My rebuttal to a controversial take on Google Ads

The other day, I came across an interesting discussion in a Google Ads community:

“What’s 1 thing you wish you knew about Google Ads when you started?”

As I went through the replies, a controversial answer caught my attention.

A lot of people agreed with it. But I have a different opinion.

Here’s what the comment said:

“The ad platform and algorithms can't be trusted. Google optimizes towards revenue, not advertiser's goals.

They only care about making money for themselves. This was a very difficult lesson to learn for probably well over a million small businesses that failed because they made the mistake of working with Google.”

My thoughts?

I agree with the first part.

Google has pushed hard on AI and automation in recent years.

But a lot of it is unreliable.

Even when those automations work, they don’t always work in your favor.

However, Google isn’t the only one to blame here.

AI and automation can’t work on their own.

They need the right inputs—data, guidance, and strategy—to execute for your goals.

You can’t throw together a poorly set up campaign, hand over control to Google, and expect magic.

Every feature serves a purpose.

If you don’t understand when to use it and have the right setup for it, you won’t get the results you want.

That’s why I strongly disagree with the second point part of this comment:

“They only care about making money for themselves”

Google is a business. Of course, they want to make money.

But if advertisers lose money, they stop advertising.

And if they stop advertising, Google loses money too.

So why would Google make it harder for you to succeed?

The logic doesn’t add up.

That comment also talked about “probably well over a million small businesses that failed because they made the mistake of working with Google”

Now, here’s what is actually happening behind the scenes…

Many small businesses do struggle with Google Ads.

But not because Google’s actively trying to sabotage them.

When a brand is new to Google Ads, a smart move would be to capture existing demand.

Generating new demand is possible, but it takes time, budget, and patience.

And when money is tight, high-risk campaigns aren’t the smartest move.

But even capturing existing demand isn’t easy.

Smaller brands have little awareness…

So very few people will actively search for them and choose their products.

On top of that, you can’t just blame Google Ads for your lack of results. 

We have clients making $3M/month with a 15X ROAS.

We also have clients making $100K/month with a 3X ROAS.

Same strategy. But 2 completely different brands with different:

• Total addressable market (TAM)

• Brand awareness

• Products

Your performance depends on factors beyond just ads.

And even with the best strategy, there are external factors that ads alone can’t control.

So here’s the key takeaway from this:

1. Google optimizes for revenue. Your job is to guide the algorithm so that its incentives align with your goals.

2. We’ve worked with 200+ brands, and we’ve seen Google Ads work for all kinds of businesses. Results vary, but I believe any brand can be profitable as long as they have the right foundation for Google Ads. (It’d take a while to explain what that foundation looks like, so I’ll reserve that for another email or a YouTube video)

Jackson

Founder and CEO of Echelonn.

P.S.

If you want me to do more of these “comment-style” emails, hit “reply” and send me some questions about your Google Ads.

I might answer them in a future email—or send over a resource that fits your situation.

It can be a short sentence reply or a full story—whatever’s on your mind.

How we can help:

• Get a free Google ads audit: For brands spending more than $20k/mo. or making over 1 million annually, we’ll identify the key bottlenecks in your account, and turn it into a free 90-day scaling plan. Click here.

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