Hoade [1] and I were exchanging emails about AdWords [2] today. He's trying to get his writing career into overdrive, seeing how every other job he's tried never worked out. I advised him against AdWords unless someone else was footing the bill, as it can get expensive.
[I'm amused that the GoogleAI has realized that lots of people don't think too highly of AdWords.] [3]
I've also heard first hand that AdWords wasn't worth the money spent on it.
On the flip side, I found that AdSense [4] wasn't worth it for me [5]. Sure, if my blog had a bit more focus, like I was writing about gendered bodies in Japanese pornographic anime and horror through a Foucauldian framwork in order to analyze the West's gaze upon the world, Google would have had a better time generating related advertising towards the blog, but alas, my blog isn't that focused and the ads I did get were bizarre [6]. And it didn't help me that not many people were seeing the ads [7].
Things might have changed since my last experiment with AdSense (or what I heard about AdWords), but I still cautioned Hoade about wasting money on AdWords. I feel he would do better by getting his name out there on podcasts and web-based forums. At least that way, he won't spend any money.
Last words from Hoade:
Just to add a little coda to our AdWords / Facebook ads convo, the for-real serious consensus seems to be "Maybe it could work. Do some A/b testing with your massive pile of ad money. One way might could work gooder than another." Not even XXXXXXX kidding.
Actual quote: "She ended up with a 1.3 percent click-through rate, which is actually very good." I believe this is true, but lord, it doesn't make you run for your checkbook.
Yeah, I'm thinking small sites need not apply.
[2] https://www.google.com/adwords/
[3] /boston/2015/05/07/adwords.jpg
![[3] /boston/2015/05/07/adwords.jpg](/gemini.conman.org/boston/2015/05/07/adwords.jpg){kind=link}