Forum Moderators: martinibuster
The Google algo must consider many variables besides bidding price before determining placement. On the assumption that Google probably makes no distinction regarding the quality of an advertisers site, poorly paying yet well well targeted MFA's (from an bots view) may be assumed to be more relevant (thus more benificial to the publisher) because it has the potential to attract more attention.
Yet I know from a human point of view when reading some of these well targeted ads, red flags are flying everywhere as they obviously smell like MFA's or spam traps.
I can hear the other side of the arguement regarding my premise of low paying MFA's being flawed. However that begs the question: How do MFA's make a profit if they do not keep costs low when trying to attract traffic through adwords? I have visited some of these MFA's and they contain identical ads to my own plus the MFA ads that I had previously barred from my site.
[edited by: Scurramunga at 11:23 pm (utc) on Feb. 27, 2006]
Could this sort of thing skew that QS equation?
Big issue is that a lot of these MFAs (can)write pretty crafty and deceptive ads, so they generate high CTR.Could this sort of thing skew that QS equation?
That may be part of the problem skewing the equation, proving the point that MFA's are best cleaned up rather than left unchecked. However reading through the Google info it mentions this as a criteria for determing QS "... the quality of your ad's landing page.." .
I don't understand how Google determins the quality of the advertisers landing page, however it begs the question; how is it then that some of these MFA's get away with what they do considering some of the shoddy landing pages and lack of real content most of these MFA's have?
On the other hand, if an ad has a 1% CTR and pays $0.75 per click, the eCPM is $7.50.
So even when an advertiser bids more per click, it isn't necessarily to your benefit. The auction works to the benefit of publishers by ensuring the highest paying combination of ads always appear on your site.
I hear what you are saying regarding the system taking into consideration which ads have potential for paying higher by sucess rate rather than simply which ones carry the higher bid.
However, putting MFA'a aside for one moment, does it mean that (obviously mismatched) ads such as 'get your lunar landing at ebay' are potentially good earners even if they do not seem useful from the publishers perspective?
I'm glad you're here and participate in some of these discussions, but your participation leaves me baffled sometimes. This thread, after all, is discussing MFA's, something that is supposed to be against the AdSense terms, yet that doesn't seem to concern you. Or at least that's the impression I get.
I'm sure you must see all the discussions about MFA's, concern about them frustrating visitors who click on one of their ads and end up at a page with just more ads, concern about MFA's advertisements showing up in AdSense displays, etc.
And then there is the frustration that has been expressed by people who have reported such sites yet the sites remain with AdSense showing.
You provided a link to a page that explains how Ad Rank is determined, is there such a page that explains AdSense's position on these MFA sites and what if anything is being done about them? The silence is deafening.
Thanks,
FarmBoy
July 4 took the decision to block the crap. Immediate result was that ctr dropped to a third, but income remained stable. I then saw a steady rise in epc and earnings and have never looked back! I continue to block MFA's, and continue to have financial success.
My personal opinion is that the algorythm is seriously flawed, and has holes wide enough to sail a battleship through. It's clearly geared to poorly focussed middling sites that don't care what ads show. It's NOT geared to sites that are focussed, well visited and provide serious potential customers for serious advertisers - it should be though. The only way to correct the serious flaws in the algorythm are to block MFA's.
It's also my impression that the algorythm isn't capable of learning. If it's spent any time looking at what ads show on my site, what ads get clicked, and what ads actually earn Googe money it certainly doesn't show. It's a constant battle to STOP Google removing well paying ads and replacing them with scummy MFA's.
We need better tools from Google to deal with the problems caused by Google's policies and faulty algorythms.
Come on Google - get your head out of the sand, realise you have a problem and deal with it!
Unless you can define exactly where the thing is that you are trying to kill you are just thrashing around in the dark.
For example, the ebay ads. These are in a class by themselves. Where most MFAs are clones sold to newbie innocents as a get-rich-quick scheme, the ebay ones look to me like corporate branding.
I suspect they're not there to get clicked on, they are there to be seen - just advertising the brand name. I bet they have a high CPC and a very low CTR.
Pity you can't see exactly what each ad is paying.
It's a constant battle to STOP Google removing well paying ads and replacing them with scummy MFA's.....We need better tools from Google
Yes. Logistically it might be a little too much for us to expect Google to keep on top of the situation. However if google would just let us help by providing more suitable tools, then it would go a long way.
Pity you can't see exactly what each ad is paying.
Having a feature enabling the publisher to set a threshold for a minimum bid would be nice.
