Forum Moderators: martinibuster
More people game the system, lowering conversion rates, and AdWords subscribes (like me) turn off paying for anything from AdSense.
Personally, I think Google should start charging on a conversion basis rather than a bid basis. And you only rank high if you convert well.
Highly topic based, this adsense. But yes, in the last 15 days I have seen more Alternate ads then I have since signing up. CTR has taken a fantastic drumming as a result :(
Personally, I think Google should start charging on a conversion basis rather than a bid basis. And you only rank high if you convert well.
You can do it for yourself: if your conversion ratio is low, then low your bid. If your conversion rises, pump up your bid. Everyone do it.
If you are interested, Commision Junction offers a wide variety of tools for the "conversion adept". Don't loose your time with these silly PPC networks.
I checked carefully my adwords campaign ROI and have now turned of delivery to content sites
PS i am only a small advertiser with $500-$1000
monthly budget so may not be indicitive of the major players
steve
With the increasing uproar against comingling and Google's fairly recent distribution of content ads to parked domains, I would guess the churn for content ads is increasing. In other words, advertisers are optting out faster than new ones are joining.
I am both an AdWords advertiser and an AdSense publisher. Given my experienced based knowledge of both systems, I would hazard that for the most part advertisers on my sites don't really know what they are doing.
You cannot expect stability from a system based on ignorance.
Also, I wonder, if people opt out of AdSense does this mean that if I opt back into AdSense .. will my ads be cheaper because I am bidding against fewer people?
We don't know enough about the partners, have only yes or no choice. If your site's good, sooner or later we'd do a deal direct I guess.
It's fairly obvious what is happening.
It certainly isn't happening across the board. Remember, most of the posts we see here are from people who are unhappy. But not all publishers and advertisers are unhappy. I'm certainly not (my EPC is climbing, my revenues are growing much faster than my traffic is, and my effective CPM is the best it's ever been since I enrolled in the network last June.)
More people game the system, lowering conversion rates, and AdWords subscribes (like me) turn off paying for anything from AdSense.
I'm seeing more big-name advertisers are on my site all the time, and many of the same companies that were advertising last June or July are still running AdSense ads. So it's fairly obvious to me that quite a few advertisers (at least in my topic area) are happy with the results they're getting.
Maybe there's more "gaming the system" in certain categories. Another problem might be the growth in AdWords/AdSense use on high-traffic general-interest sites where reader interest in a given topic is likely to be more casual than it is on a niche site. (I think you can safely assume, for example, that the reader of an article on digital cameras in THE WASHINGTON POST is less likely to be a hot prospect for a digital camera than someone who's browsing through a camera-review or photo enthusiasts' site.)
Personally, I think Google should start charging on a conversion basis rather than a bid basis. And you only rank high if you convert well
Not every advertiser is looking for immediate conversions. Some are more interested in leads. For example, I see ads for a cruise line on my site all the time. Although the cruise line does accept direct reservations, it also encourages users to contact their travel agents--and in most cases, the users probably do, because the vast majority of cruises are still booked through travel agents. So how would the cruise line track conversions? Its task would be a lot harder than that of the booking service or affiliate site that's selling hotel rooms for immediate booking online.
You concern does illustrate a problem that Google faces, though: skepticism from advertisers who have had poor experiences with AdSense or who are concerned about their ads being displayed on sites that "game the system. Google could overcome some of this skepticism by giving advertisers control over where their content ads appear, so that advertisers could pick the sites that work for them instead of sites that work only for publishers and Google.
However, I personally would prefer not to have to pick through all the content sites .. I have enough work to do just picking keywords. I speak personally though, different segments may see different results.
And a conversion doesn't have to be someone putting down a credit card #. It could be someone signing up for a newsletter, clicking on certain links, etc.
However, I personally would prefer not to have to pick through all the content sites .. I have enough work to do just picking keywords.
True, but some advertisers do have a pretty good idea of what the good sites are in their niches. Or maybe they just have certain sites they don't want to appear on. If advertisers had the option of including or excluding certain domains, that would go a long way toward reassuring at least some advertisers.
Google might also want to letting businesses advertise on individual sites. Let's say I'm the publisher of marching-bands-of-america.org and Marching Band Bobbleheads, Inc. thinks "Hey, this is a site we should be advertising on." As a publisher, I might be perfectly happy to let Marching Band Bobbleheads, Inc. deal with Google instead of trying to negotiate ad rates and serve ads myself (especially if I'm already running AdSense ads at the top of my page). Once Marching Band Bobbleheads, Inc. has had some experience running AdSense ads on my site and in Google's SERPs, it might be willing to test AdSense ads on other sites--or on the AdSense network as a whole. In other words, the advertiser could ease into AdSense by starting on a site of known quality instead of crossing its corporate fingers and launching a network-wide AdSense campaign.
The other concern is my natural sympathy for the small AdSense player who will get left out in the cold because no one knows about his site and even though he can convert really well he doesn't get 'included' because he doesn't have a name.
Anyways, I really hope Google is listening to these ideas, because I really do feel that the AdSense is fundamentally broken.
vengefull people deciding to get competitors kicked , even you had a case of some fraudulent activity on your site by someone a while ago
Those gaming the system by bots or click to make extra
I have even seen some on this board advocating creating a ring to pursue fraud
As an advertiser I believe we should be entitled to feel our spending is going to the correct people and provides ROI
I agree with some of your suggestions re: only specific sites etc.
Maybe one of the future enhancements could be report by top 10 domains per campaign for the clicks we pay for as I do not care where my adds are shown but do care who i am paying
I suspect the reason G would not do this is concern over cutting them out of the equation
steve
I suspect the reason G would not do this is concern over cutting them out of the equation.
Yes, I can see how that might concern them, but let's remember that:
1) Advertisers can see where their referrals are coming from (at least, I believe they can), so they can get a pretty good idea right now of which sites might be worth appproaching directly.
2) In many niches, advertisers have a pretty good idea of which sites are likely to be worth advertising on. (For example, if I've got a reasonably popular site on travel in the Mediterranean, the people who advertise hotels, resorts, villa rentals, etc. in Malta or Sardinia probably know about my site.)
3) For the advertiser, PPC advertising through Google is probably less risky (and easier to test and track) than negotiating a CPM or flat-rate sponsorship deal with an individual Web publisher.
No idea who is making me all this money :(
