The question is, do you think it's a good long-term idea to give the people at Overture and Google access to my conversion metrics? I would think it would be easy for people on the inside to say "Hey, he's getting a 10% conversion rate on product xyz. I should be selling this!"
I would NOT share data with them
just like I would not give the key to my house to amyone to take a look inside
Shak
Once the PPC is able to determine an advertiser's ROI percentage, then they could change the pricing to a PERCENTAGE OF SALES, for example. An advertiser may be presently only paying $.40 to $1.00, but what if the PPC decides that they want a SHARE of that profit margin and instead charge it as 10%-40% of the profit margin? Then, suddenly that $0.40 per click is not that expensive after all!
Or, if they use that to change to PERCENT OF SALES, then what if your site is not about converting to sales at all? The PPC could then decide to NOT let you advertise because you're not earning any percentage of sales for the PPC to earn their money, even though you're only trying to get infomraiotn in front of the searchers.
No, while the PPCs should certainly be paid a fair paid, they have no business KNOWING all about an advertiser's business and profit margins for use in the PPC "finding" rationales for try to charge even more.
I have always opposed that option because it is far to privacy-invasive and could only serve to help the PPC "find" ways to over-charge.
(Perhaps the PPCs never meant for that, but the consequence is still there, nevertheless.)
That is, the TOS on the ROI "service" is that they demand that
THEY own the information they collect.
For me, that's red-flag warning bells.
It's MY sales information and they actually think they have a right to own MY information?
I don't think so! It just "ain't gonna happen."
So, while PPC can be a good thing by itself, the additional idea of giving them ROI information is just way too privacy-invasive.
Mediaplex
DART
Coremetrics
Efficient Frontier [Disclosure, I work for EF]
Omniture
Harvest Solutions
Webtrends
Atlas OnePoint
If you want to actually automate the process of *using* that data to optimize your keyword portfolio, then EF and Atlas are the two best out there, IMO.
-Shorebreak
I would not use the tracking systems of any PPC engine. Even in aggregate, giving them that data will eventually provide more info to set higher pricing and extract more $$$ from advertisers.
Ditto.
Their minium pricing is a nickle so how will them having my conversion info affect their minium pricing?
Here's the scenario:
Imagine it's print advertising instead of PPC. You buy an ad & it costs you $500. The magazine offers to track your sales & profits for free (lets call it a "special offer").
After the ad has run, thanks to the "free" tracking system offered by the publisher, you discover you've made 25 sales at an average profit per sale of $250. Total profit (25 x $250)-$500 = $5750.
Next time you want to run a similar ad in the same magazine, how much do you think they'll be looking for? They now know that it's worth $5750 to you. Still think it''ll cost $500?
What about your competitors that are interested in the same magazine?
Telesales call: "Hello Mr X. One of our advertisers (a competitor of yours as it happens) has a ROI of more than 1000% from their ad in our magazine. As a time-limited special, I'd like to offer you similar space in our next issue for just $4500. And we'll throw in sales tracking for free too!"
Still want to disclose your conversion data? ;)
...minium pricing is a nickle so how will them having my conversion info affect their minium pricing?
They can extract that extra margin without raising the minimum bid by simply bumping up the secret minimum ctr threshold. Watch your profitable keywords go on hold or in trial... until you up your bid.
