Google's at it again - check your Adwords account

[Kamilla]

Gaylemart, some time ago Haui posted a good link to an article comparing google adwords to other se's. Their conclusion were that even though the conversion might not be as good, the bids are far lower, making the ROI about the same.
Ofcourse, it will take more work keeping track of several smaller campaigns then a singel one at google. But it's nice to have options in a case like yours.

[Dutch Harry]

Originally Posted by _LB_

I hope you guys don't rely on adwords too much because its going to dry up. My adwords rep recently admitted they are not happy with affiliate marketing on adwords, and will be taking sweeping steps to punish surfer landing pages not up to scratch.

Do you main in porn or also in mainstream?

Because mainstream Adwords exist for more then 40% out of affiliate marketing, they would be shooting themselves in the foot if they chop that down.

[_LB_]

Originally Posted by Dutch Harry

Do you main in porn or also in mainstream?

Because mainstream Adwords exist for more then 40% out of affiliate marketing, they would be shooting themselves in the foot if they chop that down.

Mostly porn.

But the changes affect mainstream and porn together. They claim to have more changes coming this week which will impact more sites.

[Dutch Harry]

Lucky for me i don't do porn anymore on AdWords, but that G is coming down on porn is understandable, porn has always been a needle in the eye of G and they started to get rid of teen porn and i think that porn is going to be phased out of AdWords because it is a US based company and the US has a strange way of looking at porn and gambeling sites.

But that is not the end of the world their will be others that fill the gap.

[_LB_]

Originally Posted by Dutch Harry

Lucky for me i don't do porn anymore on AdWords, but that G is coming down on porn is understandable, porn has always been a needle in the eye of G and they started to get rid of teen porn and i think that porn is going to be phased out of AdWords because it is a US based company and the US has a strange way of looking at porn and gambeling sites.

But that is not the end of the world their will be others that fill the gap.

Its not porn only. Some would argue that mainstream has suffered more than porn because porn is already heavily penalized with adwords. These changes along with the ones last year affect porn and mainstream equally.

[Kappi]

I guess this is the key: http://www.google.com/support/webmas...y?answer=66361 says:
"There is no problem in being an affiliate as long as you create some added value for your users and produce valuable content that gives a user a reason to visit your site."

I didn't notice any changes in my min. bids, most of them still have a QS of Great and have extremely low min bids.

What I read on other (mainstream) forums is that the sites that got hit where or single page sites or sites using APIs, xml streams and where not really adding any unique content and value to the information. Those are probably also the sites that don't show up high in the organis results.

[hardcoreblogger]

kappi is absolutely right. LB, this is in no way a sweep on porn affiliates and they do such quality score updates all the time. the quality score does not differentiate between porn or mainstream. i wonder what kinda stories your rep told you there...

google doesn't dislike affiliates in general, they dislike lousy, low-quality pages and arbitrage stuff that adds no value. that's what the sweep is about...

[Beejeebers]

If you're still building individual landing pages, you're going to get burned. Your landing SITE has to offer more then a short description, an image and a "buy now" button.

Google is not against affiliate marketing contrary to the crap that is spread on forums by affiliates who keep getting slapped for not following the rules. If you work with them, you can still make a ton of money. Affiliate marketing on google is not going anywhere, they are tightening the rules and clamping down on the crap ass sites that are being displayed, but that will only help google in the long run. If the google users stop clicking ads because every site is a piece of crap, then google is in deep trouble. They have to protect their income stream.

[Dutch Harry]

Yeah a lot a arbi sites where shot down well the AdSense account behind it so to speak, but you still find a lot a arbi sites, but what G wants to see is that you give the user more then just a sales pitch and i am doing just that.

Get yourself a different mindset when it comes to Google Adwords, it is still rewarding but you have to do more work then just sending it to a one page site.

[_LB_]

My rep wouldn't have mentioned that they want to move away from the affiliate heavy buyer base unless she wanted to give me a message. Google doesn't want affiliates if they can somehow avoid it.

[msanchez]

well I guess you would have to worry about if you link to your sponsor directly with you afifliate code from a landing page, but its been like that for at least 6 months now.

So just dont link to the sponsor directly with your afifliate code is a pretty simple fix to avoid the percieved anti affiliate mentality google has.

And just because the adwords specialist said doesnt make it fact, if google doesnt care for too many afifliate marketers of course they will tell you they are phasing it out, but that doesnt hardly mean that there are ways to work within their system and still accomplish the goal.

[_LB_]

Originally Posted by msanchez

And just because the adwords specialist said doesnt make it fact, if google doesnt care for too many afifliate marketers of course they will tell you they are phasing it out, but that doesnt hardly mean that there are ways to work within their system and still accomplish the goal.

Ok well I was just trying to help by passing on info.

[hardcoreblogger]

LB did your rep give any reasoning on why they would want to generally move away from affiliates ? so far google has been quite consistent in which affiliates they like and which they don't.

this qs update definitely didn't just affect affiliates, rather anyone with poor landing pages. just found this one on a mainstream board:

"It's not just for affiliates. I have a real bricks and mortar company with trucks, staff and all.
They also slappped me with ridiculous minimums over $10, this will drive me to bankrupcy because I didn't get a Yellow pages add this year...."

[_LB_]

Originally Posted by hardcoreblogger

LB did your rep give any reasoning on why they would want to generally move away from affiliates ? so far google has been quite consistent in which affiliates they like and which they don't.

this qs update definitely didn't just affect affiliates, rather anyone with poor landing pages. just found this one on a mainstream board:

"It's not just for affiliates. I have a real bricks and mortar company with trucks, staff and all.
They also slappped me with ridiculous minimums over $10, this will drive me to bankrupcy because I didn't get a Yellow pages add this year...."

Sorry but I do have some info that I am not willing to let go.. unless you have money to burn

I am prepared to say that the landing page quality score is the most important factor now, and that they want to move away from affiliate marketing because its apparently damaging the 'surfer experience'.

[_LB_]

Oh and I should add that affiliates weren't the only ones affected. Most businesses who do adwords and track their results were hit hard... as well as many who have simple landing pages.

In my honest opinion google has lost the plot and it will just be a few in the know who make the money. They are targeting big business who can afford the stupid prices and still turn a profit. This is cutting out the affiliate.

[Kappi]

That sounds like a drastic change. I don't know how big of a % of the profit from adwords is generated by the top 5% advertisers but one would think that google would be careful making changes like this. Adwords is pretty much still their only real moneymaker.

I also don't see how targeting the big business will improve the quality of their adwords system. Those companies are merely offering their own products on their pages while the majority of the people who click on the ads is looking for relevant info before making a purchase. It's no coincidence that review and compare sites are converting so good.

[_LB_]

Originally Posted by Kappi

That sounds like a drastic change. I don't know how big of a % of the profit from adwords is generated by the top 5% advertisers but one would think that google would be careful making changes like this. Adwords is pretty much still their only real moneymaker.

I also don't see how targeting the big business will improve the quality of their adwords system. Those companies are merely offering their own products on their pages while the majority of the people who click on the ads is looking for relevant info before making a purchase. It's no coincidence that review and compare sites are converting so good.

Do you have an insights into google adwords that normal ppl don't have ?

Thats almost 70% what I have heard from credible sources.

If you do have some really in depth info then I think you should keep it to yourself. If you share too much then you will lose your competitive edge.

[Kappi]

Nah, I don't really have in depth info. Using one's brain, reading some good weblogs and applying that info can do wonderful things ;-).

[Dutch Harry]

What Kappi is saying is right imho i do not have inside info but from what i have been reading (and i read all the SEO and PPC news every morning on my RSS viewer to keep myself up to date) is that G want to get rid of one page websites, low quality websites and affiliates that directly link to the merchant/sponsor site.

G definitely doesn't want to get rid of his advertisers, because without them G is not going to make the shareholders happy and in the end the only thing that counts is the bottom line.

I have done some testing on a old one page adwords campaign and turned into a site with more content and the keyword prize dropped signicantly and my ranking is nice between third and fifth place (the best places to be imho).

So if you wanna play the adwords game you have to put in the works G is not going to except low quality site anymore, well they do accept them but you will be paying top dollar for your keywords.

[Beejeebers]

I spoke to my rep today about this and he said they are not trying to get rid of affiliates, they are trying to get rid of poor quality in their system. It's no secret what they want and why they're doing it.

There is a lot of poor advice out there on mainstream forums and it all goes to people "protecting their turf" so to speak. If you follow their rules, (even when they keep changing them), you will be fine. If you don't, you won't be able to do adwords anymore because they will jack up your bids through the roof!

Here's a hint, they don't like adult, but it makes them money, so they'll tolerate it with very strict rules... for now.