Throwing a stone in the pond here, but I spend about $1000 per day on online advertising across Adwords, Overture and then specific websites for banners, etc... I look at Adsense and from an advertiser's point of view I've got to say everything about it turns me off. I just did a site test for travel in Australia: there were about 2 worthwhile sites (who I advertise with anyway) and the rest were all complete spammy junk sites with 'menus' pointing to adsense pages and the like.... beyond the fact that I can't imagine them bringing me a single dime in business, I think that these ads could actually de-value branding and marketing efforts... From a punters point of view I generally ignore adsense ads too... But I read you guys saying you get revenue from them... I'm clearly missing something here. Oh, and why don't google spend some of their billions on shutting down BS sites that use adsense for content... they really are wasting everyone's time, and google must have the technology to notice when a site has NOTHING but adsense on the page... damn they can find duplicate content across the entire www! ah, that's better
Maybe it's 'cos those spammy junk sites still convert for the advertisers. And 'cos you "can't imagine them bringing me a single dime in business" Maybe you're losing extra profits by not even trying them. The sufers who end up on those spammy sites are no different to those who end up on good looking rich content sites, they're still looking for something. If your advert is what they're after.. they might click.....if it's not......they won't Pete
Jaimitodelqueso, just shut off the content network in your Adwords interface. Either that or set up a head to head test - content network vs. search network - and judge the results for yourself. At minimum, if you're going use the content network spend about 20 - 30 minutes a day examining your web stats and blocking sites you don't think are working for your business.
Jaimitodelqueso, I share your sentiment regarding junk sites. Junk sites do not add any value to the internet as a whole and their only purpose is to leech money from advertisers. They are created in effort to manipulate Google PageRanks and to get much eyeballs onto them as possible and then generate revenue through accidental clicks or confused or bored user's clicks. To me they are a parasites. I know very little about AdWords since I'm not a advertiser but I can understand your sentiment. I guess I'm wondering if you can filter out your ad's from appearing on junk sites you've found. Perhaps you will have to be more vocal about your situtation to Google and maybe get some of your money back. I do have similar frustration regarding apparent apathy of Google to do anything about proliferation of junk sites. These useless junk sites do undermine the long term viability of AdSense and AdWords program and Google will have to do something about them sooner or later.
I can't see what you're basing that on, really. A surfer will only click an advert if they're interested. You can't be fooled into clicking on a link that says 'Holidays in Australia' - they aren't going to click it if they're looking for photos of pregnant ladies in cheerleader costumes. You said you know little about AdWords and aren't an advertiser. The content network doesn't perform as well as the search network for most things due to the nature of it, but that's not nessasarily to do with 'junk' sites. It's just how things are. People on content sites are usually information hunters, they aren't after buying something.. but some of them might if they see an offer that interests them. As an example, when I used AdWords conversion for my product was 3% on average on the search network, and 0.6% on the content network - this was enough to break even on the content network, but not so much to warrant spending the time posting the things, so I stopped using the content network myself. I really don't think the junk sites effect conversion to much of an extent, it's just the nature of the content network. Pete
Yep, that's exactly what I've done, I agree it's worth a try and a way of getting to the 0.1% of OK sites using adsense in an 'acceptable' manner... still surprised that google let such a mission critical part of their business become such a cesspit
What's an 'OK' site, though? In my eyes, it's ones that convert. Spammy, junk pages convert too, you know. The surfers still got to the page with your advert on because they we're searching for australian holiday information. I think you're judging the content network too harshly. Those spammy sites are just maximizing your reach, really. I certainly wouldn't dismiss them based on the fact they look naff or aren't very what's the word.. corperate? 'rich' looking? The people that land on them are still interested in what you're offering.. that's the thing I think you might be missing out on if you don't test it. Pete
I think they have been working on cleaning it up a bit, but it's an uphill battle. For every crap made for Adsense site out there that they kill off 10 more spring up 5 minutes later to take it's place. Use the site blocking option - it's gold. I ban at least 5 - 10 sites a day in the content network on one of my newer campaigns. I've found the more crap I ban, the better the ROI. Granted it will drive a smaller number of visitors but the ROI on that segment is much, much better. Still too early with this particular campaign to have any worthwhile results. The content network can work, but you have to be on top of your game if you want it to be anything more than a daily drain on the bank account. Most of the time, imo, it's more trouble than it's worth.
Yeah it can be a bit discouraging... I starred a site in a small niche recently, and research indicated that the other sites were basically just set up to try and capitalize on lost traffic and were not providing any real service or information. Will be a good day if and when such sites are completely marginalized, and it will make things a lot more profitable for other publishers.
I couldn't agree more and that's basically what my last blog entry was all about. The problem with spam sites are that they are covered with ads. A visitor might be interested in let's say "Holiday Accommodation" and then get drawn to a spam site. They see loads of ads, but no relevant information, so quick as they can they leave the site. When the site is actuallly ABOUT the topic and has relevant information, the user will definitely take the time to click on relevant ads.
You went wrong on the very first line. Go slowly but surely when you advertise with adsense. Increment your advertising budget with the profits you make from adwords campaign. No market is the same and by experience i know that testing is the only way to go. if you find that you're not converting enough for a particular industry, just change to something else.
mm , I can see your point but there are some good sites out there also using adsense, and indeed , maybe G should ban some of those spammy sites
Well, obviously you can't do anything about it. That does not mean that you should spend like a crazy horse over a dead end.
You can report them if they are violating the TOS. If there's no violation, just block them from displaying your ads.
Huh? I've heard black hat optimizers make dozens of spammy sites a day, with licenses signed under different names. Good luck with your denounciations...sure hope you get paid for it cuz it's definitely gonna be a full time job
It takes 2 seconds to report a violation. I report violations..."spammy" is open to interpretation. Conversions + my preference. I don't feel like supporting spammy sites with my Adwords money. Not to mention that conversions from traffic from those types of sites is usually (not always) not up to par with traffic from higher quality sites.
One man's spam is another man's treasure There are sites out there that are borderline in my opinion...they are "spammy" but there's no clear violation (like "click on my ads to make me $") that will get their account shut down. While Google may deem these sites as acceptable I do not and choose to not advertise with them.
Webmistress, not 1 cent of the $1000 per day goes on adsense. It took me a long time to be at that level of spending and I get excellent ROI. My point is (as someone said earlier), it's an enormous amount of work, risk etc, etc, etc... for a service that is at best mediocre. I think if it wasn't called google it would already be dead myself.
I'm speaking from the viewpoint as a publisher here. If you an Advertiser uses Adsense to advertise he is actually getting quite a nice deal. You only pay for clicks (if you use CPC) and you can bid for the amount you are willing to pay. Sounds pretty nice to me. The main problem is to only have your ads displayed on sites that are relevant and of course in Google's search results. If advertisers are extremely selective about where their ads are shown then they might see some nice returns... at least that's my opinion. Disclaimer: I've never used Adwords some I'm going on what I understand of the system, and not actual experience