"Maybe well give it one last shot".

I like his attitude and that he doesnt say hell never do it again, right away. But that makes it sound as if they had to throw all their eggs into PPC and go Do or Die with it. When in reality they could just start with a small amount of money and see if it's profitable or if they can make it profitable...and then pour more money into it.

Reminds me of sports betting: People (who are trying to earn money with it) pour in a lot of money right from the get-go (actually without ever tracking if theyre making profits or not). When really they could play the game with 1 buck per bet and see if it's profitable or not..and then think about pouring more money into it.

This bit of the article is something that really resonates with me:

Middings kept a close eye out for linguistic misunderstandings that could run up his bill. At one point, he realized that many computer users searching for "Easter egg" weren't looking for holiday chocolates: The term also applies to a hidden feature on a DVD.

To me, it's all about context.

If I write an ad, or perform a search query, for "Hail Mary", what's my context? Religion, or a football play?

It's interesting to me that with AdWords (et al.), one must laboriously identify that context:

Middings taught himself the tricks of the trade. He developed a list of 70,000 -- seventy thousand -- keywords to bid on. (Today the company bids on about 30,000) .... "I eliminated keywords like 'gift card,' 'cheap,' and 'free,' " Middings said.

Google, and other platforms, seem to do a real good job of dumping a lot of work into your lap (in regards to your keyword lists). It also seems that the common thought, from the Charles Chocolates' of the world, is that you slap up a PPC campaign and the money god's shine their light down upon you.

People have been "marketed to about marketing" -- Dave L

To me (IMHO), the next "killer app" will be the one who provides the much needed context that is greatly lacking in Search (PPC, Queries, etc...)

A typical marketing story across all media . People have been "marketed to about marketing" and always seem to think it's an order of magnitude (or two) easier than it is.

Im glad you caught this article. Its another example of an uninformed business owner attempting to do something technical that's pressumed to be easy.

After failure its labeled as something that "does'nt work".

The PPC guy at the successful company in this story was probably awarded a nice bonus.

You almost sounded like Robert Frost there... :)