Why use AdWords ?

why you don't buy ad spaces from websites direct?

[ak_web]

For many years there were no doubts for me, that Adsense/Adwords solution is perfect.

I'm a publisher. The main reason for me to use Adsense was the possibility to outsource the monetization - no need to hire ads professionals, no need to spend time managing ads, all sources (brains first of all) can be used for the website building. Nothing could beat Adsense.

Everything changed after the Panda. Not only everything dropped to nowhere, but now they want me to spend time allowing and blocking and selecting and .... they want me to manage these ads. The question rose - why do I need to keep Adsense nowadays ?

So the possibility to buy ad spaces direct from the site was created. Not a lot of deals were done. I understand that it depends from traffic, prices, target, etc etc etc ... This is obvious. But I can't see even a bit of interest from potential ad space buyers.

I understand why Adwords is useful for those, who manage big ads campaigns. But what about all these small to middle ecom sites ? The sites selling up to 10 goods for ex. ? Why aren't you looking for the direct ad space buying ? Or ebay/amazon stores ? Or small businesses ? Especially keeping in mind plenty of complains posted here.

Can't understand. Could you please share your thoughts regarding this matter ?

[RhinoFish]

the little guy in eCommerce is busier than a 1-legged man in an ass kicking contest.

[Chrispcritters]

For me (on the advertiser side), it's easier to advertise on hundreds (or thousands) of websites without having to identify them, qualify them, contact them, negotiate the terms, (usually) prepay, and then monitor performance via as many platforms as there are publishers, optimize, start/pause/stop, etc.

[buckworks]

it's easier to advertise on hundreds (or thousands) of websites without having to identify them ...

Agreed.

However, keep an eye on your performance reports because you'll sometimes spot sites that are clearly a better fit for your ads than average. Look for things like better conversion rates, lower cost per conversion, lots of view-through conversions, etc. Those gems can be good candidates for direct contact, or at the very least, bidding more aggressively for placement via AdWords.

[ak_web]

No doubts. And I would not start such thread a year ago.
But nowadays the Adsense income is so low (see Adsense forum here, on WW), that I believe many top publishers will be glad to sell ad spaces direct for real cheap.

I just suppose one has less control over the small budget, smashing it among "hundreds (or thousands) of websites".
Why not to spend some time, find couple of websites converting the best and stick with them ?
Now you're daily/weekly spending your time to manage keywords in Adwords. You don't need to spend it, if you would found your converting publisher.

Did somebody try ?

Again, I started this thread because it seems to me (but not sure yet), that ads market has changed after Panda and Adsense/Adwords is not the best solution.

[Chrispcritters]

I spend almost no time managing my AdWords account now that I've got it running the way I want to. Using conversion optimizer my conversion rates are in line with my expectations. As buckworks suggests, I do go in an spot check to remove sites that are not a good fit and tweak for those that are.

Not all websites accept direct advertisers.

Managing those relationships that do on an ongoing basis requires continued attention. For some people the incremental margin might not be worth that additional effort.

Part of my advertising effort is market-share and mind-share driven -- not purely a conversion metric. AdWords provides a great opportunity for me to have my ads in front of an audience that I might never otherwise come in contact with.

[Kickedout]

I use adwords since (many years). And I've never so dissapointed before. I can't convert at all and bidding prices are extremely high to reach a decent position. Search result page is crowded by 3 spot ads, that have major competitors, big companies on sector with hudreds of employees, the rest is adwords, and map results. Organic results even if you are first drives no traffic no longer.
And ads are just wasting my budget without results.
Personally I optimize campaings almost daily, track results, and so on.

I'd be happy to pay 2 or 3 cool websites to recover quality traffic I use to receive paying adwords on past years, or via organic result.

The problem I face is the first page of results are mainly all competitors not selling ads, and also paying adwords.

Point me in the right direction and I'll be glad to try.

[minnapple]

I am working with a long time client, and Amazon advertising is outperforming Adwords 10 to 1 and this is based upon Google Analytics data.

[Kendo]

Amazon advertising is outperforming Adwords 10 to 1

More info please... where can find out about this?

[Planet13]

Point me in the right direction and I'll be glad to try.

have you given affiliate marketing a try? some people speak highly of shareasale.

[minnapple]

Amazon has become the place were people go to purchase.
It is edging out google overall in buyer referrals, be it paid search or even organic search.

Organic/Paid google search has become, just another mega complex of the usual big boxes.

I can still created adwords ads campaigns that are an exact match and covert decently but both the traffic and sales volume are so low, it is becoming harder to justify the time spent managing the accounts.

Time goes on, and the squeeze to push out the little guy continues.

[Planet13]

@ minnapple

Amazon advertising is outperforming Adwords 10 to 1

can you clarify this a bit?

do you mean people selling their items through amazon (like having an amazon store)?

Or do you mean a different way?

Does amazon have something that is purely "advertising" like adwords (without having to sell through amazon)?

thanks in advance.

[Kendo]

I checked out Amazon ad info and was very disappointed... that they do not provide "pay-per-click" plans for SOFTWARE. In fact they cater for very few product types.

Nor was I impressed by their search function. Even if I could include our products in their shopping cart, I found that it always returns 26,000 items regardless of the search term... it doesn't work!

[minnapple]

Planet13,

PPC Amazon was converting 10 to 1 over Adwords.
After the modifying the Adwords campaigns I brought them both inline, but like I said traffic and the sales volume is low, because I tighten the Adwords keywords only to exact matches.

@ minnapple

Amazon advertising is outperforming Adwords 10 to 1


can you clarify this a bit?

do you mean people selling their items through amazon (like having an amazon store)?

Or do you mean a different way?

Does amazon have something that is purely "advertising" like adwords (without having to sell through amazon)?

thanks in advance.

[LegoGeek]

Adsense is great for large websites with a lot of content that isn't tightly themed onto a single market. But if you have asmall website with clearly identifiable audience then a closer bespoke ad placement from talking with vendors directly may be more profitable for you.

It is true that adsense is easier, just takes 30 minutes to plug in and earn. But why be lazy when it comes to getting advertisers to pay you? Might as well take the effort and selectively pick advertisers that pay the most and are the most relevant to your audience.