Google's new landing page algorithm causing $10 minimum bids on thousands of sites!

Think again - ALL their blogs are on blogspot:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/
http://adsense.blogspot.com/
http://adwords.blogspot.com/
http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/
and on and on...

 

I've spoken with many who have legitimate services and products offered on the landing page of the relevant keyword. I'm one of them, and there are many others.

I convert the best with simple and upfront pricing. That's what you mostly see when you land on my page from my ads. It converts GREAT. The information regarding the keyword affected by these increases is there on the site, easy to find, and easy to navigate to. Landing pages are KEY to successful conversion and Google has now become a very NEGATIVE factor. I might as well advertise on FindWhat or LookSmart. I never thought Google could effect me like this.

And to them, it's not about money. I easily spend over 30k a month on many various ad campaigns within Adwords. They're looking at the "big picture" and they believe it's the right move.

I guess money will eventually give that answer.

 

To get good organic results for a keyword you need to have good SEO for that keyword.

Now to get good PPC results for a keyword you need to have good SEO for that keyword too.

Whats the difference?

 

Well, I spent my Sunday afternoon "optimizing" all my landing pages. Thanks Google. Next I'll go ahead and SEO them and quit paying you 2 grand a month. But that's another story.

So, has anyone "fixed" their landing pages and seen a change in their min bids on adwords? How long did it take for the changes to have an effect?

 

It is not that much bad what it sound. My ads are performing good and some have gone up in position.

Nuttymarketer

 

If you have fixed your landing page, then I would suggest you contact Google and ask them to review the page. Of course you migt still see an increase in cost from your original rate if others competing for that phrase are paying a higher bid. This is where I see it as totally unfair. YOU are competing with CRAP landing pages that are being penalised. Google is telling them that their pages are crap, but you have to compete with them . OK you are going to gain in other ways (do you have conversion tracking on?)

 

All very well but here in the UK nobody uses Yahoo & MSN.

 

Yep, google has well over 70% of the Uk search market, so it is GOD (maybe I should post this in the 'does god exist thread ) .

 

I am EXTREMELY keen on learning more regarding this issue: has anyone found suitable ways to optimize their landing pages to follow their new terms?

I'm hearing a lot of classic brick and mortar businesses getting shafted by this update when isn't Google meant to pander towards these groups?

 

Art, this is just another case of babies being thrown out with the bathwater I am afraid. Google cares ONLY about relevancy, and will allow NOTHING to get in their way with this regard.

 

Man, you gotta love Google. Just got off the phone. I had 2 questions:

1. They said they would review my site and get back to me on Thursday. It's Monday. What's up?

2. I spent my weekend revamping my web pages, when can I expect to see a change (assuming there is a change) in my minimum bids?

I'm quoting here:
Answer 1. "I don't know what the status is. I guess since you haven't heard anything they haven't gotten to it." Me: When can I expect to hear? "I'm not sure."

Answer 2. "Yeah, like, we're not really able to say when that will happen. It's an ongoing process." Me: Well, you see, in order to say that my efforts were a success or failure, I really need to be able to put a finite date on this. "Yeah, uhhhh, well, like, I can't really help you with that."

Dude, that's like really sweet and stuff. This is the company of the future? They have some brilliant minds doing the real work, but the arrogance is amazing. How is the air up on that pedestal, Google? My money is on the EU knocking them off - but just so long as someone does......

 

Yep, the problem here is that they are carrying over the cavalier attitude shown towards Organik stuff into the PPC stuff, without realising that people will NOT allow tanyone to piss them around when it comes to money.

You can accept the attitude of 'It is a free service so what do you expect' (or roughly translated it is our ball and we play by our rules), but when we are talking millions of $£, then that attitude does not transfer.

 

I don't like the way this is going either. My take on it though, is that we have the power to persuade Google in two ways:

1. with our money -- stop spending with them
2. generate bad press which could in turn effect their stock price

I don't think (1) is working, so I would guess that it might take (2) to get their attention long enough to make a change. Anyone have suggestions on getting the media's attention?

 

If I'm not mistaken this is how it was from the beginning, or at least a lot before this update in algorythm. If someone searched for "phillips tv" and there were advertisers that bidded for "phillips tv", just "phillips" and just "tv", the ones who were bidding for "phillips tv" would get advantage.

Although that wouldn't necessarilly have to mean that at the end they would rank higher - it's just that the "phillips" and "tv" bidding advertisers would have to pay probably waaay more than "phillips tv" advertisers for the SAME place.

Also, it wouldn't make sense, OK I haven't been using AdWords for a couple of months now but isn't it still a feature that you CAN choose from broad, exact and phrase match - don't tell me Google stopped with this practice?! These things make difference.

 

Well it's a tough world for Google out there also.
They have a job of pleasing the people who only use their site for searching as otherwise that would mean less of them coming back which would result in less people paying for advertising on Google...
On the other hand, they still have to please their advertisers as they, however good or not the alternative is, ultimatelly DO have these alternatives.

 

I am really sorry for what's happening to you. This just ain't right.

Have you actually filed a spam report or just filled a "I'm Dissatisfied" form?

I really can't say for sure that this would make much difference but it's sure worth trying.

As you can read here,

I don't want to end up as some unconditional Google lover but really by helping Google like this we're helping ourselves.
Someone mentioned Google should manually review every ad like Overture - I really don't this this is going to happen and we just need to wait for Google engineers to make a better algorythim...

 

All at our expense? And I'm talking for legit marketers who have been affected by this.

 

I've always understood their constant lust for relevancy. Fair enough, Net marketers are usually the first to feel the effects of any negatives caused by algo changes (call them hypersensitive, even ), but when the effects are so widespread as to effect a portion of their mainstream audience, things are really messed up!

I'm actually not looking forward to promoting new programs at the moment.

However, I'm reassured by the fact that the addition of variables allows for more manipulation for those savvy enough to figure out what they are...

The next few days are going to be spent studying once again!

 

What I hate about all this is that the innocent parties are getting caned because in many cases (not all) this has pushed up the expenditure of advertisers who's pages and quality score is fine. The reason being that they are now competing with poor pages who STILL make money.

 

My ads were 100% relevant, I am simply not daft enough to include irrelevant ads.

I had a CTR in excess of 11% with max Bid set at £0.30p and average bid of £0.23

1 in 10 visitors to my site bought my product.

I have NO adsense ads on my site

I have been told my quality is not good enough and my minimum bid increased to £2.75.

More importantly it is not even a "max" bid any more - EVERY click costs me EXACTLY £2.75.

What I find so daft is that I have gone from average position 5 to average position 1.

If my landing page is not good enough WHY do they want me to appear higher and get even more clicks if it is really about user experience quality??

My sales have increased )of course) but my profits have plummetted.

I am in daily contact with them and they have promised a review by the tech team but I wont be holding my breath as they seem to be sticking to their guns. I will keep you informed if my argument prevails.