Next day, I look and I was kicked out of the blue ad spot and completely off the system by a competitor's ad with the same Display URL. I really don't see how he could kick me off when I only received 7 impressions and my ad copy had no chance to "prove it". I'm sure we're both bidding $100 for this keyword.
My only guess, is the competitor was able to come in and instantly boot me because of his very long high CTR history (which I know he does have from other keywords in his account)? So his long history of high CTR on other keywords in his account would grant him higher Quality Score than me, we're bidding the same, so the QS+Bid=AdRank.. his AdRank is higher just because he's been around longer?
Really seems unfair. Because I was first on this. And this guy comes in and kicks me off just because he did well with other keywords in his account in the past.
Is that what's happening or there's another reason?
Time for a bid war.
Up your bid and see if you re appear.
I may be wrong
Ska
That said, I would hardly call this affiliate warfare based on a whopping 7 impressions. Write a better ad, or even write 10 ads, and see if you can get yourself a better QS.
I've had ads both in and out of the blue box, and I have to say that I am perplexed by the seeming ability of low-quality ads to work their way into the blue box.
I will write a very clever, targeted, tightly-written ad for a new product that will get into the blue box in fairly short order. (It typically takes a week or so.)
But inevitably it eventually gets knocked-out by a low-quality, generic, keyword-substitution ad, which then sticks firmly in place.
I continue to have this nagging suspicion that Google rewards low-quality keyword-substitution ads because they lack server capacity and need to reduce the number of total keywords on the system. I note continued pressure from Google reps to reduce keywords and to use keyword-substitution.
I have to say, the title of this post is quite accurate. "Affiliate warfare". My ads are affiliate ads as well. It is a battle for the blue box, if you are an affiliate of the top company in a particular field. While others can weigh cost vs. placement, consider whether 3'rd place is actually more visible than the blue box, etc. in this case you have no choice - AN affiliate of the top company will wind-up in the blue box. So, that's what you have to battle it out for.
Why Google continues to reward low quality, and continues to degrade adwords with cruddy ads for that big bookstore and the world's biggest garage sale is beyond me. There ARE affiliates writing targeted, non-generic ads for both of these companies. Google for some reason just doesn't want them seen.
The only logic I can see to it is that it makes it possible for Google to suddenly pull a rabbit out of it's hat at some time in the future, should their ad revenues and profitability slip, once the public gets tired of seeing the same, tired, generic ads.
(BTW, I HAVE tried using cruddy, generic keyword-substitution ads as well. It doesn't seem to work for ME. Just others, who obviously have either better connections or much bigger accounts.)
$100 per click, dats my adwords budget for months, oh my, must re evaluate my results with aff networks
Good sirs , might one ask, is the commission worth $1,000 per sale
best i've seen is 1/3 that
Or does the $100 bid mean daily budget for multiple clicks, that would make more sense to me, show how little i Know :-)
Why don't you just use your own website and URL and link to the merchant's site via your own website? Then you'd still be able to post ads along side your competitor, without him/ or her knocking you off
It's very difficult to do this any more. This is something that used to work, but not any more.
Ever since Google started taking into consideration "landing page quality", this is tough to do. You need to have significant original content. If you simply present the product using the same wording as the parent site, your site will be judged as poor landing quality, and your price will shoot through the roof.
If you are the only URL on that keyword, then you can bid $100 and still end up paying under $1.
Yes, this is "playing chicken". I think this probably how the low-quality keyword-substitution ads get on top. (Or at least one way). They are willing to play chicken and bid $100/click on ads for $20 books.
I recall a while back when the high price for some popular class action ailment made the news, and the price was up around $15. And then THAT made the news, so thousands of people were running to Google to click on the lawyers ads ... at $15 a pop.
I still wonder how much this must have cost the law firms. And it was for a word that most people cannot even spell :)
CPC can be as little as $0.05. But for some
crazy reason. The CPC can increase to $10 all of
a sudden. It happenes to me a couple of times.
Because I drive traffic directly to merchart site.
Im consistantly having affiliate warfare fighting
for the blue spot.
For now, I usually start with $0.5.
Increase to $1 2 days later
Increase to $5 2 days later
Increase to $10 2 days later
Until I reaches $100 a click
I start with $100 a click before. It very unlikey
to pay $0.05 consistantly. However if you were to
increase the bid slowly. It is possible.
