Every family has one. That computer and internet go-to guy. You know, that family member you always call to fix your computer. Somehow, I guess because I spend a lot of time on a computer, I somehow became “that computer guy” for my family. I bet most of you are “that girl or guy” as well.

So when it came time to create a website for my brother-in-law’s lumber company, my services were called for again. Once the site was up and running (using Microsoft Frontpage of course!) we kind of thought that business would pick up for him. It didn’t. I mentioned to him something about Google Adwords and that is where my money losing adventure begins….

My brother-in-law wasn’t real sure at first. He didn’t want to lose money on the internet (gasp!). Lose money? That thought had never occurred to me. Lots of people advertise online everyday. You see ads on every website out there. If placing ads on the internet is so popluar, those ads must be very very effective right in reaching your targeted audiences and all. It can’t be a money losing venture or no one would advertise online!

I went to Google Adwords, signed in my with gmail address and went through the necessary steps to create an ad campaign for this lumber business. My first mistake was to allow Google to automatically pick keywords based on my website and my second (and fatal) mistake was to allow Google to automatically “optimize” my budget.

Keywords

My brother-in-law sells “Curly Cherry” wood (among others) Curly Cherry for Google can be broken down to “Curly” and “Cherry” If you continue to brainstorm like only a computer can, “Curly” can also be part of the word “Curly Hair”. And it only makes sense that someone searching for “Curly Hair” would want some “Curly Wood”. I don’t remember exactly what I (that’s right I) paid per click for Curly Hair, but I don’t think it led to many conversions for my brother-in-law.

So the lesson here….please selectively pick or at least REVIEW your keywords very carefully before activating your ad campaign.

Budget

When you sign up for Google Adwords you can either a) tell them how much you want to spend or b) You can “optimize” your budget based on your keywords and market. I did decide to go through and optimize the PPC for some of the keywords . That however, led me to believe “I won’t possibly lose money on keywords that aren’t relevant to this site.” Boy was I wrong! Reviewing the ad campaign a few days later, I realized I lost more money on irrelevant keywords and accidental clicks than I ever thought possible.

So the lesson here is quite simple and the same as my state lottery motto, “Please play responsibly” Don’t let anyone, even Google, determine how much you should spend on your ad campaign.

Follow Up: My brother-in-law has now taken control of his own ad campaign for his site. He has selected VERY targeted keywords and has made a few sales (we call them conversions) because of Adwords. So people can and do make money by advertising their products and sites through Google. I’m just not one of them.