Google Adwords | Internet Marketing Blog

Eureka! Google optimises its PPC Adwords quality algorithm

Will Google’s decision to introduce an algorithmic element into its Adwords ‘Quality Score’ spell the end for sponsored keyword arbitrage and add further pressure to affiliates to clean-up their act?

by Arjo Ghosh 31 July 2006 07:16am 0 comments

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.

by Chris Lake 26 July 2006 13:22pm 2 comments

What digital giants can learn from Greek mythology

Microsoft’s choice of Argo as the development name for its eagerly awaited digital media player has got us thinking about how other mighty digital brands might (or might not) want to draw on Greek mythology for inspiration.

by Linus Gregoriadis 25 July 2006 14:07pm 0 comments

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.

by Richard Maven 18 July 2006 11:57am 1 comment

Will the geeks really rule the world?

Paul Graham, one of the founders of web incubator Y Combinator, says we’re not in a bubble, and he’s right. There’s way too much talk about this mythical bubble. It ain’t a bubble, folks.

However, I think Paul is wide of the mark on a number of his assertions made when interviewed by Ian Delaney, who is currently writing a book on Web 2.0. Paul says he has spotted “a social trend that will last”, namely: “the startup world will increasingly be ruled by technical people rather than business people”.

God forbid!

I’m amazed that a savvy investor would think that way. Paul is a hacker himself of course, and a successful entrepreneur to boot, so I could be wildly out on this one. It just seems… wrong… on… so… many… levels…

by Chris Lake 13 July 2006 20:50pm 2 comments

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.

by Chris Lake 13 July 2006 13:34pm 2 comments

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?

by Chris Lake 11 July 2006 13:04pm 5 comments

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".

by Chris Lake 10 July 2006 18:34pm 1 comment

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...

by Chris Lake 29 June 2006 18:51pm 2 comments

IAB's new research initiative misses the point

The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) has launched its latest initiative to understand more about the online behaviour, in a bid to provide advertisers with “a holistic understanding of what, where and how people are accessing the internet”.

The Holy Grail for the IAB is to provide “a single online planning currency” for marketers, to help them “plan their online brand campaigns against traditional media”.

The IAB has teamed up with National Readership Surveys (NRS), which will add an online element to the 3,000 face-to-face interviews it does each month with random consumers: “Areas covered in the study will include; demographic information, frequency of internet usage, where people are going online and how they are accessing the internet - for example by PC or through mobile devices.”

The trouble is, I don’t think this is what online media planners need...

by Chris Lake 27 June 2006 15:01pm 2 comments