Forum Moderators: martinibuster
*Note I’m talking about paid publicity for the AdSense program by Google, not the Ads we all serve with AdSense.
I shudder to think of 100,000 more people signing up.
>>I shudder to think of 100,000 more people signing up.
Do you shudder from a publisher (ad server) perspective, or from a ppc ad purchasing (opt-in to content match) perspective?
Love – Hate for me.
I have a feeling, as you assert, that this has much to do about capturing market share as quickly as possible, as others will shortly be on G's heels. And as you suggest, deal with the problems later.
Yet, this is a calculated risk worth taking ~ I would say that from an operational standpoint, this is not an overtly complicated business model. Systems and support need to be in place, but whether we are talking about 50K ad publishers or 500K ad publishers, systems should easy scale. Support may be a thorn in G's side, however, with publishers making money and clever automation, there is an inherent lessening of customer issues.
I think that G management and investment teams see the stars when they look at the scalability of the AdSense operation model. My concerns are less about the ability of G to maintain there growing position and more to do with:
a common bidding structure between content and serp ads, publisher fraud, and the degradation of quality as the network continues to increase in size.
a common bidding structure between content and serp ads
A bigger issue may be a common bidding structure for all kinds of "content ads" (e.g., everything from quality niche editorial sites to database-generated junk pages to parked domains).
publisher fraud
I doubt if publisher fraud is any more of a problem than the fraud that PPI networks have had to deal with all along (e.g., advertisers clicking on competitors' ads).
the degradation of quality as the network continues to increase in size.
Degradation of quality is a threat, but not because of the network's growth. The real issue is the network's lack of selectivity. Nearly anyone can join, and once a publisher has an account, he can slap his AdSense code on other sites indiscriminately. That would be a concern for advertisers even if AdSense stopped its recruiting efforts tomorrow and declared a moratorium on new accounts.
A bigger issue may be a common bidding structure for all kinds of "content ads" (e.g., everything from quality niche editorial sites to database-generated junk pages to parked domains).
Exactly. As you mentioned earlier, if adsense is not going to be more selective about this, I'd like to see some tiers made available for publisher sites.
that this has much to do about capturing market share as quickly as possible
Isn't that the new mandate since 1980 with AOL as the poster child?
Make the product just good enough so that nobody quits, but no better, and spend all the rest of your resources building a dominant critical mass.
I was so amazed, yet enlightened, when I read that one of Bill Gates's key tactics to making MS-DOS dominant, was to promise to every PC manufacturer that he would be able to deliver them a compatible version of the O/S, when it was obvious he didn't have the resources to commit to serviing a fraction of the manufacturers.
However, it did lock out his competitors from making inroads, and slow them down.
Thanks.
So has google peaked in the world of search engines? I keep hearing about the "next" thing in search and it's not google anymore...(Teoma, Yahoo comeback, etc...)
Can't be. The vast majority of the world still isn't even on the Internet yet. Admittedly most of the wealthier nations are, but still, most of the world isn't.
Thanks.
Yeah, it's a split answer. In the US, Google may have well just found the downside of the bell curve. But that doesn't appear to be the case in Europe just yet. Note however that the old delay between what has happened in the US making it to the rest of the web has been shortened substantially over the past 2 years --wait and see, I guess.
IMHO a great number of adwords advertisers are clue-less about their campaigns. I'm speaking of all facets including copy, targetting, and distribution. Even worse, are large campaigns run by thrid parties here the interests of the advertiser and the media-buyer diverge.
As the entire Google advertising system grows, expenditures will become more significant and advertisers will have incentive to figure out what they are doing. As experience replaces ignorance, I believe more advertisers will opt-out of content distribution and work to lower their CPCs.
As the entire Google advertising system grows, expenditures will become more significant and advertisers will have incentive to figure out what they are doing. As experience replaces ignorance, I believe more advertisers will opt-out of content distribution and work to lower their CPCs.
I have to agree. I have seen the numbers from both sided--ad buyer and publisher. I was a huge, huge AdSense supporter, but the numbers just do not lie.
Still, there are going to be pockets--politics, for one--where AdSense will work well for marketers. But, is this going to be the best value for the publishers?
That is to say, publishers of political news are going to deserve (or, at least want) a higher price than what AdSense has been paying. Now, in a hot market, the bid should drive the rates up. But, that's not happening yet since there are only a few players in the niches.
The price of the ad should be the value to the marketer, not one cent more than the overall market.
Anyway, rainmaker, I can confirm that I got email from Google offering me AdSense ads on web sites getting less than 2000 unique visitors/ 5000 hits a month. (I had registered with G when their program started just to see what would happen.)
and with Y!O about to launch their version of AdSense, look for this war for ad distribution reach to heat up even more.
Any details available about the Y!O version of Adsense, and when it is coming?
In other words, Overture says: We'll call you, don't call us.
Um, SiteMatch [webmasterworld.com] ...?
Overture released "ContentMatch" some time ago. Overture's syndication, however, is largely through its own network of properties. Beyond retaining 100% of the on SERP ppc dollar, this is why O and Y are a marriage made in heaven ~ because Y is a vast content network and contextual ad serving base ~ neatly augmenting on serp ad serving.
Indeed, O's posturing to this point has been a little different from G's with statements like:
~"We're not going to go for very wide distribution," Demas said. "If you're an advertiser, do you really want to be on someone's blog?"
~Demas pointed out that Content Match relied heavily on Overture's editorial team, which numbers over 100, to avoid poor matches that a technology-dependant approach inevitably produces. As an example, he said a story about a person stabbed to death could easily carry knife advertisements.
~"We're combining three sets of characteristics: advanced technology, superior editorial mapping, and customized implementation," he said.
~Overture has high hopes for the contextual advertising, which it reckons could be a $2 billion market in five years.
SiteMatch appears to be the publisher side of ContentMatch. The extent to which this is rolled out to the masses is the only question. To this point, it appears as though O will continue to rely on editors and strive for quality not quanitity.
When will it be ready for publishers at large, it is still anyones guess, but we do know that O is loosing market share with each passing day. And my quess is that we will see a consumer driven product in the next couple months.
One of the neat aspects of O's current ContentMatch is that you *can* bid differently for content ads versus serps ads. The most interesting thing will be the extent to which Y!O will disclose cpc data to publishers, the extent to which they will allow publishers to see data accross mutiple channels (pages, sites, etc) and the editorial guidlines for approval as a publisher ~ these may be the only factors that seperate the programs in the end.
The ideal network for advertisers, IMHO, would be one that combined human site selection with automated contextual targeting of ads--and "AdSense Select," so to speak.
