My discussions with Google re: Brand Name Bidding and Affiliate Landing Pages
Other the last few weeks I’ve had various conferene calls with senior people at Google AdWords in Ireland as well as in the USA.
It all started when Google brought in a Quality Score algorithm that effects Landing Pages. Here are some links detailing the history:
December 2005: A new addition to the Quality Score
July 2006: Landing page quality update
November 2006: Landing page quality update 2
November 2006: Answering your landing page quality questions part 1
November 2006: Answering your landing page quality questions part 2
From July of this year I noticed that a handful of my Brand Bidding landing pages had been affected. So I rang my account manager and had various discussions on the subject. The problem I was having was that my landing pages had been penalised and bids had gone up to $10 a click. However, some of my competitors where still showing their ads and their landing pages had exactly the same type of content as mine. By that I mean comparisons, reviews, and lots of unique content. So I asked how come my competitors can show ads but I can’t? The standard reply was that my competitors must be paying the minimum bid required (i.e. $10) Now seeing as I know my competitors I had asked them this, and no, of course they weren’t. I mean who can be profitable at $10 a click? So I told Google this and was then met with “we are sorry but we respect our customers privacy so can’t give out any information about their account”. OK I said, so tell me how I can reactivate my ads at a sensible CPC so I can compete on a level playing field. “You can’t” was the reply. OK so how can I build some new landing pages that will adhere to your guidelines and won’t be penalised? “We can’t tell you that, just look at our guidelines, but we can’t promise anything”.
Anyway this went on for a very long time, and was very frustrating as we just went round and round in circles. But, after various conversations with different people at Google I can conclude that brand name bidding to affiliate landing pages will have a very short life span. One of the guys from Google in the US was very clued up on UK affiliates and asked me to search for Sky on Google.
He then pointed out that all the affiliate landing pages look very good and adhere to the landing page policies etc. However he told me that Google’s vision is that when a user searched for “Sky” then they should only see one result, and that is for the official Sky site itself. He went on to say that landing pages only serve as an interference for the user, when trying to get to the official Sky site. And to be honest I have to agree. Lets be honest, if a customer types in a well know brand into Google then they want to get to that site don’t they? So an affiliate sticking up a landing page only serves one person, the affiliate (who gains to receive a commission). It has no value to the end user whatsoever as it only regurgitates information from the merchants site. The Google rep then went on to say that further landing page quality scores will be applied over time.
So with all this in mind I have turned down numerous offers to be alowed to brand bid on Google this year as I honestly don’t see a future in it. Instead I’m continuing to develop content sites that offer value to users. I believe that is the only way forward, I’ve never done much brand name bidding to be honest but I am so glad I hadn’t built a whole business around it.
What I’m listeing to right now: Ciara ” “Promise”
Affiliate Marketing - Google AdWords
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Monday, December 4th, 2006 at 1:13 pm and is filed under Affiliate Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Welcome to my blog. My name is Kieron Donoghue and I run UK Offer Media Ltd. I thought it would be fun to post a daily (well hopefully daily) blog, writing about my experiences in Internet Marketing and more specifically Affiliate Marketing. I'll include some personal stuff too, probably about my other passions, music and cars. Please feel free to post your comments and thoughts too.
December 4th, 2006 at 6:41 pm
Well, I hope “Google’s vision” doesn’t get in the way of the numerous businesses that operate by being resellers, eg T-Mobile dealers, travel agents, insurance brokers, etc etc etc.
Fsck Google.
December 4th, 2006 at 9:40 pm
An excellent post; thank you for sharing your conversation with google with us
certainly saves alot of heart break and tears in the next coming months! 
December 5th, 2006 at 10:53 am
I’ve also spoken to Google about PPC affiliates and landing page changes. A number of my keywords have been hit by $5/$10 minimum bids and I know for certain other affiliates are bidding on the same popular (but targeted) terms and paying less. I was told:
“They investigated your account thoroughly and have assured me that your website, [URL here], has not been affected by landing page quality. As you may be aware, your Quality Score is the most important factor in determining your keyword performance. It is determined by your keyword’s click-through rate (CTR) on Google, relevance of ad text, historical keyword performance, landing page quality and other relevancy factors. Your keyword list is made up of extremely specific terms [my emphasis]. This may be affecting your Quality Score.”
So as well as landing page factors, Google are apparently factoring in other metadata from AdWords accounts when they set these prohibitive minimum bids.
Several users over at WebmasterWorld have been told by Google reps to concentrate on broader terms with large negative keyword lists, instead of chasing ‘the long tail’ with exact match keywords.
In a later email, I was told:
“Finally, when I reviewed your campaign for the site [URL here], I noticed that you recently increased your Daily Budget and max CPC. As a result, all your keywords are currently active.”
Interesting to see that budget makes a difference, given the discussion on Google price gouging over at Threadwatch.
December 5th, 2006 at 2:56 pm
I too have had discussions with Google, not so much about brand bidding, but the price hike in general. I am still confused as to how it appears to be one rule for one, and another rule for others.
I was told that in my example, “canned cat food” had been shifted from $0.75 to $10.00 due to the new quality scoring algs they have introduced. However, with an average position of 2.3, a CTR of 7.4% and a page that is dedicated to the subject I am perplexed as to what else they expect.
I have asked why they don’t think my ad relevant to the phrase, yet the big corps such as EBay, are able to advertise the following;
Bargain Canned cat food
Fantastic low prices here.
Feed your passion on eBay.co.uk!
http://www.ebay.co.uk
When you click on the link you are sent to the following page, which in my eyes, is of no use to the end user;
http://search.ebay.co.uk/canned-cat-food_W0QQfcclZ1QQfclZ4QQfnuZ1QQfsooZ1QQfsopZ1
I also very much doubt EBay are being told to stump up $10.00 per click. Will wait with baited breath as to Googles answer on this :o(
December 8th, 2006 at 6:57 pm
Hi Kieron,
Nice post, I have to agree with you on the whole, however one point I would like to pick up on is this: If the searcher wants a Sky comparison with NTL then why shouldn’t someone with exactly that on their site be able to provide it to the searcher without having to pay extortionate amounts to Google for the privilege.
Unfortunately I think Google are in some instances taking visitor value away from the user, I guess they are prepared to take the good sites down with the chaff simply to get the end result they are after.
Personally I think it is an insult that they consider charging $10 per click to do it, if that is their honest goal then they should just say we DO NOT allow brand name bidding! and that be the end of it, because what they have done smacks of greed, and they are really saying what we want when a user types in Sky is for that user to see only Sky and those people willing to pay us through the nose for the privilege.
December 10th, 2006 at 12:53 pm
Hello,
Just wondering what your overall CTR is on Adwords. Or what you will term a good CTR.
Many thanks!!
December 12th, 2006 at 9:09 pm
kunle, I have some campaigns that only get a 3% ctr but still make good money. I also have some that get 65% ctr and also make good money.
March 22nd, 2007 at 6:45 pm
Now that Google is releasing their CPA program I have one question to ask: Will the same landing page rules apply to those working to promote their offers as have been applied to the affiliate marketing community?