Revision Revisited

A last-minute surge improved July’s numbers enough to warrant revising them.

July (Rev)

Total income: -9.8%
Total COGS: +1.5%
Payroll: -19.7%

Marketing: +9.6%
Net Income (Profit): +24.2% (+$68)

Year to Date:

Total income: -20.5%
Total COGS: -25.9%
Payroll: -19.7%

Marketing: -21.5%
Net Income (Profit): +22.1% (+$387)

Google persuaded me to tick a box that summoned a representative to review my account. As I said last week, I’d already intended to change my bidding strategy, so their timing was good. He called on Friday and walked me through some obscure menus and routines that I never would have found and can’t entirely reconstruct. Sales picked up immediately and stayed up for three days. Even though business subsequently dropped back off, traffic has remained at over 150 visits and my advertising spend has more than doubled to hit my $26 ceiling every day. It would go even higher if I’d let it. (So much for free advice.)

So why is this a reason to hate Google?

Panther Vision has disappeared from Google Shopping entirely -- it doesn’t even show up as “disallowed.”  I suspect that the Identifier_exists (FALSE) variable is to blame. I’m going to omit that column entirely the next time I upload. That product feed has gotten so complex that I can’t figure it out anyway.

My effort to reduce ad costs turned out to be self-defeating when sales fell by the same percentage, yet sales did not double after this week’s revision. Far from it. Intense babysitting might improve that a little. But if I want my sales back, I’m just going to have to pay the Google.