Arbitrage

Are they saying they are ok with it now?

[Khensu]

Adsense Help >

Monetization and ads

If you want to purchase traffic to your site

Down a few paragraphs.

"For example, if you advertise using Google Ads, you could set up an AdSense channel called "Google Ads" to track the AdSense activity coming only from your Google Ads campaigns."

Are they saying it is OK again? Or are they just jerking my chain to see if I'll do it?

Maybe they decided they have lost enough money?

Khensu

[pubpolicycomms]

The only difference between this language and the language posted on that same page from 2016 is to reflect a name change (Google Ads vs. Google AdWords). Otherwise, all of the content remains the same. They're probably not 'jerking your chain', and certainly not pivoting in messaging: [web.archive.org...]

[NickMNS]

I don't think that buying advertising to promote your "Adsense" monetized site was ever not allowed. But there is a significant difference between buying "advertising" and engaging in "arbitrage". In theory, and mostly in practice, it should not be profitable to buy ads and in turn sell ads on a landing page and make a direct profit*. AdSense takes a 32% cut off the top, so you need to sell your ads ads at a 47% premium just to break even and that is assuming 100% CTR. Thus what arbitrage entails is buying users for very low cost and at very high volumes. If this were legitimately possible, the opportunity wouldn't last very long. So generally, buying high volumes of users at low cost entails some shady business which will get you bend from AdSense.

In short buying ads to promote your AdSense site in fine, Arbitrage will likely get you band.

*Direct profit, by this I mean buy an ad, user clicks on the ad goes to you website, clicks on an ad there thus making you money.
It may be possible to make a profit by buying ads to promote your site in the hopes of acquiring new users that will return frequently and occasionally click on ads, as a result of several ad clicks over some period the cumulative revenue would offset the cost of the purchased ad thus resulting in a profit.

[robzilla]

Or are they just jerking my chain to see if I'll do it?

Maybe they decided they have lost enough money?

Next time, see if you can just ask the question plainly, without jumping to (and voicing) such wild conclusions. This reduces the unnecessarily negative and antagonistic vibe that's unfortunately so pervasive (yet unhelpful) these days, especially in discussions concerning Google. It's a perfectly valid main question, after all, because "arbitrage" is a bit of a gray area, but you're less likely to be taken seriously this way. As you can tell from the rather definitive answers above, the truth is usually a little more commonsensical. Let's try to stay objective.

[matbennett]

Arbitrage isn't forbidden, but it definitely attracts closer scrutiny because of the bad practices it can encourage. Ad stuffing, deceptive placements, thin content, unoriginal content are all practices that can make arb more profitable in the short term, but can cause publishers to fall foul of policy.

[Khensu]

Grays upon grays upon grays, not a sharp line in the sand.

robzilla that is why I asked the question in such a drastic format, it was to illicit a wide spectrum of responses. I am an intellectual and can appreciate your distain in the verbiage and tone.

What happened to do no evil? It is more like let's do as much subtle evil and trickery as we can.

matbennett, point taken, proceed at your own risk. Walking on hot coals would be the metaphor. All original unique content, one ad but a lucrative popular niche.

Nick interesting math but I operate on a 2 to 1 ratio $1,000 in $2,000 out or multiples. Extremely cheap traffic doesn't convert well and would naturally flag you. Moderately doing it is the key, greed will destroy you.

pubpolicycomms thanks, so nothing changed just status quo.

Sorry I haven't been here for a while guys but I do appreciate your input.

[pubpolicycomms]

The context of that page is designed to help publishers identify which sources of traffic within their network are problematic. The page begins with: "You’re welcome to promote your site in any manner that complies with our program policies. However, AdSense publishers are ultimately responsible for the traffic to their ads...." The rest of the content on that page is around how to mitigate invalid traffic sources, including the segmentation example you cite, to isolate and identify invalid traffic. Context of the complete page is important here: [support.google.com...]

[iamlost]

Of course they allow a site to buy their ads for traffic to click their ads... they are in the ad selling business after all.

As with many/most things webdev and business some folks made/make a big deal (because they were selling snake oil) about the wondrous riches of AdWords/AdSense arbitrage and Google needed to stop the rapid upsurge of idjits complaining after throwing their money away; didn’t want the regulators to step in...

Yes, a very quiet very few, back when (these days I haven’t a clue) did well however the noisy promoters mostly did not (at least not from the claimed arbitrage). The give away clue being that not a single one of those waving large AdSense cheque’s at the camera ever showed their corresponding AdWords bill.

Marketing to gain converting traffic that gains ad and affiliate revenue is not arbitrage. Google arbitrage is the spread between buying of AdWords and the consequent selling of AdSense for a reasonable ROI. And it was and is mostly a myth.

Not that Google will stop you, just as casinos will not stop you playing roulette.

[Khensu]

Blackjack iamlost, no calculations in roulette.

And it was and is mostly a myth. haha

2003>2008 $10,000 a month Adwords > $20,000 Adsense + $5,000 Organic $15,000 per month net for 5 years (of course it slowed in summer and Christmas)

During the entire life of the site I ballpark it at $1M+ net. Killed by the housing crash, sold for $50K in 2009.

So the take away that I get is to gradually pepper the organic traffic and the already established paid traffic gradually with a low volume of Google ads as to gently hide and grow it in the mix.

This is a totally different site and concept I have now.

[iamlost]

:)

Ah, that is the difference, you see. As I mentioned a very few very quiet ‘blackjack counters’ calculated their way to (semi-)riches (congratulations by the way) most of whom, in my experience, as you, could have survived at a decent wage without the arbitrage play. Competence will out.

Most who listen(ed) to, read the siren hucksters of arbitrage built MFA wholly AdWords sourced (negligible organic) traffic - the paint by numbers roulette players. They put down thousands, tens of thousands and rarely broke even, more often than not their AdWords bills were 5-10% more than their AdSense cheques.

The same disconnect between those who quietly clean up and those who loudly go bust is as alive and well today. As are the sellers of treasure maps...

The game, and the con, are both afoot.
—-with apologies to both Shakespeare and Conan Doyle

[Khensu]

iamlost,

My family own a bookstore in NYC for 4 generations and things are afoot.

You are correct, everything is in the nuance of the long ball.

The subtlety of the Blackjack player vs the garishness of the Roulette betting.

I love this place, the Adsense publisher hive mind.

All that contributed here created a very astute 3D picture of the parameters of the situation.

My thanks everyone!

First rule about Arbitrage is don't talk about Arbitrage.