Traffic from Adwords - Revenue from Adsense

Is this possible?

[Noximus]

Hi All,
One of My sites has good rankings in google; I have traffic from ordinary SERPs. I placed adsense ads on my site long ago and since then I have quite good revenue from my site. On the same serps, I've noticed that some people have placed adword ads in google and promote very strange sites, imagine a site which consists of several (no more then 10) pages and the only content which is placed on them is adsense with the several sentences of text. This lasts about three months.
The question is that how this is possible being profitable this kind of sites when the traffic is driven from adwords, I know for sure that on the keywords on which this strange guys are bidding cost about 5 dollars/click. On my site I get about 0.3$/click for the same ads which are placed in serps besides the strange guys. So this guys to have profit have to pay 5$ per click and receive about 20 clicks of the adsense. How this is possible I can’t imagine. Do they work on loss? for three months? Do you have any idea about what is happening? I researched a little and found some adwords ads like them on other keywords. There is some game for sure, but what a game?

[Noximus]

Don't you have any idea? :(

[humblebeginnings]

If folks here don't have any idea, they say:
"That's a good question!".
If nobody replies it usually means they think you first should read some other posts in this forum...

[hunderdown]

Do you read this thread?

[webmasterworld.com...]

[Noximus]

Yes, I read that thread, but I don't think this is the issue. My case is : I know for sure that the adwords click costs about 5.00$/click, andsense pays about 0.30$/click for the same Ad. So how is it possible to make a visitor click about 20 time per visit. THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE. Maximum is about 1-3 clicks per visitor. I believe that there is some trick and they make adsense pay not 0.30$ but about 10-20 times more. But how?

[Buzliteyear]

Noximus,

This tactic of using .03 AdWords ads to drive traffic to a page receiving dollar clicks has been discussed here and other forums extensively.

Theoritically, it should work. Some even claimed to be pulling it off successfully.

Then came Smart Pricing.

With maybe a very few exceptions, not too many are pulling this off successfully.

As far as speculating on why someone would spend so much to drive traffic to a page with AdSense paying just pennies, who knows? The answer may lie in other things that the site offers or sells.

[hunderdown]

Or they actually are NOT paying what you think they are. They have found a related keyword that will put them on the same page for much less.

[Noximus]

Just found the same strange sites on about 30-50$/click keywords, but unfortunatly I don't know how much pays adsense for them, but the case is the same.

[Noximus]

hunderdown,
I checked it myself in adwords, they pay about 5.00 USD per click on the keywords which I monitor.

[humblebeginnings]

Noximus,

"I know for sure that on the keywords on which this strange guys are bidding cost about 5 dollars/click."

Can I ask how did you make sure these guys are paying 5 bucks per click?

[jomaxx]

I don't think it's possible to determine what bidders are actually paying, and I doubt very much anyone with a pure AdSense site is really paying 5 dollars a click.

[humblebeginnings]

Noximus,

Adwords does not show you how much someone pays for a keyword. It shows you a minimum bid that applies to your specific situation (your campaigns, your keywords, your ad-copy, your CTR, etcetera).
It doesn't tell you anything about what someone else is paying for that keyword.

[Noximus]

jomaxx, humblebeginnings ,
I don't have adwords account, I just when enter to research keywords at adwords, I see approximate cost of the keyword per click on certain place of ad. Am I wrong?

[Noximus]

Is it a wrong way to get the information about keyword costs?

[humblebeginnings]

Noximus,

I could be wrong too! Let's find out;-)
But I still don't understand how/where you exactly did your research about the price of keywords.
Could you perhaps explain it in a different way so an old dummy like me perhaps will understand it;-)

[NoLimits]

You're not wrong. That's a minimum bid.

It's just that after google takes their cut, and then deducts another amount (based on "Smart Pricing") as a discount to the advertiser - Then it pays to the publisher.

Most of the $5 minimum bids pay FAR less to publishers.

[Noximus]

I try to make sign up at adwords and in registration process I look into "View Traffic Estimator " I think it is clear now how can I get info on "Avg. Position", "Clicks / Day", "Cost / Day", "Avg. CPC" .

[sailorjwd]

Just because you see it as a $5 min bid doesn't mean someone else sees the same min bid. VERY slight differences in ad text and landing page text (even the url name) can dramatically increase/decrease a minimum bid. And, take into account their CTR for their campaigns - if it is good then that lowers the min bid further.

It takes an awful lot of time to play the adwords/adsense system well. But it can payoff. And you can sell a widget or two at the same time.

<edit typo>

[Noximus]

sailorjwd,
Do you mean that adwords Traffic Estimator might be wrong?

[humblebeginnings]

Noximus,

The traffic estimator is not 'wrong'. The meaning of it is just different from what you think.

If it says $ 5,00, it does not mean everybody pays
$ 5,00 for that keyword.

It only means you (with your ctr, your ad-copy, your etcetera) have to bid $ 5,00 at that time for that keyword to get it activated.

Bidding $ 5,00 does not mean you are actually gonna pay $ 5,00 and it also doesn't mean someone else is paying $ 5,00...

[sailorjwd]

Humble,

Thanks for saving my fingers.

[david_uk]

I tried this trick recently. My site appears at position 3 or higher on Google for my keywords, and I get a good EPC. So naturally assumed I'd do well by buying cheap clicks in and having expensive clicks out, but it didn't work. I did manage to break even. I gave up in the end!

My problem is content - I have some! My ctr on the ads didn't budge. The additional traffic I got stayed and read the content, and failed miserably to click any more than any other visitor. No reason they should really.

Anyway, I have a theory that to succeed in pulling this trick off, you need to ensure maximum click out rate, and that means not having any content to distract visitors from the ads. Even then, I can't see how the profit margin is anything other than low.

[Heartlander]

//that means not having any content to distract visitors from the ads.//

VERY interesting.
That is a great point.

[AlexMiles]

It is possible.

You need an excellent CTR on the landing page (10%+) and you need to have specialised knowlege in expensive areas. That is, people come in wondering which product will suit their needs best, or with a particular product in mind already, so you write what you know about the subject - you might even propose a different solution to the problem and send them to another page.

Sometimes I bid on keywords for products I know don't work or are dangerous. Then I send people to pages with safer or more effective solutions - although mostly I write about products and solutions I can actually recommend.

I never pay very much at all for the traffic, and it exits at decent amounts per click.

The disadvantage to all this is its not possible to do it automagically. I'm forever writing content and researching perhiperal subjects to tack onto the main theme, looking for hot products and picking holes in ripoff ones.

To do all this with any degree of dilligence means it has to be a subject you like. If you want some ideas, decide what is your most expensive hobby and write about that. :)

Think about helping newbies through the minefield of getting into it.

[cagey1]

Just because an advertiser pays Google $5 doesn't mean Google will pay you $5 (or anything close to it).

There has always been some speculation (at least on my part) that Google's Adsense payout percentage is variable by keyword (among other factors). They may pay out 50-75% for some keywords but only 5-10% for others (for example, those keywords that are likely targeted by speculators and arbitrage systems such as you propose).

In general, as the price per click goes up, the payout percentage is likely to go down.

[Noximus]

Thank you guys for comments, I got some idea about what "the strange guys" are doing. :)

Good Luck Online and Offline,
Noximus