I've Opted Out Of The Adwords Search Network

I opted out of the Adwords search network 5 days ago, and so far I am thrilled with the results. The search network includes Froogle, Google Groups, and search sites such as AOL and Ask.com. Since I have opted out my cost per conversion has dropped from over $5 to under $4, and my overall expenses have dropped by nearly 30%. If these numbers hold it means that I was paying almost twice as much for the conversions I was receiving from the search network.

I had a really bad experience while dealing directly with ask.com in the past, I paid for a lot of clicks, but generated virtually no sales.

 

Interesting. I'll try that and see how my results go.

-T

 

Thanks for the advice.

I will take care.

Regards

 

I actually use the content network more than the search network.

Why?

Because I can specify different bids in the content network and tweak things until I reach a decent ROI. Can't do that in the search network...

I've said it before - Google really needs to allow deeper levels of opt in/opt out with in their various distribution channels. I'm still waiting for the day I can opt in or out of having ads diaplyed in Gmail...and being able to write ads specifically that channel would be cool.

 

Yes, even I would like a channel for gmail, that would be great. Adwords should consider providing advertisers such an option soon, it should greatly increase our ROI.

 

But what happened to your volume when you did that? What percentage of clicks were you getting from the search network?

 

My number of clicks dropped about 30%, but my number of sales dropped about 10%. It's very early in the experiment, and I'll post more accurate numbers when I can. So yes, I have lost a few sales, but I was paying twice as much for them as I was paying for sales via google itself. I don't the the search network generates zero sales, I just think the sales they generate are too pricey.

As the current pace I'll generate approximately 210 sales per month for $900 versus 225 for $1200.

 

It's been a week now since I opted out of the publisher's network, so I looked at the past 30 days worth of data, and divided them into the 23 days before I opted out and the 7 days after I opted out.

For the first 23 days, I spent $877.94 for 168 conversions. The cost per conversion was $5.23, and the average number of conversions was 7.64 per day. The average daily spend was $39.91.

For the most recent 7 days I spent $217.09 for 55 conversions. The cost per conversion was $3.95, and the average number of conversions was 6.88. The average daily spend was $27.14.

So, I am spending $12.77 per day less, and getting .76 less conversions. So those lost conversions were costing $16.80 per conversion, assuming the numbers hold true. It's still really early and things may change some, and I guess I could be proven wrong (I'll keep measuring), but I am really satisfied at the moment that I am making the right move for me.

 

Interesting, the opposite holds true for me, but I havent really done much to optimise on the content network.

 

You're misunderstanding. Mike talked about dropping the search network, advertising only in google search. It has nothing to do with the content network. If you go to your campaign settings you'll see the difference.

 

What Google don't mention a lot is that the 'search network' includes their domain parking AdSense product, which is for the most part junk traffic.

I've found positive results in opting out from the search network with my e-commerce clients. I suggest everyone try this and track results.

Hopefully Google will start to display where your impressions are being made on the search network as they plan to do with the content network, and allow customers to opt in/out of particular search partners.

 

Good for you, but I think you're using a very, very blunt tool.

As others have suggested, you can get excellent results from the content network. A bit less of the blunt tool approach and a bit more analysis and refining is usually worthwhile.

 

I agree. Google should display what sites are included in the content network.

Personally I've been posted on the following sites as part of the search network:

aol.com
att.net
ask.com
compuserve.com
eathlink.net
netscape.com
shopping.com
smarter.com
comcast.net

Someone's taken this one step farther and posted a longer list, you can see it here

 

If you're selling actual products then I might suggest staying on the Search Network..

Someone searches froogle, shopping.com for widget and your ad comes up for widget, you make sales. It's more an issue (I think) of doing proper filtering on the ad level (in terms of content).

My. $.02, anyway.

 

I'm going to try and limit to the search network and see what happens.

 

That is a great pity because the content network is the least
understood and has the greatest potential. I call it the last
great Adwords frontier.
It take patience and practice to get it right if you are just
starting out. The results can be spectacular though when you do .




180

 

interesting.. I know ask.com is a waste of time, I advertised with them directly and had terrible results...

 

Same here. Like a 0,01 % CTR, IIRC.