I finally figured out what the "Google Slap" is.

[GuyFromChicago]

It's a synonym for "I don't know how to use AdWords so I'll blame it on something that makes it sound like it's out of my control."

I've yet to see a campaign that's set up properly with a solid landing page/site that has issues with $10+ minimums.

[Huligan]

Agreed. Preach on.

[GuyFromChicago]

Minor rant I suppose.

Earlier this week I set up a brand new campaign with 25K keywords in a brand new AdWords account on a domain that's about a month or two old. There's hardly any content at all...seriously maybe a paragraph. Getting close to 2K visitors a day already for about $0.04 each with thousands of "great" quality scores.

I basically tried to get a $10 min and can't.

[prosumer86]

Amen. Once you beat Google once, you'll realize that it ain't that hard any more

I have a little formula (template) for landing pages that I use and I have never had those slaps from Google yet. Yet each landing page takes me probably all of 1hr to do up, and hosted on a newly bought domain.

So yeah, Google can be tamed, with the right knowledge.

[SIR]

how many pages does your website has? or it's just one landing page?

[GuyFromChicago]

Originally Posted by SIR

how many pages does your website has? or it's just one landing page?

It's a single page site.

[DomainMagnate]

Originally Posted by GuyFromChicago

Minor rant I suppose.

Earlier this week I set up a brand new campaign with 25K keywords in a brand new AdWords account on a domain that's about a month or two old. There's hardly any content at all...seriously maybe a paragraph. Getting close to 2K visitors a day already for about $0.04 each with thousands of "great" quality scores.

I basically tried to get a $10 min and can't.

what do you mean by the $10 min, Jeremy?

[GuyFromChicago]

Originally Posted by Michael_Goldman

what do you mean by the $10 min, Jeremy?

The $10 required minimum bid people get when they have a low, low quality score.

It's basically Google saying your campaign or site blows but if you insist on promoting it we'll let you...but it will cost A LOT of money.

[DomainMagnate]

bad news heh i haven't been playing with ppc for a while, guess it's not a good time to get in

[lslars31]

Helps me to make myself a whole website for my niche, and just use subpages for my landing pages. That way everything is relevant and you get a great quality score!

EDIT: But yea, people who talk about getting slapped are just trying to blame google for now knowing how to do it.

[explorer]

Originally Posted by GuyFromChicago

Earlier this week I set up a brand new campaign with 25K keywords in a brand new AdWords account on a domain that's about a month or two old. There's hardly any content at all...seriously maybe a paragraph. Getting close to 2K visitors a day already for about $0.04 each with thousands of "great" quality scores.

Good work GFC.

I've not been able to achieve this even though I thought I knew a little about adwords. I've not done as well recently as I once did. If you don't mind saying, how is the landing page monetized?

[thomashoi]

Originally Posted by explorer

Good work GFC.

I've not been able to achieve this even though I thought I knew a little about adwords. I've not done as well recently as I once did. If you don't mind saying, how is the landing page monetized?

could be doing adsense arbitrage i.e bidding for low cost keywords and sending them to a page with high cost keywords. But beware that google is cracking down on such sites.

[GuyFromChicago]

Originally Posted by explorer

I've not been able to achieve this even though I thought I knew a little about adwords. I've not done as well recently as I once did. If you don't mind saying, how is the landing page monetized?

Originally Posted by thomashoi

could be doing adsense arbitrage i.e bidding for low cost keywords and sending them to a page with high cost keywords. But beware that google is cracking down on such sites.

No ads on the landing page.

The monetization will come later - goal early on is to build a large base of users (people who bookmark the site or opt in to e-mail list) then to introduce ads or sponsorships (sold direct or via one the available networks) at a later point in time.

[CustardMite]

Quite a few of the campaigns that I manage are totally new with brand new websites.

I've never had a minimum bid of over £0.25 (except for once, when I was bidding on terms that had only a tenuous link to the site), and very rarely do they go over about £0.08.

That's across retail sites, information sites, text message subscription sites, brochure requests and pretty much every other kind of site.

Except for sites which make money by posting links to other sites...

[GuyFromChicago]

Originally Posted by CustardMite

Quite a few of the campaigns that I manage are totally new with brand new websites.

Same here. It seems to me you have to have a really, really, really poor element (or elements) of your campaign to get those high min bids.

Maybe I should open an account and see if I can ruin it

[explorer]

Originally Posted by GuyFromChicago

No ads on the landing page.

The monetization will come later - goal early on is to build a large base of users (people who bookmark the site or opt in to e-mail list) then to introduce ads or sponsorships (sold direct or via one the available networks) at a later point in time.

This has also been my experience too. In the past I've directly monetized landing pages. In today's world, I'm finding it's far easier to get a "Great" QS on a non-monetized landing page - which is a pest because it's not nearly so profitable.

Are you concerned that if you do try to monetize the landing page, your quality score will suffer?

[GuyFromChicago]

Originally Posted by explorer

Are you concerned that if you do try to monetize the landing page, your quality score will suffer?

At the point when I'm ready to monetize the landing page it worn't matter - the income will come from my established base of users. If I do keep using AdWords to promote and keep a flow of new users to the site I'll land them at least a click away from any ads or direct monetization effort.

[retrocode0071]

Congrats GFK

I am a little unsure of what you are trying to say ... Maybe you could break out how your adwords campaign is a bit different. Are you saying your ads are spot on, or are you saying your ad landing page is spot on, or both. With 25K words in your campaign you will need more than 1 page (unless its a very long page

First of all, the google slap isn't instantaneous, and secondly I believe its completely related to the monetization of your site.

So new sites on new domains that aren't monetized will not get slapped. I did my own test, and moved a "slapped" site to a new domain, took all the old campaign details and pointed it to the new site, and with all the same content and bang , back to low CPC.
Rather than wait for the google slap, I did all the things you are supposed to do .. massively increased content, reduced keywords, landing page happines.... etc etc etc.

Here is a new test for you.

Open your site, add one page called get a home loan now, put in a bunch of uncloaked affiliate links to home loans, and then start a campaign on it... let me know how long it takes to get slapped.. . I am thinking it won't be long (by that I mean a week or month). After this you can watch all your other campaigns aimed at this site get nuked, even the ones that are really what the site is about. Then after you get hit, remove all the links, and just have some nice text.... and then wait x months until your ppc price drops, and while you are waiting for for this to happen, I am sure your competitors will have reinvested their earnings is a completely kick ass site.

[GuyFromChicago]

Originally Posted by retrocode0071

I am a little unsure of what you are trying to say

Typically I setup very "tight" campaigns. One keyword per ad group/landing page is not uncommon. This time around I took what I would call a lazy approach and just loaded up a bunch of ad groups with related keywords, used DKI like it's going out of style and am sending everyone (from all 25K keywords) to the exact same landing page. This landing page contains maybe 4 or 5 of the 25K keywords I'm bidding on. I also did this with a brand new AdWords account that had never run a single ad. I thought for sure when I took the lazy approach I would see a ton of high min bids and low quality scores. I'm not seeing either.

Originally Posted by retrocode0071

First of all, the google slap isn't instantaneous, and secondly I believe its completely related to the monetization of your site.

By monetization do you mean clearly identifiable (via bots) footprints like ads networks & affliate links? Even if that's the case I would have to disagree or at least question it. I have campaigns still running (they have been for years) that point to some of the worst pages (in terms of ads and affiliate links) that don't get the $10 min bids.

The point of this thread/post was that the more I look at it the more it seems like you would almost have to try to get a $10 min bid. I really have to question the folks who claim to have a great site and understanding of AdWords but can't get past the $10 min bid.

Originally Posted by retrocode0071

Open your site, add one page called get a home loan now, put in a bunch of uncloaked affiliate links to home loans, and then start a campaign on it... let me know how long it takes to get slapped.. . I am thinking it won't be long (by that I mean a week or month). After this you can watch all your other campaigns aimed at this site get nuked, even the ones that are really what the site is about. Then after you get hit, remove all the links, and just have some nice text.... and then wait x months until your ppc price drops, and while you are waiting for for this to happen, I am sure your competitors will have reinvested their earnings is a completely kick ass site.

I'll see if I can find someone else's page for the test. I have no interest in signing up for even more affiliate stuff

[GuyFromChicago]

OK, 5 minute test concluded.

I just setup a campaign for "bad credit credit cards". I found this page in the top 100 of google:

http:// www. banklady. com / bad. asp

Opened wordtracker, got 300 keywords for "bad credit credit card" and loaded them into my ad group. 298 out of 300 required a $10 minimum bid. The other two required a $5 minimum bid.

What's everone gather from that?