Answer
Dec 01, 2020 - 09:25 PM
I recommend disabling it as our experience has been much like yours. Google is really sneaky with their default settings that are so hard to turn off. We had to get a support rep to help us turn it off.
My understanding of this audience is that once you set your target audience, Google will find similar others with the same interests and intents and send them your way. In theory, this should help you get many more customers.
In practice, the "expansion audience" crowded out our intended audience, which barely got any impressions let alone clicks.
And the clicks were from the cesspools of the Internet. All the scammy mobile apps and games frequented by teenagers with no money to spend. Below is a list of some of the sources of traffic:
Once we turned off this expansion audience we started to get high quality clicks. They were 3x more expensive at 60 cents per click but they actually generated sales. It is easy to get seduced by the "expansion audience"'s much lower CPC (20 cents in the US in our case for a supposedly prized audience) but the traffic is complete junk!
Maybe it has generated sales for some but not for us and others seem to agree as well:
https://www.clixmarketing.com/blog/20...
Waiting for the AI to optimize your campaigns and generate sales is very, very, very expensive even though this is what Google recommends i.e. They say that new advertisers should just create a "smart campaign" and let it run and find buyers for your product.
If you know even a little about your potential customers you are better of starting with your own targeting and only then letting the AI aid you.
Google has the best ad platform no doubt, but they seem to want to exact a tax on newbies by getting them to first spend money on junk traffic from the fringes of the Internet, before letting them have quality clicks.
My understanding of this audience is that once you set your target audience, Google will find similar others with the same interests and intents and send them your way. In theory, this should help you get many more customers.
In practice, the "expansion audience" crowded out our intended audience, which barely got any impressions let alone clicks.
And the clicks were from the cesspools of the Internet. All the scammy mobile apps and games frequented by teenagers with no money to spend. Below is a list of some of the sources of traffic:
Once we turned off this expansion audience we started to get high quality clicks. They were 3x more expensive at 60 cents per click but they actually generated sales. It is easy to get seduced by the "expansion audience"'s much lower CPC (20 cents in the US in our case for a supposedly prized audience) but the traffic is complete junk!
Maybe it has generated sales for some but not for us and others seem to agree as well:
https://www.clixmarketing.com/blog/20...
Waiting for the AI to optimize your campaigns and generate sales is very, very, very expensive even though this is what Google recommends i.e. They say that new advertisers should just create a "smart campaign" and let it run and find buyers for your product.
If you know even a little about your potential customers you are better of starting with your own targeting and only then letting the AI aid you.
Google has the best ad platform no doubt, but they seem to want to exact a tax on newbies by getting them to first spend money on junk traffic from the fringes of the Internet, before letting them have quality clicks.
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