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How not to run a Google AdWords campaign. Or any other.

Do you use Google AdWords? It’s an excellent sales and marketing tool for most small businesses. Why? Well, the great thing about Google’s AdWords program is that marketers can place effective ads in lots of unexpected places – not just in search results – while still offering relevance to consumers. It’s a simple program to participate in. So, how can you go wrong? Well….

HP is using AdWords to market their MediaSmart servers inside Gmail. As it happens, I’m looking for a media server for my home and their ad showed up alongside an email conversation I’m having with a friend about possible options. Here’s the ad:

poor-ad-follow-through-small.png

Fantastic! Relevant, timely and the ad introduced me to a product I wasn’t aware existed. Everything advertising should do. It even has a strong call-to-action (“Shop now!”) and, as it states, I can “save big.” All HP has to pay for is the click. How can they lose? I was hooked and immediately clicked through. To this:

poor-ad-follow-through-landing-page-small.png

Um… whoops.

What do you think happened to HP’s bounce rate for this ad?

Obviously, the point here isn’t to suggest AdWords is a bad idea. Not at all. I’d argue quite the opposite. Placing relevant ads in front of customers with purchase intent is the holy grail of marketing. And tools like AdWords make it happen. But, execution matters.

Think I’m being too harsh? Or did HP really drop the ball on this one? Tell us what you think in the comments below.


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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 at 4:43 am and is filed under E-commerce. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “How not to run a Google AdWords campaign. Or any other.”

  1. Susan Petracco Says:
    May 14th, 2009 at 9:26 am

    Wow. What poor testing! I mean, I’ve done stupid things like that before…LOL…but HP? Did someone get fired over this???

  2. Tim Says:
    May 18th, 2009 at 6:28 pm

    Good question, Susan. While I doubt anyone got fired over this (Mike Moran would show it as a good example of Doing it Wrong, Quickly), it demonstrates how sometimes you can do it too quickly. Or too wrong. ;)

    Thanks for reading.

    P.S. – You can read the thinks review of Do It Wrong Quickly here.

  3. How to get started with PPC advertising. And why you should. Says:
    July 20th, 2009 at 6:20 am

    [...] Pick your landing page. Once you know what question you want to answer – and what terms your customers will use – figure out where those terms will land. The ads that work the best are those that have a dedicated landing page to keep a strong sense of scent. And, as we’ve seen, nothing works less well than an ad that drops you off on a completely unrelated page. [...]

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