Content Clicks down 80% from Last year.

Everything the same and I am bidding double

[vphoner]

This is weird. My content clicks last year in one campaign which has not changed had 900 content clicks this day last year, now its only about 100 and I am paying double the price. What the heck is going on? After the last QS thing my content clicks plunged, but everything with regular search is OK, so I don't think QS hit me. Maybe it hit all those scraper sites that I got clicks from last year. I did well on content (even with the MFA sites feeding me clicks).

Anyone else see this massive plunge in content since the last Quality change two weeks ago?

[Fryman]

From thousands of clicks to just a dozen.

Welcome to the club

[vphoner]

Is your search ok, or has that been affected as well? My search appears ok. Just the content.

[Fryman]

Search never worked, so at least I was surviving with the content network.

Guess google doesn't want the $15k I was spending each month

[vphoner]

My search was off and came back when they juggled the qs issues 2 weeks ago. But my content went way down. I think it was not my site, but the MFA sites that I was getting clicks from that got hurt, and then that hurt me. Its really disappointing. How do you get more content clicks in this environment? Raising bids did not work.

[luke175]

This is the unspoken affect of the quality score. Even if you weren't "slapped" with high bid prices you got slapped in your placement.

I have a campaign that was delivering 400,000-500,000 impressions per DAY before the QS content update.

I now bid triple what my old bid was (by choice, not by QS)and I get 1000 impressions per day.

2 of the biggest sites that my content ads appeared on now have a MFA and ebay ad on it each and every time I check.

[sailorjwd]

Down from $15K/mo to $5/day adwords.

All I can say is keep raising your content bids.

I'm now a poor adsenser living off naked search results.

I hear a quarter clink in the bucket every once in a while.

[surf4soul]

I was spending $1k on content a day. now its down to $50 a day. What a big loss.

[Fryman]

"All I can say is keep raising your content bids."

Wrong. Then you are just saying that it is ok for Google to do this.
I won't change my bids. If google doesn't want my $15,000, fine with me.

[surf4soul]

The thing that gets me is that someone is getting that traffic that we used to get. I dont think people are paying to much for it either.

All I have noticed is that you ad and landing page must be very keyword specific.

The problem with that is if you offer many products but can only focus on 1 type insted of a theme you get a worse CTR and your ad goes down the tubes.

[humblebeginnings]

Same misery for me. Adwords spendings about 99% down.
Turn back that switch G, and let us spend some serious cash again!

[davewray]

It's pretty sad when folks start begging for Google to let us spend more money. I mean, really, what the heck does Google want? Please spell it out and stop keeping us in the friggin dark. Oh, and you're obscure, political flavored answers will not suffice.

[kkobashi]

"From thousands of clicks to just a dozen.

Welcome to the club"

NOW LOOK WHO'S WHINING.

[pacweb]

My content traffic is zero. But i've noticed something interesting in my server logs: I see familiar content sites, but they are not being reported in G account as traffic fron content network. I thing Google is now including content traffic with search traffic.

[roeib]

my content traffic went also down.
Does somebody know how google determines where to put the content ads? If I have 1000 keywords on one adgroup, do they choose relevant keywords from there and put the content ads?

[DoctorDoctor]

Well, having 1000 keywords in one ad works against you as it is hard for the content algo to determine the theme of your ad group. In a talk to Google account manager I was told about a month ago that having 15 keywords in a group is good, but 1000 keywords...?

[ember]

Was spending $5K a month with AdWords and now maybe $100. Our money, despite our having targeted, relevant content and high CTRs, wasn't good enough for Google. They are the most arrogant company to come along in a long time.

[rbacal]

Today Ember said:

Was spending $5K a month with AdWords and now maybe $100. Our money, despite our having targeted, relevant content and high CTRs, wasn't good enough for Google. They are the most arrogant company to come along in a long time.

November 9, Ember said:

So that is the final straw. We are done, done, done and I hope someone comes soon to knock Google off its arrogant perch. I will not spend another dime with them ever again.

I'm curious as to why you changed your mind. In Nov, you said not another dime, but today, it appears you are still spending, albeit at a lower rate. Why the change?

BTW, I think this is really common, where people swear off of google publicly, intending to not spend another dime, but quickly realize that's not in their own interests. It's amusing, but it does make it seem more publishers have truly left than have left.

[Fryman]

"NOW LOOK WHO'S WHINING."

Nope, have you seen me complaining or starting a thread about how bad the big bad google wolf is?

I couldn't care less, I will take my money somewhere else. I sure won't waste my time starting a thread about how much the quality score sucks and how google is evil and how the world will be under googles domination and bla bla bla crap crap crap

[ember]

Rbacal, the $100 (if that) that we are spending is dribbling out to the last of the .04 bids Google lets us have. $100 a month is lunch money. We are not minding the bids and assume the ads will just peter out within a few days, just as all the others have. If spending $100 a month (or less) with Google means that you think I have come groveling back, then you need a new dictionary.

[rbacal]

Ember, you said:

I will not spend another dime with them ever again.

then you said:

f spending $100 a month (or less) with Google means that you think I have come groveling back, then you need a new dictionary.

I didn't say anything about groveling. Obviously, you've changed your mind from "not spending a dime" to spending $100 a month. I'm curious as to what caused you to change your mind. That's all.

The answer might help others here, since a lot of people say they won't be spending a dime ever, then learn that's not what they want to do.

Come on, save some pain for others!

[ember]

I suppose that I consider spending less than $100 a month the same as not spending a dime since it is such a minimal amount of money. And since we are not expending any effort to manage the bids and are just waiting for Google to stop showing the ads, that to me is the same as not spending any more money with AdWords. Have we gone in and cancelled those few remaining bids? No. So I guess you got me.

How much is Google paying you to constantly defend them, by the way?