Why Smart Pricing Is BS

They say smart pricing occurs because advertisers get low conversions, but since when did Adsense track advertiser conversions??

Have you ever advertised on Adwords and had Google track your conversions.

This makes 0 sense whatsoever.

 

That's not the main reason in my opinion why smart pricing is total BS.

Since when do we THE PUBLISHERS have to make ADVERTISERS sites convert for them?
I haven't seen anything as ridiculous as that. It's not our fault if a user leaves my sites for theirs, and ends up not buying anything. It's just wrong.

 

They could stop it by setting up minimum price per click so publisher make more than 1/2 a cent. I have some sites i just took adsense off it was not worth the little bit of money i made compared to what i make off products listed on the sites

 

Damn, you make only 1/2 a cent per click! That's really bad, so in your case adsense is not a good choice for your site/niche.

 

Well it's not BS is a good thing but ofcourse needs more twicks ...

 

Nice points webwork and fanaddict.

It makes you think whether google just wants to save some money. But then the voice in your head says "No! They have billions!"

 

i'd guess that the majority of adsense sites are making 1/2 cent on some clicks... or, have you ever heard of adsense site-targeted cpm ads? it's the average that counts, and getting paid 1/2 cent for somebody to leave your site isn't worth it, even if it's only 1 visitor out of 50.

 

I second that.

This is probably why they like to keep the Adsense formula a secret.

So they can shave you once in a while, just for kicks and fatter pockets.

 

Publishers don't need to be responsible for the overall conversion for advertisers. Smart pricing depends on RELATIVE conversions. That is, if your web site send traffic that converts at 50% and the other guys web site send traffic that converts at 5%, then the other guy will be smart priced and you will not.

 

When has Google ever tracked conversions?

 

That's still the most ridiculous thing iv ever heard. GA isn't a CPA site, it's CPC. Smart pricing is total BS.
Like I said, we SHOULD NOT be responsible for conversion rates (even though we are... and that's just unbelievable). They are paying PER CLICK, that is it.

Iv been pulling more and more of my sites away from GA, and i'll continue to do so until I see things drastically change.

 

You ever used Adwords? Get yourself educated before claiming someone as cheater.

Read how to track coversion with adwords.

I hope now smartpricing will make some sense to you. If not, let me know. i will write a detail post on whats smartpricing and how to avoid it.

 

If we get punished if the sites don't convert, do we get rewarded when they do?

 

I use Adwords and Google Analytics and track conversions. Google certainly keeps track of this.

 

Snap!! I stand corrected.

So I am guessing when we get smart priced this means a lower click cost for the advertiser, right?

 

Google is probably working to phase out independant publishers all together.

Google has a network setup that no longer depends completely on website owners to distribute advertisements, they have connections with software like Firefox they can fall back on.

 

FanAddict

I fully agree with you on that

it is the advertiser who had the duty to make an attractive site - with an attractive product - needed and useful to / by many and easy to be purchased/subscribed to in order to get good conversion.

we publisher have the duty to produce top ad placement to offer the best possible GENERIC clicks - to thus offer the highest truly interested ad-users
all else is advertisers duty and job.

I would vote for a minimum eCPM set by the publisher for channels and/or entire site

to all those having a eCPM of cents only or a CTR of low single digits ..
wake up and OPTIMIZE your adsense!!
ADSENSE OPTIMIZATION=

1.
COLOR- schemes OTHER than "blending" !!!
the exact color scheme i use NOW since february 2007 is the result of some 300 hrs of precise testing / research and works absolutely best on all my channels / pages / topics of my site!

2.
placement
ONLY ATF brings $
anything else is a waste of space
on ATF - i get 80-90% of my $ - that means a $ eCPM near or around 2 digits with a CTR always in 2 digits

3.
use strictly one of the 3 published most successful formats and avoid other formats.

4.
you are free to learn from my
- colors
- formats
- placements

i have a mid 4 digit $/m and truly invested substantail time in research to FULLY adsense optimize each and every section ...
and you'll see that I actually run all site, all sections, all channels with the same above 1. - 3. !!
the key is my DOIUBLE side by side ATF 336x280 unit that brings across the site 84,29% of total revenue ( exact % this months of an above middle 4 digit k$ total till date ).

that means with any NON-ATF placement I woiuld make 16% of what i do NOW !!!

conclusion:

BEFORE moving away from adsense
FIRST make sure you have ALL fully optimized your placement and offer a perfect ATF.

if your colors and placement is totally deoptimized like in most cases - then also your OTHER alternate ads whatever you may chose also may fail to get the $ flowing into the pocked of advertisers and publishers alike.

we had lots of very detailed earlier threads on this topic in DP

 

Hans, if you don't deserve rep for that I don't know what would.

+Rep from me!

 

Yes you are not smartpriced, isn't it nice

 

Yes, that's correct. The advertisers don't pay for clicks that don't convert as well for them.