Forum Moderators: martinibuster
1] Not all landing pages contain products for sale, so AdSense can be an alternative for the reader.
2] Not everyone who lands on products pages are actually looking for the products that are advertised on those pages, so why not offer an alternative that gives them what they are looking for.
3] By offering an alternative such as AdSense it can offer more confidence in the products you are offering. Viewers will have a choice, and probably feel that you are confident enough in your products to display alternatives.
4] AdSense may display price comparison sites, and the reader may decide to check you out, and come back and buy.
5] A good balance on any website provides a good user experience.
6] AdSense adverts vary on each new page opening, so offers a greater choice than pure affiliate ads.
7] Over 50% of my users add my main site to favourites, so AdSense ads certainly don't put them off.
8] Many e-commerce sites have pages offering products for sale by the general public, and for sale prices are not controlled by the website owner, so alternative ads can provide either a better or comparable solution.
9] The Google image is an excellent participant in a website, and adds to the overall prestige of a website.
10] The general public deserves the right to choose, and by having AdSense ads on a website they have one more factor to choose from.
I could go on and on, but the fact is that AdSense is as good for e-commerce as it is for information, travel, technology, science, or any other type of website, as long as it is used for the purposes it is intended.
Do many of the big e-commerce sites run AdSense ads (or third-party ads, period)? What about your biggest and strongest competitors?
To make a long story short, the question isn't whether AdSense ads are justified on an e-commerce site, or whether they work; it's whether the income gained from AdSense ads will offset any loss of consumer confidence and e-commerce income. To borrow an old expression, "perception = reality."
Fortunately, there's one way to find out if AdSense ads are a good idea on your e-commerce site: use A/B testing and monitor the results.
This is far from the truth. I run an e-commerce site that offers other peoples products/services for sale. I make nothing from them selling or advertising their stuff. But I do make money from alternative sources which I cannot discuss on here, although they are perfectly legal and above board, and also innovative. Part of the deal for those 3rd party sellers is that I am able to make money from those innovations AND AdSense or affiliate ads. Part of the deal is also that buyers have a CHOICE.
From the description of the revenue sources, that isn't an ecommerce business model as such, it's a hybrid. So the viability can't really be compared with the usual model of an ecommerce site, which is to sell their products.
Added:
Here's a thread discussing the definition of ecommerce [webmasterworld.com]
So are Forrester's figures skewed because they're mis-defining what ecommerce is? Indeed there are sites that specialize in promoting other people's stuff for sale. It's called affiliate marketing. Adsense is a very viable revenue source for an affiliate site, and if done tastefully with the user experience in mind can present valuable alternatives to them. But an affiliate site is not an ecommerce site.
[edited by: Marcia at 10:27 pm (utc) on May 27, 2007]
E-commerce refers to all forms of business activities conducted across the internet. This can include E-tailing, B2B, intranets and extranets, online advertising (eg. advertising banners), and simply online presences of any form that are used for some type of communication (customer service for example).
So, your comment, I assume, is a personal opinion:
the usual model of an ecommerce site, which is to sell their products
My understanding was that ecommerce is where transactions take place on the internet, regardless of their origins or termination.
But back to the point, which is that IMO AdSense has a place on ecommerce sites, whether they be direct sales, affiliate sales, 3rd party sales, and so on.
My understanding was that ecommerce is where transactions take place on the internet, regardless of their origins or termination.
Yes, but we aren't talking about e-commerce in a general way; we're talking about e-commerce sites (meaning sites that are devoted to e-commerce). If you're going to define any site with an affiliate link or an advertising link that ultimately results in a transaction as an "e-commerce site," then every site with AdSense ads is an e-commerce site, and the rationale for having this thread is hard to fathom.
Google Products [google.com]
Use of Adwords is expressly invited. For the account-holder's products.
Not the CPA networks or their sub-affiliates offering FREE stuff on squeeze pages to harvest email addies and have people jump through hoops completing multiple "offers" before they even begin to qualify.
The guy or gal who carries the product and sells the product and gets paid for it is the one who can sell their stuff on Google Products. Those are ecom sites.
There are other types of sites that are just fine for Adsense, including user-friendly affiliate sites who add value and make their aff partner merchants plenty of money and can often give Adwords advertisers a lot of bang for their buck. Same with user-friendly, genuine information sites.
But they're not ecom sites.
Those are not ecommerce sites.
I am not here to argue petty analogies as to what is and what isn't an ecmmerce website, and although I wholeheartedly disagree with your opinions. I will leave it at that.
The point of this thread is whether AdSense is viable on ecommerce websites.
The point of this thread is whether AdSense is viable on ecommerce websites.
I'd imagine the answer depends on the site. Why speculate when you can test?
Why speculate when you can test
I don't need to test EFV, as I KNOW it works. I give up on these threads sometimes, purely because of the innate responses from people who consider themselves so righteously correct at all times.
....probably why I kept out of here for over a year, before giving it a second go!
I don't need to test EFV, as I KNOW it works.
So you were just preaching, and you were just kidding when you asked "where are the cons"? :-)
If a visitor clicks more than 5 pages on my site, I disable the ads as the client is definately checking my site and has not landed by mistake.
I do not dispense adsense adds on adword landing pages.
Adsense is about 5% of my profit so a very significant diversification.
We have many niche sites that rank top 10 in thousands of keywords. It has never effected sales because we have the best pricing. It gives the consumer a way to compare and gives us a way to take some advertising money from our competitors at the same time.
Who said that, and where?
If an ecom merchant is selling goods at something like $3K-4K at keystone markup, if they're running ads for competitors, potential customers click on ads and then buy from one of those competitors, they've lost 50% gross profit a pop on each sale they didn't get. So they're losing not only a couple of thousand each, but they've lost the acquisition of what could be a lifetime repeat customer. Their loss = advertiser's gain.
Con #2:
Forget about running an affiliate program that'll attract high producing folks who know what they're doing. Nobody who knows better wants to send their hard-earned traffic to merchants for FREE to give away branding and send customers to leaky sites.
Con #3:
Another warning sign is that if a "merchant" is running adverts alongside their ecom offering, then they need the side income and it can be assumed their conversion rate isn't good enough to be worth putting up affiliate links for, since commission depends upon sales. Either that, or it's some white label affiliate site posing as a merchant to get FREE affiliate traffic to boost their contextual advertising income.
Forget about running an affiliate program that'll attract high producing folks who know what they're doing. Nobody who knows better wants to send their hard-earned traffic to merchants for FREE to give away branding and send customers to leaky sites.
"
Maybe true for you.. But I run affiliate programs and pay decent money for conversions. I get a lot of traffic from affiliates. Your comment may be true for very finicky webmasters but many, I thnk, don't have a problem.
I do ensure that adSense positioning on my website is not in the face.
Con #2: Eccomerce sites could choose to send traffic to another site for products they do not carry or sell but are similar. That is what we try to do and how we use our competive ad filter.
Con #3: Merchants do not neccassarily "need" that income. Its a good stream of additional revenue though. A lot of eccomerce sites do not neccasarily trust affiliate programs though and its easier to put adsense on their sites because of the trust of google and being familiar to how adwords works. I am not saying affiliates are bad, but google makes adsense very easy.
So you were just preaching, and you were just kidding when you asked "where are the cons"? :-)
I leave the preaching to people who have all day to spend on forums. I have very little time, hence the delayed response.
As for 'where are all the cons?', well that's a matter of choice for those who wish to follow that path. My way of thinking doesn't even relate to the negative side of placing affiliate or other ads, as per my opening message. I sometimes think people argue a point just for the sake of it, but at the end of the day have no real substance to their argument. However, I respect their opinions, regardless of whether I agree or not. So please respect mine :-)
The purpose of which was_____________________?
The purpose is to get intelligent reaction to an issue that has varying opinions.
The purpose is the same as many threads on here, which is to offer a perception and see what others think.
The purpose IS'NT to get 'I am right, and you are wrong' comments, as we all think differently. A justified and balanced argument is fine, but in a polite and mature fashion.
The purpose is the same as many threads on here, which is to offer a perception and see what others think.
And that's exactly what you got--along with the suggestion that A/B testing is the best way to learn whether AdSense is viable on any specific e-commerce site. Hypotheses are fine, but when it's possible to obtain empirical results, why not encourage members to put their preconceptions aside and do some testing?
It is always better to make statements of fact, followed up by solid evidence, as long as they are correct. To my mind, having read some of the threads, there are responses which seek confrontation rather than justification of the facts. My time is too precious for such argument, so I'll stop here.
BUT - when I go to an ecommerce site, which is one that sells stuff and can take my order through a shopping cart, I want to have confidence that it's a successful site backed by a solvent business in order to pull out the plastic and buy. If such a site is running Adsense, to me as a consumer it looks very small time, like they don't do well enough with sales to support their business and they need to run ads for a side income. Therefore, I don't have enough confidence to give my information, and I won't buy.
That's my perception as an everyday consumer; and perception = reality.
Do you have the same problem with Amazon or is it ok for them to run adSense ads because they are a big name? As a non typical, web savvy consumer, you really can't represent the AVERAGE guy.
This is the point, I and others are trying to make. I think, one must see things from the perspective of the average joe, who may actually associate trust and confidence with a website that is running ads by Google. I talk to many consumers who seem to sometimes think, that being associated with Google is a good thing and shows that the website is 'GOOD' and to be 'TRUSTED'. ;-)
Do you have the same problem with Amazon or is it ok for them to run adSense ads because they are a big name?
I know Amazon is an established company, and that if I order something from Amazon, the product will show up on my doorstep in a few days.
I don't know that fred-widget-seller.com, whose site I ran across is a Google search, is a legitimate, established company. In fact, I don't know anything about fred-widget-seller.com except that it came up in a Google search for "left-handed anodized widgets."
It's worth noting that the average Joes of the world go to sites like Amazon and eBay even when they're buying from small vendors because dealing with (or through) large, established companies gives them a feeling of confidence.
Still, as I said earlier, why rely on speculative arguments when A/B testing can provide a definitive answer to the question of whether the presence of AdSense ads will help or hurt revenues on a given e-commerce site?
