Really wouldn’t surprise me if they went that way or more automation to make it easier for the average Joe blogs to have a decent stab at PPC.

All I know is Google doesn’t care so much about the actual professionals doing PPC. They care about the money ( the new “upgraded” accounts are an example of this.) and the customer.

Goodman and others in this provocative thread.

Automation is a *good thing* in AdWords, as in many other endeavours.

But, one problem is, we “smart” marketers often wilfully try to override essential

pieces of the AdWords machine’s automation – because we think we know better.

There’s a good reason why default campaign settings have always been “optimize for

clicks” – and as usual, the double-edged sword cuts two ways, both in Google’s

favour, and (other considerations of Conversion and Economics aside) in the

advertiser’s also.

In this, I believe Google’s basic premise is sound – we have a business, we want to

sell things online (or get noticed), we have a website, and we want clicks to get

visitors who then (hopefully) become conversion opportunities that we might (or

might not) make a profit out of.

Google is the master of clicks. If we didn’t want clicks we wouldn’t have a website,

or an AdWords account. Google allows us to rent their self-service and incredibly

automated advertising platform in return for a commission, levied by a click charge

based on the perceived market value of that click (the Ad Auction).

Google has always been obsessed with speed, and ad auctions are recomputed for each

search in about 0.10-0.30 seconds or so based on a bunch of advertiser parameters.

This is a level of automation that humans are not equipped to match, and they have

far more data points to make split-second decisions on than most of us realise.

“Perceived market value” because not every advertiser is ready, willing and able to

follow the click he buys all the way to the cash register to see how much he gets

back in exchange.

My goal with any client is to take them to unlimited AdWords budgets at accelerated

campaign delivery – we want to be able to buy every (profitable) click because we

know how the numbers work to *our* rules (CPA, Cost Per Acquisition, or cost per

sale) rather than Google’s of Cost per Impression.

I only work with Clients who know (or can be educated to know) what these numbers

are. Otherwise my value to them is undefinable. And that’s a recipe to lose the

client.

Speaking of value, every business is truly unique, and therefore my value is

variable. So I prefer to work with carefully selected clients on a commission-only

basis where I’m proving my worth, in $dollars, every month. In down seasons with no

sales for seasonal business, you don’t even need to pay me until things pick up

again (http://www.davidnrothwell.com/commissiononly-adwords-management-pay-worth-

business-7247/)

That way, we share exactly the same goals – more traffic, more conversions, more

profit. And like another contributor described, you have to climb inside the

business of your client to fully understand it and have a chance to add that value.

Or even decide to contract with them in the first place.

Think of it like a job interview … Many agencies don’t come anywhere near doing

that.

This is why I am distrustful of Wordstream’s approach of lumping all advertisers

together into a common basket and making generalised decisions about click and

conversion costs which can be totally different for every advertiser.

Most advertisers continue to pay the “stupid tax” because they don’t join up all the

pieces of the advertising system, of which *only one piece* is the AdWords

component. Their website is another piece. So is their supply chain, payroll, fixed

costs, fulfilment, returns, and on, and on …

If you tag and follow the money, you’ll be able to figure all that out.

AdWords is a feature, not necessarily a benefit. Not every business can make it work

(profitably, anyway). Many businesses can advertise and sell online. Can they all

earn more than they spend doing so?

Leaving aside all considerations of “Branding”, the business benefit is, in its

simplest case – profit.

We are in this game (or should be) to earn more than we spend. Google gives us the

tools and automation, its up to us to make the most cost-effective use of them.

The Google AI has been assimilating impression and click data for over 10 years now,

and here’s why not all ad auctions are equal and why Google’s automation is superior

to split-testing (http://www.davidnrothwell.com/split-testing-adwords-ads-wrong-

8236/).

I’ve been speaking about this since 2010 when I talked about Conversion Optimizer at

Perry Marshall’s first Maui Summit. (In reference to data feeds also mentioned in

this thread, I also stated at the time how Google was going after Amazon in e-

Commerce, see also http://www.davidnrothwell.com/shopping-results-listings-google-

organic-search-results-usa-9260/)

So, with all this automation, will Google ever eliminate the need for the
professional Agencies and Consultants who’ve sprung up over the years without their

bidding to support bewildered advertisers?

Even with the new Enhanced Campaigns and seeming reduction in complexity?

I don’t think so.

Bryan’s point about upping your game is absolutely on the money. If you’re not

invested in the Client’s profitability as a business partner creating conspicuous

value for them, even with your PPC skills, you’re at risk of becoming another

unjustifiable expense.

Because Traffic (and Data) on its own, without due consideration of Conversion, and

Economics, has no value.

I look forward to seeing you at the upcoming ppchero conference in Austin.

If automation = DKI on steroids than that definitely won’t cut it. Even further to the point, applying IBM’s Watson to PPC creative may beat the average PPC marketer but not the best. The key to building “automation tools” that scale with high quality is that they connect the best of human intelligence with machines that learn. People are better at understanding all the nuances of a brand, it’s position in the marketplace and various creative ways to talk about both. But, you can really accentuate and scale that intelligence when you connect it to the right kind of technology. Technology that can help marketers run 1000s of concurrent multivariate tests with 1000s of unique ads written as a if human wrote each one based on the marketing pros expertise and intuition. And the best part is that the analytics that come out these kinds of systems are fun for old search pros to play with and generate new intel because you can start to see patterns out of the raw data that weren’t possible before.