Directing traffic to someone else with AdWords

[kilkenny]

Directing traffic to someone else with AdWords can be a very effective way of understanding traffic patterns for certain keywords before you spend time and money to create your own website. I have tried this a couple of times, and it works really well for me.

Each time I have selected a relevant website and written "truthful" ads (you actually find what the ad promises on the landing page). I don't believe this is against the AdWords TOS and I don't think it hurts the websites I'm directing traffic to either (quite on the contrary, actually).

Still, I find myself wondering if there could be a good reason (legal, moral, or whatever) why I shouldn't be doing it.

Does anyone have thoughts on this?

[sailorjwd]

Welcome to WW.

What you are doing seems a bit strange.

How about sending visitors to charity sites - maybe you can deduct the adwords from your taxes and learn at the same time :)

[kilkenny]

Thanks. I get a lot of ideas for affiliate type stuff but not all of them are equally good(!). I do this to get an idea about keyword CTR, CPC, Min. Bids and so on for different ads that I might run.

I believe spending $10-100 to test an idea before you invest in the website really helps you save a lot of money in the long run (if you expect to get most of your traffic from AdWords, that is).

I'll look for Charities next time :-)

[Green_Grass]

Finally AWA has an answer to give to those webmasters who 'complain' that someone is sending unsolicited traffic to them through adWords.

Saw a thread a while back where the OP was totally lost and AWA had really no good answers. ;-)

Here is an example...

[webmasterworld.com...]

[poster_boy]

...and I don't think it hurts the websites I'm directing traffic to either (quite on the contrary, actually).

If these companies already advertise through Adwords, I'd strongly disagree with your assessment. And, based on complex targeting options, I don't think it's always easy to determine if a site advertises with Adwords...

If your ad replaces theirs, it's an experiment that's highly damaging. You are likely misrepresenting their "pitch" and their brand, directing visitors to a generic or incorrect page, and preventing the advertiser from legitimately communicating to a potential customer.

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Does anyone have thoughts on this?

If these companies already advertise through Adwords, I'd strongly disagree with your assessment. And, based on complex targeting options, I don't think it's always easy to determine if a site advertises with Adwords...

If your ad replaces theirs, it's an experiment that's highly damaging. You are likely misrepresenting their "pitch" and their brand, directing visitors to a generic or incorrect page, and preventing the advertiser from legitimately communicating to a potential customer.

I agree with poster_boy on this, and my thought would be to politely ask you to discontinue the practice, kilkenny. It doesn't seem fair to do your research at the expense of other advertisers, even if you are giving them 'free clicks'.

I'm trying to think of a meaningful analogy, and am coming up short (not enough coffee yet this morning I guess). But imagine how you might feel if there were an unknown and unwanted person hovering just out of sight who answered questions that someone asked of you - with an answer that may or may not be correct in your opinion, and which might even reflect badly on you.

AWA

[lgn1]

We don't you just use the adwords keyword traffic estimation tool. I know it low balls the numbers a bit, but it will aleast put you in the ball park.

[kilkenny]

AdWordsAdvertiser: Point taken.

FIY, the websites I chose looked like they hadn't been updated for quite a while, and I seriuosly doubt they were running CPC campaigns. But there is no sure way to know this of course...

Also, I would like to point out that I would never knowingly interfere with anyones CPC campaigns, and have no malicious intent whatsoever - which is why I wrote the post in the first place.

Thanks for your input.