A lot of good points made here, and there is certainly a time and place to use software to solve simple problems...That said, when it comes to paid search say no to Automation! It makes too many assumptions about complex situations. Additionally it puts WAY too much trust in the hand's of Google and Bing. You can find a lot of qualified individuals/companies that will manually manage your campaigns...and you'll be a lot happier that you did.
I agree with this. Automation lacks common sense.
I've found many times dealers spend fruitless money on:
- "Premium" models. Buying keywords that aren't transaction based for vehicles like Mustangs, etc often just buy fanboy traffic
- As Is / Junk - surprising number of companies don't filter the junk out and can spend over $100 advertising something with no gross value
- Dealership Name - yes, protect your brand. No, don't spend 75% of your adwords budget on your own name. Unless your dealership name is too geographical, I try and avoid these keywords because they're already looking for you
- Company Demos - automation also often fails to marketing things like demos properly - the message for them is entirely different