Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Are MFA's hurting AdWords?
-Google has lots of advertising space with AdSense.
-Google needs more advertisers.
-Google lowers advertiser bids to 1 penny.
-More advertisers = more clicks = more money for Google.
Ok. So to me, MFA's help Google - all the way around. Still no surprises here, right?
Can Google's strategy backfire?
-advertisers leave AdWords.
-publishers leave AdSense.
-webites quit clicking Google ads.
Yes, some advertisers may leave Google over MFA's but by and large AdWords is still one of the best - if not the best - CPC programs around. A relative few advertisers leaving will simply create a vacuum for new advertisers or advertisers already in the system bidding just a few cents lower. Will advertisers leave on a large scale? Probably not. The big dollars are spent and gathered 100% by Google on the Search Network. It is relatively MFA immune and has a reputation for good ROI. On the other hand, lots of small fry with low bids could leave AdWords and never make a dent because in most of the better industries their ads go almost exclusively to the content network and there are a great many advertisers there with lower bids waiting to take their places.
Will publishers leave AdSense because of MFA's?
-And go where? Are you serious? As far as I can tell, you leave AdSense when Google tells you to...
Website visitors will stop clicking Google ads because of MFA's?
-This is a possibility if visitors begin analyzing and remembering ads the way that unhappy webmasters do... but they could just remember the crappy website that showed them the useless ads and not go there again (wow!... I'd better make sure I have a website that visitors find worthwhile!).
-Ad blindness due to the huge amount of ads showing might affect webpage ads. It happened to the banner ads in the old days, didn't it? Well, I used to see some of those ads but they had little relevancy to my circumstances. I can't remember even clicking one in all my years on the Internet (since 1995). Many ads I never saw because the ad servers were always slow and the webpage loaded first. It was very easy to scroll down (or click out) and never see the flashing, bouncing, wiggling ads. I don't see the banner ad era as a good comparison to today's contextual ads.
So, what do we have? Even in spite of - or because of - Google's MFA strategy, Google's making good bucks and that's a good thing for most of us publishers and advertisers. Do we like MFA's? Nope. Do we like taxes? Nope. We DO like money though and will say and do almost anything to keep it coming. But, you had to know that the goose would eventually begin to fudge on the quality of all those golden eggs, didn't you? Well, didn't you?
1) Google is the only serious player acting globally right now. YPN is still very much US focused, and Adcenter is still in beta (I believe). As long as there is no competition, people will stay with Google.
2) Google have a smoothly running product right now. Even if competitiors show up, they still have to be better than Google and prove it! This means to offer a better ROI to advertisers (i.e. cheaper clicks or better conversion), or to offer a better revenue for publishers (i.e. higher EPC and/or higher CTR). Better tools will also be appreciated by the publisher community, but at the end of the day these are just enablers to reach the goal of "better revenue".
3) Google are still market leader in PPC advertising. As such, they are trusted more than a newcomer, even if it's a big brand newcomer. They have got the inventory, and they have got the tools in place to run the program.
4) It takes time to migrate from Adsense/Adwords to alternative programs. Yes, for some webmasters it may be a problem to simply move to another program (while for others, this may be easy).
I am still very much hoping for Y! and MS getting their act together and finally release their products. Main reason being that Google will then have to get out of their lethargy offering us better tools.
Personally, I like Google, and I like the Adsense program, and I like the income it provides. I will probably stay with them because the whole environment is comfortable.
However, the lack of response to even the most basic requests (e.g. bigger/better filters and stats) is seriously bad. Somehow I can't get rid of the feeling that Google actively prevents me from earning more money by refusing to provide these tools! I account this behaviour to the fact that the system is very favourable for Google and they simply do not need to act right now. They are running a monopoly. So why should they change the system?
