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They are stating that listings that significantly underperform are taken offline, but may be allowed back online if changes are made to improve click-through performance. They also stated that they take into consideration the historical click-through rate data for the specific term, as well as the listing's click-through rate relative to its position.
Now what I find interesting is that the highest bidder is paying $5.00+ and we're around $.60. THere are about 12 other listings below us, so are they also going to be removed from bidding on that term?
We are bidding on many other terms w/ very high bids as well. Do they see how much we've spent on other terms and think that we need to up our bid because we can afford it?
Has anyone been removed from Overture due to low click performance?
Overture are doing this so that they can earn more money. Let me illustrate:
1) Results 1-3 all bid $10 each. Advertising copy is poor, no click-throughs.
2) Results 4-6 all bid under $0.10. Advertising copy is good, get high click-throughs.
Now think about it: If Overture drop the top three (because no-one has clicked on them - they have earned nothing from them), then search engines that take the top 3 Overture results now have 3 good terms with good advertising copy.
If Overture don't drop the top three, they are going to continue earning little money, because people will be clicking on the listings below, usually results from Inktomi, Looksmart, AltaVista etc...
Overture are doing the advertisers a favour (in some ways - bigger budget no longer means better) and will get clickthroughs from the lower position bids (in the example above positions 4-6) and begin to earn money, although in smaller amounts, it still comes down to money at the end of the day.
So far this month we have had 486 clicks for one and 80 for the other, albeit they are popular generic phrases and spent around $120 on the two words.
Are they trying to impose a 0.5% CTR with stealth?
