I was wondering whether anyone's ever experienced the kind of phenominen that I've had over the past 24 hrs, and what the explanation may be.
One of my campaigns was ticking along at about 100 clicks per day (0.7% clickthrough), when suddenly out of the blue I got 2000 clicks (just on one
keyword) with a clickthrough of 5.3%. When I first saw it I thought it was an error at googles end. But then I checked my Clickbank account and I had
earned over $1000 in 12 hours! Happy? Of course I was, as long as no-one was trying to scam me!
My clicks per sale went from 1 in 250 to 1 in 45!
The phenominen lasted for only about 7 hours, then my clicks and impressions dropped back to the previous levels.
95% of the email addresses of those who bought were AOL.com.
All the Clicks came through Google NOT their networks.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Jon
[edited by: marek at 1:14 pm (utc) on June 9, 2004]
- Initially, you campaign was not syndicated across the Google search network. CTR was at 0.7% and you were chugging along at 100 clicks/day
- Your campaign then popped in a viagra and you started getting 2000 clicks at a CTR of 5%. That's because your campaign was syndicated to the partner network - with most of the clicks coming from AOL.
- You changed your ad copy or did something else that triggered an editorial review. You are out of the search network and back where you were before.
Either that, or a new competitor pushed you below the top 4 ad positions.
The keyword was an Exact match [****].
If syndicating across the network has this affect then is it not essential to ensure this occurs?
Thanks,
Jon
perhaps a tv show or media burst on your topic?
could be a zillion things.
my best guess is that if 95% were aol addresses, it could be that your listing was shown at a very popular aol content article for that period
Its not a click bot or if it is the click bot is programmed to fill out lead forms that take a person 45 minutes. No idea what causes it but its typically associated with campaigns that have been live in Google for at least 6 months with no changes in keywords or creative during that period.
My brother used to sell gambling systems via mail order in the old days. He would sell 0-3 per day and occasionally he'd get a day when 10 or 15 orders would come in. I think the same thing happens on the Internet.
jdancing
Does anyone know how AOL generates it's top 4 list from Google ads?
The top four approved ads from Google will go to the top four spots on AOL.
Note: When there ads in the Top-Top spots on Google, above the search results, then they will be included among the four sent to AOL.
And if you notice ads in the top four on Google, which are not appearing on AOL, then they are probably not approved.
AWA
<added> Added last sentance. </added>
[edited by: AdWordsAdvisor at 8:36 pm (utc) on June 9, 2004]
It's as if some sites are able to get listed by some other route.
Hmmm. I've just checked with the folks here who should know, who tell me that this is not the case.
I wonder if it could be some odd combination of lots of unapproved ads, combined with some low daily budgets not allowing ads to show from one moment to the next, combined with Ad Groups with more than one ad that rotate, etc.?
(BTW, are you looking on the second page of Google for the ads that you saw on AOL, or only the first? And are you looking at the Display URLs or only the ad text?)
AWA
Pence = UK folks, right?
What you are seeing on AOL.com are USA targeted Google AdWords results. When you do a search on Google for your keyword from UK, you see only ads that are targeted at UK.
Perhaps some advertisers whom you can see on AOL have not selected UK as a target country.
To really compare the results, do a search on Google and append the URL in the address bar with &gl=us. Or login to anonymizer or any other proxy and do a Google search. Then compare the AOL/Google results.
It is quite a general search term so I can't see why it would have such a huge surge.
I am no longer showing up on AOL for the keyword and my Clicks have dropped back to normal.
I'm fourth out of 8 in the google listing - paying only 4p. And looking at the competition, I think given time I could go higher.
The only other ad in the Google list that shows up in the AOL list is the No. 1 ad, but I know I'd have to bid up to 50p/click to get above that ad! I've got above it on google, but there must be a delay on the AOL ads.
Well, why the AOL listing appears different to the Google listing anyway.
Google listings seem to be affected by your daily budget - if it's too low it doesn't show up all of the time.
Well, I just tried the same search again and this time the top 4 on AOL appeared on google! I then tried the search again and they disappeared! I tried a few more times but they've still not reappeared.
Yet everytime i search AOL the same top 4 appear. This would mean that daily budgets affect google but NOT AOL searches.
Can anyone else cast any light on this?