

AdGrok (YC S10) is out to replace the 'craptacular' Google AdWords interface - mceachen
http://www.xconomy.com/san-francisco/2010/08/26/adgroks-grandiose-proposition-replacing-the-craptacular-google-adwords-interface/?single_page=true

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create_account
_I wasn’t too surprised when Garcia-Martinez confessed to me this week that he
studied journalism in college—the posts wouldn’t be nearly as provocative if
they weren’t so well written._

Ugh... is this ass-kissing some kind of journalistic professional courtesy?

 _And there’s actually more cunning to his blogging strategy than you might
imagine. The posts have drawn thousands of visitors who never would have
discovered AdGrok’s website otherwise, without costing AdGrok a dime. “We got
a lot of free PR based on my blog post about New York City,” he says. “It was
like, whoosh—tens of thousands of page views and lots of signups.”_

Frickin genius. This troll is an inspiration to us all.

~~~
waderoush
Author here. It's not ass-kissing, it's a genuine compliment -- Antonio is a
good writer.

Also, I think his success with the blog posts is instructive. Antonio freely
admits that he's writing "linkbait blog posts to get us free PR"
([http://adgrok.com/why-founding-a-three-person-startup-
with-z...](http://adgrok.com/why-founding-a-three-person-startup-with-zero-
revenue-is-better-than-working-for-goldman-sachs)). I wouldn't advise trying
this unless you have something genuinely engaging to say. But you have to
admit it's an inventive, low-cost way to get your startup off the ground.

~~~
dpapathanasiou
_"But you have to admit it's an inventive, low-cost way to get your startup
off the ground."_

No, it's an awful gimmick which sets a terrible precedent.

~~~
paraschopra
Plus conversion rate from blog -> homepage / product page is awfully small.
Typical is 2-5%.

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chopsueyar
"“If Google wanted to do this, they could do it themselves,”

How viable is this long term as a company? Does AdGrok use Google's API?

I'll admit, the Adwords interface leaves a bit to be desired, so this should
be interesting.

~~~
riffer
Google is pretty good at blocking out upcoming competitors.

But do you ever get the feeling that Google knows too much about you? Has a
little too much control? I use Google as my primary search, I let them read me
email thru Gmail, watch my browsing thru Chrome, etc. But those are all
privacy related things, not financial concerns. If I was spending a lot of
money on online advertising, I would prefer to use a platform other than
AdWords.

AdGrok should be ok.

~~~
dpapathanasiou
" _Google is pretty good at blocking out upcoming competitors._ "

Your comment made me think about the last time I tried logging into AdWords
using Firefox.

The css file seemed missing or broken, and the form wouldn't submit.

Then I switched to Chrome, and everything was ok.

Not sure if that's deliberate on Google's part.

~~~
buro9
You probably had AdBlock installed and enabled.

~~~
dpapathanasiou
Yes, that makes sense.

I do have AdBlock on my FF install, and I've gotten so used to it, I never
notice it in the background.

------
keltex
"but in the long run the cost of using AdGrok will probably average out to
about 5 percent of what users spend on AdWords"

One of my clients spends about $1000 per day on adwords. They would never
spend $50/day on software like this.

~~~
chime
> One of my clients spends about $1000 per day on adwords. They would never
> spend $50/day on software like this.

Assume the human effort/labor isn't part of the equation: $1000 in adwords ->
$1001 in sales. $1000 in adwords + $50 AdGrok -> $1052 in sales.

Only reason to not pay for AdGrok is if the labor cost increases. If the labor
cost decreases, they absolutely should do it.

------
spot
<http://marinsoftware.com/product/benefits.html>

these guys also have their own frontend to AdWords. it allows you to manage a
campaign across platforms even.

~~~
antongm
Marin is a product aimed at large companies with their own internal SEM teams,
and >$100K monthly budgets. AdGrok aims for the space below this lofty level.

~~~
spot
right -- they are in different spaces. but it is good evidence that google
won't just shut down adgrok.

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iaskwhy
I really don't understand why the big image on the homepage of AdGrok has a
link to itself. Is there a purpose to it or just got left there somehow? :)

~~~
mceachen
It's an SEO trick. By linking to your home page from your home page, the
googlebot falls into infinite recursion and your pagerank exceeds google.
Soon, all search queries will lead to AdGrok.

</dry-nerd-humor>

------
almost
I'm quite excited about AdGrok now. I'm so sick of the Adwords interface. Has
anyone got accepted into the Beta yet?

~~~
antongm
We've sent out some invites, but we're sending out larger waves starting
today.

Pop me an email at antonio at adgrok.com, and we'll get you in the next wave.
HN readers get priority, of course. ;)

