The Google Insider

Google plans to crack down on AdWords clients who use low quality landing pages for their websites. Particularly those people who’ve set up “Adsense-only” pages that attract clicks from various keyword searches. The click arbitrage problem begins with advertisers who purchase keywords at the minimum bid price using Google AdWords.

Users who click that ad end up on an AdSense page which is usually filled with AdSense or other contextual advertising that pays the advertiser a higher cost per click than the advertiser paid for the keyword in the AdWord ad in the first place.

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Adding to its lineup of innovations and acquisitions, Google is eyeing personal GPS-based radio advertising using via the Adwords program. From the Micro Markets Blog:

Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, believes that when he is listening to the radio in his car, radio ads should personally address him about his needs. For example, while driving past a clothing store, a radio ad should remind Eric that he needs a pair of pants and instruct him to turn left at the upcoming clothing store.

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Google Inc. is now advertising with text ads in the Chicago Sun-Times. We had all heard of recent developments of this possibility of the partnership between these two companies and now we are seeing it in action. ChicagoBusiness.com gave feedback and insight to what was happening with the business deal.

Google is best-known as an Internet search engine, of course, but nearly all of its revenue comes from ads. Through the first three quarters of 2005, the California-based company posted $4.2 billion in advertising revenue, up 96% from the year-earlier period. Most ads on Google’s site are keyed to its users’ search terms.

With this in place, Google is able to expand beyond the internet through their ad service and provide ads to newspapers now along side of many AdSense publishers’ websites. This kind of advertising will expand the Google AdWords program to something that it has never been before. Google AdWords can now be considered a major advertising market network because of the close connections it has to both written and published work; newspapers and online content.

A Google spokesman declines to comment on Google’s satisfaction with the test; the ads debuted on Dec. 9, and only 15 boxes have run so far. “This limited test is part of Google’s continuing effort to develop new ways to provide effective and useful advertising to advertisers, publishers and users,” the Google spokesman says.

Considering what has been said so far, or rather what hasn’t been said, it’s really a toss-up still to see which direction Google goes with these results and if they pursue it even further after this ‘test’ goes.

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As reported before, I was able to attend the eConference in October. The even was a great success and they are making another big push for it this coming year. As soon as early January, specifically January 7th, you will be able to sign up for a full pass. This is not limited to past attendees such as myself, but it is open to everyone. In the previous Xpo, Google AdWords had a booth setup and I also believe that Google AdSense did as well. I was able to get some inside details and talk to a couple of the reps that were at the booth. While at the booth, you can also sign up for contest prizes that happen everyday of the conference. Simply visit www.ecomxpo.com on January 7th to sign up and be part of the upcoming Xpo which will happen on April 4th-6th. I look forward to hopefully seeing some of you there!

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Search? Content? You can choose from both now. Google recently introduced ‘dual bidding’ as a function of AdWords that will let a user choose from either bidding on the search results or the content results; or both. With the introduction of this new system, similar to how Yahoo! does advertising, the system will let advertisers track their promotions and campaigns a lot closer so that they can narrow down their marketing schemes.

Google says that the new content bidding mechanism will be available to advertisers through the AdWords campaign management interface and is available to all advertisers worldwide. It also says the new service will not affect the site targeting feature, which is the tool that allows advertisers to target specific content sites in the Google network.

This will hopefully bring a closer relationship between the advertiser and the publisher. But here’s the kicker….

In addition, the minimum bid for content is now a static $.01 (in the US).

PCPro.co.uk

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Yesterday, Google released the new Onsite Advertiser Sign-Up (OASU) program. This program is to take the initiative and let webmasters refer people to the AdSense and AdWords programs, sign up (normally for AdWords in this case), and place bids for that specific site. We have seen this used in many other PPC applications already that are currently in place by BlogAds and AdBrite. Google finally decided to take the step and become part of that process so they could more easily have advertisers bidding on specific sites.

Other articles are currently being written about this same topic, but everyone seems to have the same idea about it. I see it as a good thing because now publishers can have more control over their advertisers. I still hope, that one day, Google AdSense will let you control which ads are displayed on each site, 100%. Right now, there is very little control over what ads are displayed. The only limitation that are in place right now is the URL Filter, which only lets you get rid of specific advertisers. It will be very interesting to see where this new aspect of the program will take AdSense.

News.com

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Early last month in October, I attended an online event called eComXpo. The event was a Virtual Tradeshow for eCommerce Marketers. Since I am deeply involved with affiliate marketing and other such industries, I was invited to the online event by ValueClick Media. I was able to make a lot of new contacts through the event and I was able to visit many booths while at the event. Many companies were there simply trying to get their name out there and gain clientele through the event to help their company. There were companies ranging from ValueClick Media, to Commission Junction, to Linkshare, to Mamma, to Google AdWords and AdSense, to an almost endless list of companies in the industry. It was really good to see all the companies out there to choose from.

While visiting each booth, most would have a contest you could enter and the information you used to sign up would be given to the company. This was their way of getting your contact information and being able to send you information. While visiting the Google AdWords booth, I decided to sign up for their contest. A couple days ago, nearly one month after the event, I received an e-mail stating that I have $100 free towards any usage of my AdWords account. I currently am not using AdWords, but will be in the near future. Fortunately it does not expire until July 2006, so it will come in very handy.

I highly recommend that if anyone gets the chance to attend the eComXpo event online next year, to do so. It is a very good event and very informative. You may even win some prizes out of it. I was invited by ValueClick Media, being one of their publishers. So if you’re interested in attending the conference next year, make sure to be a publisher of one of the companies and they will most likely invite you to attend the event for free. Some of the companies that may invite you would be ValueClick Media, Linkshare, Commission Junction, or Google AdWords. Keep an eye out next around October for the event. The next planned event to take place by eComXpo is April 4-6, 2006.

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Currently Undergoing Maintenance

Google Analytics reporting is currently undergoing maintenance and will be available shortly. Your site traffic is being logged and you will be able to see the data after system maintenance has concluded.

Google Analytics are under going some maintenance checks. It seems that the overwhelming number of users that signed up within the first 24-72 hours exceeded their expectations a little bit. We all hope that they will resume service soon so we can get back to analyzing our data. We also hope that Google will start updating the statistics more often so we can see closer to real-time statistics. I personally look forward to the day that it becomes real-time. I’m not sure how plausible this is, but I do hope they achieve it.

AdWords is temporarily down due to system maintenance until approximately 1am PST [?] on November 19. Please note that your campaigns are running normally during this short downtime. We apologize for any inconvenience.

It appears that Google AdWords is also down, but it seems that the AdWords maintenance downtime is scheduled and has a time of when it will be back online. Again, we will just have to wait.

Update: As of tonight (11/18/2005), Google Analytics are back online. AdWords should resume as scheduled.

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