Search engines to form anti-click fraud alliance
Search engines including Google, Yahoo and MSN have teamed up with The US’ Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) to develop ways of better measuring click fraud, according to the Associated Press .Set to be announced later today, the initiative will attempt to develop guidelines that would introduce more accountability into PPC advertising.
Google launches Adwords click fraud tool
Google has responded to calls for greater transparency on click fraud by introducing a new tool for Adwords users that displays "invalid clicks".
Google business product manager Shuman Ghosemajumder explains: "The metrics of 'invalid clicks' and 'invalid clicks rate' will show virtually all the invalid clicks affecting an account."
This should provide advertisers with an overview of how Google is dealing with clicks already identified as possibly fraudulent, aka 'invalid', though for many marketers this might not be enough.
Click fraud on the rise, according to Click Forensics study
Click fraud remains a growing problem for search engines and online advertisers, according to a study by US-based consultancy Click Forensics.
A 10-point checklist for landing page design
The fallout from Google's new 'Quality Score' is growing, with talk of "mass defections" to MSN and Yahoo, but if you want to stick with Google Adwords then you need to know how to create some quality landing pages.
A quality landing page is one that reinforces ‘conversion intent’. To do this, you need to consider the mindset of your visitor and provide just enough information to persuade them to convert. And no unnecessary distractions… ok?
So what are the 10 things you need to know about designing landing pages? Read on to find out...
PPC hyperinflation reported on Google Adwords
Wow, Google’s Quality Score is really starting to bite hard on some PPC budgets. I’ve just taken a call from Auctioning4U, a UK-based firm that helps people sell goods on eBay, and they are reporting that average click costs have risen by almost 2,000% in just one week.
Trevor Ginn, Head of Consulting at Auctioning4U, told me that one keyphrase has jumped in price from 12p to £2.75 in the last week.
In another example, the price went up from his default of 30p (which paid for an average Adwords position of 1.3) to £5.50. “Feel my pain,” he says, not without reason.
Naturally, Trevor is wounded and reeling, and puzzled as to what he’s done wrong. He’s not really done anything wrong. It is simply a case of Google shifting the goalposts.
Yup, this PPC hyperinflation is linked to Google’s newly-enhanced focus on ad quality. It could be a case of too much, too soon.
eBay sells Adsense click fraud, plays with fire
Last week we reported that eBay has banned Google Checkout, something that is likely to backfire on the auction giant, which owns rival payment processor PayPal.
Silicon has today published a timely analysis of why eBay is more likely to suffer than Big G.
Meanwhile, I have been looking for the smoking gun that might force Google to retaliate, leading to the possible banning of eBay from its search results. Hard to imagine it could come to that, but who knows?
Google's Schmidt on the economics of click fraud
Google CEO Eric Schmidt has played down calls for the search industry to tighten its grip on click fraud by declaring the problem "self-correcting".
Quoted by ZDNet from a speech at Stanford University earlier this year, the Google CEO said clickfraud could ultimately be solved by market forces, and that PPC firms should "let it happen".
Google launches Google Checkout, not GBuy
GBuy is here, only it is called Google Checkout and despite the chief doers of no evil claiming that it “isn’t like PayPal at all”, it is, erm, rather like PayPal, in that merchants use it to process consumer payments.
Google Checkout allows consumers to purchase products by simply logging in to Google – no need for credit card numbers or filling out forms. Obviously you need to tell Google to begin with, but thereafter Google will store your credit card and address data...
Google launches Cost-Per-Action adverts
In an interesting move, Google has started offering cost-per-action advertising to selected website owners on the Adsense programme. In short it’s aimed at getting around the click fraud that is becoming increasingly worrying for Google – where advertisers only derive an income when the website visitor completes an action.
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Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
