of time but applying "on the job training" to myself and learning applicable skills as needed. That worked most of the time, but I have, on more than one occasion, met my match when we are talking technical skills.

What Happened?

Snafu #1

It was Kyle's second class (mid-April) on Pay Per Click advertising, featuring setting up ads in Google. I thought I was reasonably caught-up. The PPC website was coming along nicely. But I had not applied for the Google ad promotion matching $$, which we were to do ahead of the class. I had previously worked through the application but had not finished it-- and then forgot.

When I came back to the application (just before class), my work was gone. And on beginning over, everything looked different. But I rushed through the process, which appeared to require writing an ad. This I hurriedly did from memory, thinking to perfect the ad later, and then opened a payment account. I received the promotional offer, which was due to expire in 60 days (another story). Finally, I rushed into Kyle's class that had barely begun. Whew!

Great training, by the way.

La di da, da da, duh!

"I basically never feel like writing. I am a happy-go-lucky, relaxed, fun-seeking kind of person. And working disturbs that, because it puts me in a state of anxiety." Robert Lopez https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/happy-go-lucky-quotes

About eight days after Kyle's class, I googled my ad account to go to work. My ad popped up. It looked like a real Google ad. I recognized the keyword. I had only entered a few titles, keywords, or descriptions.

What the hey!!?

I had not enabled my ad. So I thought. But there it was. There was my URL. So I pushed the link and sure enough my website came up in all its unfinished glory. OH, MY HEART!

I rushed to the Google Ad site. Not only was my ad running, I had spent $148.00. Analytics indicated I had received 1000's of impressions, even some click-throughs -- to an unfinished site.

Oops!

About then, I noticed how much there was left to finish the website.

But I figured out how to pause the ad and wisely (ha) committed to resuming it on May 18. It may have been smart to set a date to be ready, but not good enough . . . You'll see why soon.

Snafu #2

After wasting a few more days, because I somehow can't read a calendar, I found myself facing down a deadly deadline. So, I doubled down and got real serious, real fast.

After a time, I was beginning to feel more and more in control of the website's copy and design. Neat. There were plenty of links in place. Finish it now. Tweak it later. Soon it would be finished . . .

Then I remembered the Google ad promo had an expiration date 60 days from application. Good grief. I almost forgot. I hurried back to Google and began to put together some ads. Not neat.

I had watched Kyle's class on Google's ad setup and now I watched it again. Prior to that, I had watched a series on PPC marketing from Vitaliy. They both alluded to some of Google's shortfall's when it comes to its site's lack of user-friendliness, but when I got down to it, I wanted to tear out my hair, dig out my eyes, and everything short of quitting.

I had my money ($350 remaining) on the line and I had Google's promo $$ in waiting. But, I had to spend my $500 before the expiration date for Google's to kick in. I think expiration was on the 27th of May.

I added a new campaign. Oh, what a web we weave.

All the while, I tried to improve the ads. I think I was up to 50 keyword combinations. I wrote a new ad and became even more confused by all of Google's different ad types, messages, pop-ups and and dead-ends.

I admit I set my ad bid higher than I would have. Now I was throwing spaghetti at the wall. Spend $352 in 4 days. That should not be hard. I set my bid at $100 per day.

3 days to go. I added a new campaign.

What could go wrong?

Murphy's Law states: "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time."

Another version: “If something falls down in the bathroom, it’s sure to land in the toilet. ”

Snafu #3

That morning, with 3 days to go, I fully expected to see my ad money spent and Google's ad money waiting to engage-- plus a few conversions.

NO! Flat graph. Zeros everywhere.

A message running across the page said: "Your account has been suspended."

Now I'm pretty much thinking game over. Sunk cost. Move on to Microsoft. But I valiently appealed the case and tried to discover my fatal error/s, which I could not.

However, I changed a few links I was unsure of, took out a few keywords I was also unsure of, and closed the computer, which I did not open to Google Ads for 2 days.

Shock and Awe

Imagine my surprise . . .

when a few days later, I did look back in the Google ad site-- and found my account had been reopened. Two of the campaigns were running and it appeared I had achieved the promo $$. Go figure.

Immediately, I paused those ads and began to breathe.

Though I have a few more interesting stories, this post must end. I am facing a new deadline. I need to spend Google promo $$ by August 31, or they go away.

And yes, I am having fun!

Thank you for reading.

Happy 4th of July to my friends in the United States!