Does Google Ad-sense Make Sense? Are Google Ad-words Friend or Foe? I have learned one thing. Just because millions of people do something, does not necessarily qualify it as the "right" thing to do, it is simply the "popular" thing to do. I am trying to justify this on my own website and coming up short. Can someone help me? At what point does it make sense to include Google Adwords into your website? Is there a threshold on how many visitors per month to justify this? I own and operate separate travel companies. For the life of me I can't see the value of putting other travel company offers directly next to my booking engine, my bread and butter. Yet this is so common I am beginning to wonder. So, it is hard enough in case you guys hadn't noticed to drive traffic to our websites in the first place. Then we finally get them there, entice them to peruse our site, in my case do some cross comparisons of say flight rates, and then right when they go to book say a hotel room I am going to flash them an ad that says "Click Here, up to 65% off Hotel Rates!" Come on guys and gals! Can this be sane? Isn't this a person that is self-sabotaging himself? For what? A few pennies per click? ...even a quarter a click seems too steep a price to loose precious business to. It would be one thing if they were unobtrusive ads at the very bottom of the page, near the footer. But they usually are not. They are in the forefront, right at the top, and almost come to life as Google helps target the ads to what shoppers are looking for. What am I missing guys? On one hand we want them to click these Google Ads to make money. On the other hand we want to make the sale ourselves. Can we really have the best of both worlds? An innocuous blog that is informational in nature, having Google Adwords, makes rational sense. Oh, and love the argument that "If they click off your site by Ad-words,they were probably not going to buy from you anyway, so why not at least make a few pennies off them, it's better than nothing!" And this is their idea of a conclusion steeped in logic? There is a great chance they would have booked a product if it were not for a more enticing ad(s) popping up at them and making it sound like they might be "missing" something better. This is what I would do if booking a hotel room and I saw an ad last minute for what could be perceived as a better deal. Happens all the time, in fact so often, which is my grave concern. Could someone share their experience with this. I have no real-life experience with Google Adwords, so any enlightenment at all for "best practices" would be greatly appreciated. One fellow said that if you have under 50k visitors per month do not engage in any competitive advertising directly on my home page. He is considered a master marketer and well known, though will refrain from names. Is this true or what do you think I should do for a travel website? I don't dare place a "live" link to my website because some moderator would love to yell,"Spammer!". Go figure! Oh but I am right about you moderators, aren't I? Just kidding kind of, so here is my non-live link if someone could be ever so kind enough to look at the home page. Copy & paste is a hassle I realize. In your opinion "where" should I place these Google ads, based on all my concerns above? Or perhaps I shouldn't? http://BeachSpaResorts.com. If there is a favor I can do for you as well, do not hesitate to ask. Thanks for the listen-- You've been patient. Best Regards, Sophia
You've answered your own question. I've seen this many times and always wondered why they do it. If you sell something, best to get the visitor to stay on your own site as long as possible, actually sell to them, and get them to remember YOUR site later, NOT have ads and lose them to competitors. You don't see Burger King with ads from McDonalds in their restaurants, do you?