Click Fraud Assistance – Yahoo Dupes Google
Looks like Yahoo! one upped Google once again in launching their Traffic Quality Center several days (8 to be exact) before a weak attempted launch by Google at the same thing. To Yahoos merit they have created a web site with more “bling” which explains what efforts they are taking to battle the prevalent click fraud issue surrounding cost-per-click programs and more importantly what you can do to prevent it as well. To put it bluntly; Google’s Ad Quality Resource Center is fairly lame. Aside from being a usability experts wet dream, Google’s center consists of a couple sheets put up by someone who probably got called into the manager’s office for a good talking to. While this project may be expanded upon, there is obviously a...
Google AdPreview Feature Update
Google has now made the ad preview feature MUCH easier to use. Instead of having to manipulate the URL of the page utilizing a ‘cheat sheet’ (which Google has now taken down but you can see below for a general idea…) you can now select from a drop down menu of choices to check the location of you ad/natural listing from almost anywhere in the world. For those of you not familiar with this tool what it does is allow you to check your ad position without incurring impressions. This is great when trying to preserve ad quality as your CTR does not suffer due to anxious repetitive position checks. (I recommend telling your clients to use this feature to check their ads!!) This preservation will help in keeping cost down and positions up. The Old Way...
Google Personalized PPC/CPC Results – Hurts Advertisers
I have been noticing something over the last couple of weeks in regards to rankings of paid search listings in Google and their odd propensity to show up differently in different browsers. Odd you say? Yes I say. Thinking of why this might be, the only logical conclusion I could come up with was cookies. So I decided to test it out. I took a screen shot before I deleted my Google based cookies and then one after. Here are the before and after screen shots. (Obviously this is anecdotal at this point!) Before Cookies Cleared After Cookies Cleared So Google is personalizing Paid Search results, thanks for the heads up Google. Good for advertisers? Not really. By doing this Google eliminates some listings all together, or pushes them to never-never land, thereby...
MSN adCenter Updates Attack
Microsoft’s AdCenter just sent me an interesting email and posted a similar message on their AdCenter blog. Essentially they have revised their terms of service as they shift into their new line of features at AdCenter. There are 3 main points which they highlight as key changes:  Microsoft may use matching criteria other than keyword searches to display your advertisements. Microsoft may display your advertisements on its network of advertising channels operated by the Microsoft network of participating websites and other distribution outlets. The payment and reporting terms in your AdCenter agreement have been clarified to describe your rights. I must admit the first one kinda blew me away.ÂÂ...
What is Google Doing?
So I was doing a little keyword research the other day and I ran across these AdWords search results on Google (Keyword: e3live). Wonder how this one slipped by the automated review process? OK perhaps it was intentionally placed in the results. But why? Is this part of a test being conducted by Google? (Hope it’s not this!) As an advertiser I must say that I am a little annoyed, probably not as annoyed as someone whose ad would be pushed below the fold by this gibberish, but Google is taking up valuable space with this non-sense. Oddly enough this â€Å”bid†is higher than some others for the term! (Google claims that they pay similar costs for their appearance in the search results.) Anyone have an idea of what they may be up...
Google AdWords On Fire
The team over at Google AdWords are throwing the kitchen sink at Yahoo! There has been a dramatic increase in the number of new offerings to the Google advertiser which look remarkably similar to things over at Yahoo!’s Panama. There have also been some exciting offerings which are promising to improve the way websites behave and interact with internet surfers. (Yeah I’m talking about Website Optimizer which I am currently running several tests with so I thought I’d wait to make my comments on it instead of joining the masses.) Here are a few of the things I’ve seen popping up over the last couple weeks and months: Conversion Column Shows exactly how many conversions have taken place. I think this is a nice...
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