Word Of Mouth Is Still The Best Form Of Advertising
~posted 12.18.2005
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For nearly two years, redhattitudes.com followed the rest of the herd in attempting to establish a customer base through advertising on Google. Although our wed host, and daughter, assured us that Google was the place to be because of their unique sense of fair play and ”doing no evil”I never really trusted them. I admit, that I never really understood them either. No doubt, my lack of understanding of the complexities of being Google were the reason for my distrust. At least, that was what I was told and was willing to believe.
As the interest in all things ”red hat” began to fade in the Summer of 2005, my distrust of Google was rekindled. A sharp drop in orders from our web site mirrored what I saw at our ”brick and mortar” store.
The market was over saturated with sources for purple and red clothing, and most local groups were, by now, fully attired. We were (and are) still doing red hat business, but it was token at best, when compared to several months earlier. This, we expected,even planned for, as red hat had always been just a fun sideline to our normal Pumpkin Creek Clothing business anyway.
So why the distrust of Google? Since day one we had set a limit or advertising budget of $250.00 per month. When our ad appeared we would be billed 11 cents each time a potential customer ”clicked” through to our site. When there were lots of people looking for purple clothes, it didn’t really matter that we reached our limit each day and paid the full $250.00 each month. But as the internet business fell, some weeks to as little as one actual order, it shocked me that the maximum number of clicks were still occuring, resulting in the $250.00 charge each month. I was getting more orders from my Pumpkin Creek site with no advertising than from a site costing $250.00 per month. Disgusted by the entire business, I ”paused” the ad early in December.
I have since learned of a class action lawsuit against Google for click fraud. Whether or not anything comes of it (I am not a party to it, nor intend to be)they’ll not get another penny of my money. It seems that a computer program can attack legitimate ads and generate enough automatic clicks to max them out and bring up the next ad, with no intent to ever view a site or place an order. I imagine that the Google defense will be that they are as pure and innocent as a child at birth,what with their non-evil reputation, and that they shouldn’t be held accountable for the evil done by others. This apparent flaw in the Google system of selling advertising, allowing one merchant to fraudulently click his competitor’s site, thereby costing him money while preventing him from being viewed by legitimate customers, makes me wonder if I ever got my money’s worth from dealing with Google.
We built a successful retail business through many years of hard work and giving true value in return for our customer’s hard earned money.
We have people in every day who say ”so and so” said I should give you a try. Word of mouth advertising has played an important part in the continued growth of our business. Heading into 2006, we will be wise to try to find ways to repay people for their good words on our behalf, and even wiser to not spend another cent with Google.
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