Anyone Experiencing a Decline in PPCSE sales?

Sales Declining for PPCSE

[IntrigueLearning]

I was wondering if anyone else was experiencing a decline in sales from their PPCSE marketing. Sales are down around 50% from Google and Overture...is there something else out there?

Thanks

[robotsdobetter]

Many people are offline because of summer in the USA and with school out more kids are online clicking things, I often find younger people more click happy. Your best to stay with Overture or Google, the rest all seem to be sending fake traffic.

[DavidDeprice]

I am quite sure that Overture is sending fake traffic too. Well, not Overture, but rogue advertisers.
I see that with my Overture account. Sometimes I see my CTR drop like a rock from 1.25% to 0.75% - and this started to happen only recently. Here is the funny thing - the number of click is the same - it's the impressions that go up, sometimes by 8000 (I have content match turned off).
So obviously it's some type of fraud, but I am not sure if Overture has it under control or not. My spendings did not increase dramatically, so I'd like to hope that I am not getting billed for these fraudulent clicks. I asked Overture if that was the case but they did not respond.

The site the traffic was comming from is <snip> and it appears to be shut down.

If you want to know exactly what I am talking about go to
www.google.co.uk and enter "Spyware Doctor". You'll see the add by <snip>
If you click the link, you'll see that it's an page that has nothing but Overture ads.

[edited by: Woz at 11:45 pm (utc) on June 27, 2005]
[edit reason] No URLs or Specifics please, see Tos#13 [/edit]

[DavidDeprice]

Just thought that it might be helpful to show the actual example of the fraud

for instance, go to <snip> and look at the last 3 links at bottom - these are overture ads but they aren't marked as ads.

[edited by: Woz at 11:46 pm (utc) on June 27, 2005]
[edit reason] No URLs or Specifics please, see Tos#13 [/edit]

[watchthis]

how is that an example of fraud?
Many search engines that have overture's results do the same thing and deliver good conversions.
I agree its mis leading that it doesnt say AD, however I dont think you can call it a fraud site. Fraud is a harsh word, dont get into the habit of using it lightly.

[bostonseo]

Google and Overture should be embarassed to allow ad's by them on a webpage like that. That's not even a webpage; it's a white page with links that have no theme or relevance.

[WebStart]

<So obviously it's some type of fraud, but I am not sure if Overture has it under control>

Trust me, neither Overture nor Google has click fraud under control. I recently had occasion to challenge some unusual click activity with both. I can remember the details with OV, which were a normal click count of 2 per day for a certain keyword that went to 100 a day for several days in a row. OV admitted the activity was unusual, but said it could find no "unqualified" traffic among them, and gave no refund. With Google it was a similar unusual bounce in traffic. And in both cases, No sales to match the increased traffic. Neither would admit that fraud was at work, and neither would refund.

[DavidDeprice]

OK, Watchthis, this is why I think this is fraud.
I have content match turned off. Had it turned off for a while. My overture stats show N/A, which means that no content ads are being showed. Yet I see content ads that show my ads and I see these referrers in my log.
However, I am unable to tell if I am being charged for these clicks or not. And Overture doesn't tell me - it's been almost a week since I wrote an e-mail.
Here is a second reason - read what Oveture requires of the Content Match partners

[searchmarketing.yahoo.com...]

does it look like these sites get 20 million views a month?

Reason number three - go to a legitimate search partner, like CNN.

I went to this page and clicked the very first ad.

Here is the link

<snip>

click properties and see how the ad links to Overture

it starts with

[www21.overture.com...]

Now go to the roque site (I've actually gotten clicks form this site)

<snip>

check out the first ad.

The link starts with
<snip>

and then there is Overture gibberish.
www22.overture.com%2Fd%2Fsr%...

OK, I am no whiz, but it looks to me that they are faking as if there were two keywords entered "glow" and "stick" and they are taking static content traffic and making it look to Overture look like it was a live search.

I'd like tech-heads look into that. Am I correct in my assumption that these guys are cheating Overture and us, the advertisers.

[edited by: Woz at 11:49 pm (utc) on June 27, 2005]
[edit reason] No URLs or Specifics please, see Tos#13 [/edit]

[DavidDeprice]

And in both cases, No sales to match the increased traffic. Neither would admit that fraud was at work, and neither would refund.

Well, here is the thing. My total spendings did to up, but I believe it was the result of me upping the bids.
I have no proof that I am getting billed for these fake clicks. Maybe I am not. But even if I am not getting billed for these, these fake clicks still make it to Overture statistics.
Case in point:

on 6/20 I had
18,000 Impressions
210 Clicks
and was billed 29 bucks (I rounded off the numbers)

As of right now I have

27,253 Impresisons
168 Clicks
Billded 22.79
When the data is finalized I know I'll be billed about the same number of clicks and billed the same amount of money.

the quesion is Where did the extra 10000 impressions come from? The answer is Fraud - the type I described.
But since I pay more or less the same, I have no reason to suspect that Overture is cheating me - I don't think they are, otherwise the increase in impressions would translate to increase in the amount of money I am charged. It's not so. So I don't have any reasons to ask for a refund. I am more or less happy with Overture - but it's clear that something is up.