Adwords Wants to Help!? – Unless You’re an Affiliate
Filed Under Affiliate Marketing, Google, Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, adCenter | Comments Off
I just got an email that confirms what I have been saying for a long, long time. Most affiliates know by now that Adwords hates affiliates. They do not like affiliate so-called “doorway pages”. They do not like the fact that affiliate marketing is a lucrative internet business that they do not control. They do not like affiliates…..period.Â
After Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick/Performics we have all been waiting to see how Google will deal with affiliates that are working “for them” and their advertisers. I digress…..now let’s take a look at the email.
Here is the exact email (don’t miss the bolded section):
Dear AdWords Advertiser,
We’d like to help you get the most out of your AdWords campaigns. We’re offering Google’s team of specialists to help with your AdWords account at no cost to you.
Tell us about your AdWords campaign and how you’d like it improved, and one of our specialists will create a detailed campaign proposal designed to meet your goals. This type of campaign optimization can include ideas for your keywords, ad text, campaign structure, bids, targeting settings, and more.
The goal of our optimization service is to improve your campaign performance and help you meet your advertising goals. You’ll stay in full control of your account and can accept or decline the campaign options we provide.
If you’re interested, all you have to do is request a campaign optimization. (Please note that this offer is not available for affiliate advertisers.)
Learn more about Google’s optimization service. You can also check out our optimization tips page at http://adwords.google.com/select/tips.html.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
The Google AdWords Team
Â
I do have to point out that Google is now offering this feature about 18 months later than Yahoo. Yahoo has been offering to help me with my campaigns for over a year and believe it or not they don’t care that I am an affiliate. My money is as green as the next guy’s at Yahoo, but not at Google.
Affiliates should make it a point to support Yahoo and their recent affiliate friendly initiatives. At least one major player is showing respect to a method of marketing that predates Google itself…
Google Adwords Changes Top Position Formula
Filed Under Google, Google Adwords, Pay Per Click, Performics, Quality Score, Search Engine Marketing | Comments Off
Google announced this morning to Adwords advertisers that they are going to change the formula used to determine whether your ad is placed in the top positions above the search results. Up until now, this has been determined by “Quality Score and your actual CPC, which is determined in part by the bids of advertisers below you.”
Ads that are placed above the search results generate a much higher volume of clicks when compared to those placed on the right side of the search page. The clickthrough rate is also much higher if your ad takes the top position, but the conversion rate is not always as good. Top positions generate a lot of impulse clicks that are less likely to convert into a sale. Is Google planning on moving more people into the top positions? They describe the change as follows:
With this new formula, instead of considering your actual CPC, we’ll consider your maximum CPC bid, which you control. This means that your ad’s eligibility to be promoted is no longer dependent on the bids of advertisers below you. Therefore, if you have a high quality ad, you now have more control to achieve a top position by increasing your maximum CPC.
Your actual CPC will continue to be determined by the auction, but subject to a minimum price for top spots. The minimum price is based on the quality of your ad and is the minimum amount required for your ad to achieve top placement above Google search results. As always, the higher your ad’s quality, the less you will pay. And you will never be charged more than your maximum CPC bid. [read more]
The mention of “minimum price” says it all. Google is going to start setting a baseline max CPC for all ads that get listed in top positions. This is possibly as a result of the new information that Google now has access to with it’s recent purchase of DoubleClick/Performics. Many fear that as Google is able to follow each search all the way to the checkout process they will want to raise prices to compensate for those earning an extraordinary ROI. Could this be happening already?
It is not likely that they have already integrated conversion and ROI data into what they demand for click prices, but that situation might not be too far off. Click prices are going to continue to rise as they have for the last several years.
Google Adwords – Click to Call Support
Filed Under Google, Google Adwords | Comments Off
I just got an email from Adwords that I have been selected to test out their new Click to Call Support feature. Here is what the letter said:
Hello,
Thank you for advertising with the Google AdWords program. As a
special thank you, we are pleased to offer you an enhanced level
of customer support for being one of our top AdWords advertisers.
AdWords continually strives to provide new and effective features
to enhance the Google user experience. We’re testing a new support
option that allows you to contact an AdWords Specialist by phone
with just the click of a button. We pay for the call and we even
do the dialing — all you need to do is pick up the phone and
talk.
Try it out by visiting our Help Center via the ‘Contact Us’ link
within your account. After clicking ‘Contact Us,’ follow the
prompts to identify your concern. You’ll then be offered the
option to speak directly to an AdWords Specialist by entering your
contact phone number and clicking ‘Call.’ When your phone rings,
answer it; you’ll hear ringing on the line as we connect you
directly to our AdWords support team. It’s that easy.
This service is completely free to users; Google pays all local
and long distance charges. However, if you give us a mobile phone
number, your normal airtime fees or other fees charged by your
provider for the call may apply.
AdWords Specialists are available by phone Monday – Thursday,
from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. PST (U.S.), or on Friday, from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.
PST (U.S.).
We’re excited to offer you this new way to get immediate AdWords
help right when you need it.
Sincerely,
The Google AdWords Team
That sounds like a good idea to me. I have spent a significant amount of time on the phone with Adwords Support. I can appreciate the effort for them to make it a little easier to the end user. Just for the hell of it I logged in an tried it.
I clicked the Contact Us link on the upper right hand side of the account pages. I selected the category out of about 10 to choose from that my question fell under. “Other” in this case, because I am just trying it out. Then I get a field to enter my phone number. I enter it and click the “Call” button….
The Phone Rings….
 I pick up the phone and it says “…connecting” starts ringing and before I know it there is an Adwords Rep answering the phone. Nice! 
AdSpyPro Pre-Launch Available
Filed Under Affiliate Marketing, Google, Google Adwords, Yahoo, Yahoo Search Marketing | Comments Off
AdSpyPro has won the race by releasing a new way of monitoring other affiliates’ PPC efforts in the same way that UnderCoverProfits does. There are some clear differences between the two programs, most notably the price. AdSpyPro pre-launch is being released at the super low price of $47.
The other major difference between AdSpyPro and UnderCoverProfits is that Ad Spy Pro doesn’t have a subscription fee or limits on the number of keywords you can monitor.
They can do this because they are releasing the software package for installation on the end user’s server. They will install it for you for $30 extra. This means you have to pay the server costs, but you will not have to pay $300 a month like those who are currently subscribed to UnderCoverProfits.
To tell you the truth I am one of those people who have been using UnderCoverProfits, but I just made a purchase of Ad Spy Pro. I am looking forward to saving that $300 a month in fees from Under Cover Profits.
I am not sure if it will have all the features of UnderCoverProfits, but at that price it doesn’t have to. If you want to check it out here is the link: http://adspypro.income-booster.info/
Testing AuctionAds Advertising Platform
Filed Under Adsense, AuctionAds, Google, Yahoo, Yahoo Publisher Network | Comments Off
If you take a look at the sidebar on my blog you will see an advertisement served up by the AuctionAds advertising platform. AuctionAds launched about 3 months ago. It is the brainchild of ShoeMoney as a way for affiliates to earn top tier commissions from eBay by pooling everyone’s efforts together.
Ebay pays high volume publishers a much better percentage of sales than they pay to lower level publishers. Shoemoney estimates they are generating about 400,000 clicks per day through their new AuctionAds platform. That is an incredible amount of volume.
If you sign up as an eBay affiliate on your own here is the commission structure you will be faced with:
Revenue Share Compensation
eBay Revenue Compensation
$0 – $99.99 50%
$100.00 – $4,999.99 55%
$5,000.00 – $199,999.99 60%
$200,000.00 – $699,999.99 65%
$700,000.00 – $2,999,999.99 70%
$3,000,000.00 + 75%Active Registered User (ACRU)
ACRUs Compensation
1 – 49 $25.00
50 – 1,999 $28.00
2,000 – 29,999 $31.00
30,000 + $35.00
This in itself makes it clear why Auction Ads is such a good idea. By pooling many affiliates traffic together AA (AuctionAds) are able to maintain the top tier commission payout of 75%. That is 25% better than what someone starting out on their own would earn. This is one of the reasons why AA has over 17,000 users at just 90 days running.
Ad Widgets
To make things simple for publishers who are used to running Adsense ads, AA has provided ad blocks that are formatted in all the same sizes as adsense advertisements. There is no need to reformat your Adsense site to incorporate AA or a combination of AA and Adsense.
Referral Program
To make the deal even sweeter for publishers, AA has integrated a referral program into their ad units. Most everyone knows that Google’s Adsense has benefitted from free advertising on all of its publisher sites by incorporating a link to a sign up page on each and every Adsense unit. That notorious “Ads by Gooooooogle” is really just a link to get other publishers to sign up. Google has never offered it’s publishers any compensation for this referral program. Yahoo Publisher Network does the exact same thing.
Auction Ads explains how their referral program is different:
With AuctionAds, we don’t want you to worry about the loss of revenue caused by the branding we use to identify the ad units as ads on your site. So we have implemented a referral program that is imbedded right into your ad units. So anytime anyone clicks on the “Ads by AuctionAds†and signs up for the program, you will earn 2% of those new publisher’s earnings. Pretty sweet deal. This means every single click made from our ad units, even the clicks on the “Ads by AuctionAds†gives you the potential to earn money.
I will be testing AuctionAds on this blog over the next few weeks to see what my readers think. I am not sure if the products offered will be useful to you all. As in everything, you will all vote with your wallets, and in time I will report to you if AuctionAds are really a money maker or not.