AdSense on large ecom sites

Why are they doing that? Better ROI?

[micklearn]

I went looking to buy a few things online over the last few days. Typed the URLs directly, no search engines involved...but on each of the sites I visited (big name stores in the U.S.) they all were displaying AdSense ads that all lead to sites that they compete with. Is that a more profitable way of doing business these days?

[netmeg]

Not to my mind. I won't even take on an ecommerce client who complains about conversion problems but still wants to run AdSense. You spend all kinds of money trying to get people to your site and buy your products, only to send them off via a few AdSense pennies. I know they figure if the user is leaving anyway, might as well get that twenty or thirty cents on the way out, but geezopete.

[jimbeetle]

Gotta' agree with netmeg here, I wouldn't use AdSense on an ecom site either. But I do use it, where appropriate, on my affiliate sites. They don't have the same overhead as ecom sites and many times a click on an AdSense ad is better than a click on an affiliate link.

[toidi]

I have a local services site that i put adsense on just to make it look professional. All the big brand sites i compete with have ads, so it has become what the consumers expect to see. Goes against every grain in my body.

[ember]

i put adsense on just to make it look professional.

I'm not sure ads make any site look professional.

[micklearn]

It really seemed odd seeing AdSense ads on these major retailer sites. The more I've thought about it, I've wondered if they're prepaid deals between the parties involved. It's nuts to put/allow ads to your competitors on your site.

[matbennett]

Big stores like Amazon, Target & Best buy do this for one reason: It makes them more money than not doing it. They are not naive players. They've done the sums and it stacks up.

It's about monetising every visit. Studies show that customers likely to convert are unlikely to deviate from that due to the presence of display ads. Conversely those who weren't going to make you any money might if you have display ads in place. Done well the result is a higher return.

You need to pick you positions well, and you can of course block competitors if you wish. It's interesting that some of the most switched on players don't though. Online shopping patterns are different to offline. People will usually visit multiple stores in order to be sure that they have a good price. One theory is that, if they are going to do that anyway, why not take some money of the competition whilst they do it? Similarly many stores find good results by displaying advertising to users exhibiting patterns of not having found what they wanted (end of category pages, deep search results etc).

Amazon are on record saying that display ads allow them to lower prices. That makes them more competitive and INCREASES conversion rate. A very different picture to the idea of customers fleeing via the links in ads.

It's not right for every e-com site of course, but it's an option that should be tested rather than dismissed.

I gave a talk related to this last year. That was more aimed at the idea of mid-sized players using display to fund additional PPC spend (Sounds mad. Isn't entirely). The slides are online at [slideshare.net...] if anyone is interested. That version is a bit UK orientated (as we're behind the US on this), but it should make sense. Slide 29 onwards for the parts most relevant to the above.

Interesting fact (source quoted in the slides above): 8 out of the top 10 online retailers in the US use on-site monetisation of some form.

I know it is still a contentious topic and I'll probably get flamed. The evidence stands up to it though.

"I won't even take on an ecommerce client who complains about conversion problems but still wants to run AdSense"

Send them my way :)

[GreyBeard123]

I have a local services site that i put adsense on just to make it look professional. All the big brand sites i compete with have ads, so it has become what the consumers expect to see. Goes against every grain in my body.

I don’t think that’s clever.
But it will be very clever if you use adwords, to advertise your site, on all those big sites..

[toidi]

I agree that it does not look very professional to have ads on my site, but i can not ignore the world around me. I sell rea! es!ate and the only sites that do not have ads are the little sites. All the big brands have ads. The people on my site have already been to the brand sites ergo they expect to see ads. It is very possible that the public sees ads as a verification of quality, trust, and authority because an adveriser is not going to put thier ads on some podunk nothing site. My ability to have ads on my site proves my sites worthiness? We will see.

I am experimenting with it and even though i am disappointed with the quality of the ads, it has not hurt my conversions.

[GreyBeard123]

@ toidi
Apologies if I offended...

In my part of the world neither the biggest ecommerce stores (our local Amazon/Wal-Mart equivalents) nor the rea! es!ate firms that dominate the first page of Google, use adsense.

Some advertise partners (such as banks), but no adsense at all, thus I can only presume that businesses in the US look differently at adsense compared to businesses in other parts of the world.

[toidi]

No problem! None of the real es!ate firms here run ads either but the big portals all run ads and right now they are the center of my attention. If they start crapping their pants i will have to give it a try.

The big sites must get paid more for clicks than i do because the pay out is a joke. I feel for those who depend on ad clicks.

I tried the adwords some years ago and the click fraud was more than i could take.

[engine]

It's not right for every e-com site of course, but it's an option that should be tested rather than dismissed.

That's correct.

The Amazon example is one of the best to show how it works for the business. I have also seen many poor examples which cheapen the look of the site and it doesn't always build confidence. Amazon has built its reputation so it's easier for it to use the ads.

I've also seen some great examples of ads that were the retailer's own running on the site. Probably from its own inventory, rather than AdSense/AdWords. No clicks sent elsewhere.

[matbennett]

I've also seen some great examples of ads that were the retailer's own running on the site. Probably from its own inventory, rather than AdSense/AdWords. No clicks sent elsewhere.

Retailers are increasingly using ad servers to intelligently serve a mix of network, POS and house ads into the same slots depending on the visitor profile.

[GreyBeard123]

I've also seen some great examples of ads that were the retailer's own running on the site. Probably from its own inventory, rather than AdSense/AdWords. No clicks sent elsewhere.

Now, that makes sense to me