Does anybody get any similar to this recently?
still waiting for response....
I really don't care too much about it as it only affects one campaign. I am also using AdCenter to supplement the lost traffic, however.
kz
"Google responded to my e-mails saying that my affiliate site lacks a quality page score. They don't see any value in it, therefore I must be put out of business."
I wonder if one removes affiliate links as an experiment - minimum bids will lower?
My question is whether this increase in CPC has happened prior to last week and March 31st or whether it seems to be a reaction to bad numbers between January 1 and March 31. If it's been going on all quarter I'd better get "long" for earnings release; but if it's only been happening recently I'd be almost certain that the results from Q1 were disappointing.
Thanks for any responses - it's a real help to me.
For me, it happened in (very successful) campaigns
that have been running for over a year, some for over
2 years with Very little changes to them.
The k/w's & ads affected were Highly Targetted to the
landing page. There would be Very Little I could do to "increase quality".
For the campaigns affected, I will be taking my advertising money to Yahoo.
If they did this because of bad performance in Q1,
then they better fire their Financial Wizards, cause
they have just LOST a Bundle of Advertising $'s.
They have KILLED Numerous Very Targeted Ads from
what I can tell be reading these posts.
And, If they think Companies are going step up and fill Affiliate Ad's shoes they are Badly mistaken.
Smart Companies know they are getting a Great deal
in Affiliate advertising. And, many of these companies don't have the Experience in advertising
that is handed to them by affiliates.
[edited by: manx at 5:32 am (utc) on April 8, 2006]
My traffic is far less than half what it used to be, and my spend is also less than half.
I no longer think this was a cash grab because I think they'll actually take a loss for it. I now think they are truly trying to optimize their ad serving for users and I'm working hard on my site to hopefully gain a better quality score. However, I do think that they acted rather savagely and left too many questions unanswered in the process. I am definitely looking around for new traffic sources now and putting more effort into SEO.
Google - I used to love you but you broke my heart! :)
That, coupled up with the massive stock sales and evidence of fraud out there pretty much seals the deal on Q1 06 - I think I'll go "short" into earnings.
[edited by: Woz at 10:29 am (utc) on April 8, 2006]
[edit reason] No Self URLs please, see TOS#13 [/edit]
One thing I have noticed is that the largest increase is always the same but it is in two tiers.
e.g.
1. £0.10 to £4.50, or £0.75 to £4.50
2. £0.10 to £2.25, or £0.75 to £2.25
(hypothetical figures used to avoid TOS problems)
Maybe if they really don't want your site they stick it up to the maximum. Else they stick it up half way. Make sense?
Of all the people experiencing the issues, how many are affiliates and how many are actual merchants?
I manage several accounts, my merchant accounts have been unaffected, but a couple of the affiliate accounts got hit.
So, instead of a technical issue, is it really another wave of elimination of affiliate ads?
I would be curious to hear from those who have been affected - affiliate or merchant?
