Google pays for the conversions themselves.. Firefox is free - Google is paying for the Toolbar which helps them collect user-behavior data.
Well, that, and the toolbar has that oh-so-useful search box. Said search box leads users to Googlesearch, news, groups, and other google properties, all chock full of Google ad goodness. One or two clicks on an ad would pay for the average cost of a referral. And on top of that, it's good advertising for Google -- it trains users to go to Google and not Yahoo or MSN. -- Leva
I can attest to this. I have confirmed that I have had 12 installs today and 5 of them have been counted for a total of 3.26. Something is screwed here.
How can you attest to your installs? Are the all IE users on Windows who have never installed Firefox? If so, that is garbage.
Hnnh. Here's a question for the rest of you getting statistically significant amounts conversions -- is your payout per conversion also way off? Not only are they not counting most conversions, the ones they are, they're paying about 60% of what they were, by my stats. Ah, well. It's Monday. Hopefully Google will be providing some answers soon. And maybe a credit, or notification that this is a permanent, intended change. If it is, I'll be looking for alternative advertising for that slot because this isn't worth it. -- Leva
Funny you mention that. I noticed more 50 cent conversions than usual, but I didn't want to jump on that. I would usually get 1-2 a day, but i got a few more per day this weekend. Do you really think Google is going to offer an explanation? I have a feeling we shouldn't be holding our breath. It's been over a week now.
Oh, Google will eventually say something. That the only person who's gotten a response has been Tearabite and his sounds like a "clueless canned CSR response" is significant -- I bet they're holding our e-mails until they have an officially approved response. Likely, the delay in response is one of two things. 1) They're figuring out a press release for the Adsense blog explaining they've deliberately changed the definition of "valid firefox referral" and the result has been an 80% reduction in ad revenue for firefox buttons. Since this wasn't announced in advance, the press release will likely involve the cooperation of their legal team AND their PR team. This is the sort of thing you announce in ADVANCE. If it's a deliberate change they neglected to warn us about in advance, and which is not consistent with their terms for firefox referrals (i.e., valid conversions are anything from a Windows-using no-Firefox-installed user from anywhere but China), they're gonna have to do some pretty talking to avoid infuriating a lot of publishers. (I could also make a snarky observation here about the viability of a firefox referral program where the payout is so little that firefox.org would find it more profitable to put a Netflix banner above the fold in place of the firefox referrals.) 2) They're going, "Oh, f___, something's wrong with the firefox referrals." And if that's the case, sooner or later, they'll fix it. Then they'll tell us it's fixed. If they're actually tracking conversions, and can credit us later, they may not be real motivated to do it in a smoking hurry. Because it's all good from their standpoint -- little impact to Google. (A few more grey hairs for Google publishers.) There's precedent for the slow-as-molasses response when it doesn't impact Google, and Google's in the error. Google owes me for quite a few Adsense conversions that are not being processed correctly. They have indicated I'll get a credit someday. I do not have very high hopes in seeing that money any time soon. I figure it'll be a nice bonus when it happens ... it's been months ... *sigh* Here's a question for the rest of you -- are you running scripts to display Firefox referrals only to IE users? I had this okay'd by Google, but wonder if this is somehow triggering a fraud filter. I've changed back to showing Firefox to everyone, but it hasn't made a difference on my stats -- but it might be like smartpricing, it takes awhile to see a difference. This is pure and complete speculation on my part, in absence of any feedback from Google. -- Leva
I had a script to only show to IE users, however changed just like you did when I thought it was effecting my conversions. Hasn't seemed to make a difference. Also, about what was mentioned earlier, I am definitely getting a LOT more non-us commissions. 6 conversions so far for a total of 2.10
So high? My God,In my country,It's only $0.01 per tanslate. sorry,My english is poor.Some one understand me?
Hmmm. If that's the problem, I'll be highly annoyed. I e-mailed Google before implementing it and got a specific confirmation that it was not against their rules. -- Leva
Do you have a channel setup to see how that one performs in relation to the others? Is it having the same problems?
I also had a slight drop yet my site is down load.. (Its in china .. and there is that constant fighing going there..)
Another question I have: is anyone not experiencing a drop in conversions. So far, I haven't heard anyone say they're fine. -- Leva