Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I see they are now ranking PPA ads based on performance, even if it's only stars.
The improvements are nice, but PPA is still not there yet in my opinion. I think Google still has a bit of work to do and the advertisers have a lot of work to do.
FarmBoy
I've got 'em on one of my pages. Get about 30-40 clicks per day, but usually the only conversions are Google products.
I'm having trouble finding offers that motivate me to give up PPC space for a PPA ad.
As I've written previously, I think a forum where advertisers and publishers can interact would go a long ways towards letting advertisers know what will attract publishers to their ads and vice versa.
I'll offer ClickBank as somewhat of an analogy. There is an active forum where merchants and affiliates can exchange information, tips, etc. It's third party operated.
There is an opportunity for someone with the time to develop something similar for AdSense PPA publishers and advertisers. Hint. Hint.
FarmBoy
I'm having trouble finding offers that motivate me to give up PPC space for a PPA ad.
Understandable. I put them someplace I didn't have ANY ads before, as an experiment. The conversions for the Google products aren't too bad - but the buttons they are using now are *horrid*. I hate having them on my site. I submitted a question to support about it, and after three or four "hold on, I've sent it to the engineers, we'll get back to you" type messages, I was finally told that they had no answer, couldn't figure it out and and couldn't give me an estimate on when they could.
(!)
I still think the idea behind this is good - they just need to work on the implementation. Some of the ads are *really* bad.
I have had good luck with the google pack but thats it. In fact i had been running banner ads for a type of lead that generated great CTR but lousy conversions that i chalked it up to network or advertiser "tracking problems". So when i saw that g had the same ads but as text ads, i saw dollar signs, assuming g wouldn't be as shady at tracking. But CTR is virtually non-existant, i even stuck a block right in the highest paying ad slot for 2-3 days and recieved a few clicks and no conversions. Where ever i stick them its the same story. I just wish the advertiser would bring the banner ads over from the other network and could do some actual a/b testing. Until then i have them just filling space untill i find something else to fill in.
I also applied to have the PPA ability activated in my Adwords account right after it was released and have never heard back. So hopefully they are still working out the kinks.
Isn't it against the TOS for advertisers and publishers to "officially" interact?
There are advertisers posting here on the AdSense board and there are publishers posting on the AdWords forum. The WW rules prohibit specific discussions and tend towards the generalities, but my point is there is no way Google can prevent advertisers and publishers from sharing ideas on message forums.
I've posted my thoughts to PPA advertisers on the AdWords forum. I'm really a bit surprised that more of them haven't come over here to the AdSense board to ask why publishers aren't promoting their PPA offers with more enthusiasm.
FarmBoy
Me, I'm on both sides - I'm an advertiser for clients, and an advertiser and publisher for myself.
Maybe we should start an item over there specifically for this? Or did you do that already?
You can read my post at the bottom of the first page in this thread - [webmasterworld.com...]
The advertisers didn't seem very interested. Maybe a fresh thread over there would get more attention.
FarmBoy
Expanded product inventory: While many of you have had success referring one of our Google products, some of you weren't able to find a product that fit the context of your site. Referrals 2.0 offers products from thousands of AdWords advertisers, so you can find the right ads for your sites.
...on the AdSense blog and go check the "expanded products inventory" in my category.
To say it was disappointing is a major understatement.
Are there any guidelines for what categories advertisers can place their ads in? It doesn't look like it judging by the mis-categorized ads on the list in my category.
Very disappointing.
But it looks pretty much the same as it used to. Is this something new that everyone is getting? 2.0?
The change I noticed was the much expanded inventory.
I wonder where they found all those new advertisers so fast?
FarmBoy
I wonder where they found all those new advertisers so fast?
not surprising. advertisers are crazy about ppa options as they have the full benefit. secure income, free branding and not a cent to lose on ppc. marketing risk distribution completely to the disadvantage of the publisher.
the problem will be to find enough - and i say dumb - publishers to join the program and sacrifice their valuable ad space. see, you have to actively promote the products for the advertisers, you are a kind of outsourced sales department. compared to ppc, it will pay off for the fewest.
The interest seems to be there, but they're not landing the fish.
Or, the advertisers aren't really trying to land the fish on the intial visit.
We stuck with the Beta for a couple months, very dissapointing, but the reason I pulled all the PPA ads in the end was fear that Google was feeding it back into the quality score for our account and depressing our overall EPC. Unless Google makes clear that 2.0 has ZERO effect on standard Adsense, we're staying away.
This past March, we launched a referrals beta to test the feature and iron out some wrinkles. Now that we've finished our testing, we're pleased to announce that referrals 2.0 will soon be available to all AdSense publishers in referrals-supported languages.While some of you may already be familiar with referrals for Google products, this launch will greatly expand the inventory and functionality of referrals for AdSense publishers.
UPDATE: Clarified that referrals 2.0 is currently only available in referrals-supported languages
[adsense.blogspot.com...]
but the FAQ says that one may NOT use PPC traffic to drive sales. I wonder why?
Part of my traffic is PPC so I am out... or what.
fear that Google was feeding it back into the quality score for our account and depressing our overall EPC. Unless Google makes clear that 2.0 has ZERO effect on standard Adsense, we're staying away.
Our referrals product managers confirmed that referrals 2.0 won't hurt your AFC performance or stats, and has no affect on smart pricing. So please feel free to experiment with referral ads on your sites and find out what works for you.
-ASA
I wonder where they found all those new advertisers so fast?not surprising. advertisers are crazy about ppa options as they have the full benefit
I wasn't questioning why advertisers would use PPA, I was questioning why so many new advertisers seem to surface so fast. I've been checking the PPA ads about every week and all of a sudden there seems to be a lot of new advertisers.
The interest seems to be there, but they're not landing the fish.
Yep. As I've pointed out previously, I think a big part of that is the landing page issue.
you have to actively promote the products for the advertisers, you are a kind of outsourced sales department. compared to ppc, it will pay off for the fewest.
PPA is basically like an affiliate program and good affiliate programs can work to the benefit of both publisher and advertiser.
Advertisers have to learn how to get the sale on the landing page and offer an appropriate compensation to the publisher. Otherwise, they aren't going to get traffic from publishers. The chicken has to come before the egg.
FarmBoy
>>thousands of products available
I've only got Google products, no others. And yes, the sites are all in English.
not surprising. advertisers are crazy about ppa options as they have the full benefit. secure income, free branding and not a cent to lose on ppc. marketing risk distribution completely to the disadvantage of the publisher.
Actually, Google is functioning in the role of "trusted 3rd party network" with this, as far as making inventory available and providing the tracking, but with other, traditional type networks, the ability to directly negotiate on terms with advertisers for percentages and return days is still available. It isn't at all an unusual practice, when sending regular sales to a merchant, to arrange with them for a private offer.
free branding
[edited by: Marcia at 1:20 pm (utc) on June 30, 2007]
Do they just look like affiliate banners for products or specific advertisers?
They look like regular AdSense ads.
Another disadvantage I can foresee (though I haven't seen what the program is like) is lack of control in product choices.
You can choose to promote only those ads/products you like.
FarmBoy
I found the interface simple to use.
Found 3 products easily and slapped the ads on the appropriate pages.
I'll try 3 for now and expand/contract based on performance.
Thank you. Now I know just how to run the numbers in advance, sight unseen.
Linkshare stats for vendors:
Number of impressions
Number of clicks (CTR by %)
Number of sales (% of clicks/sales)
Individual items report
Non-commissionable sales report
So if there's some history already available of which products being "promoted" for different vendors are selling (also comparing with comparable CJ and SAS conversions) and about how long the average click to sale cycle is, and how they're being promoted, based on estimating probabilities of Google Referrals as being somewhat related to the "normal" regular Adsense CTR for a given site, it should make the choice relatively easy.
