27 replies to this topic

[qwerty]

It happened to me about a year ago. One of our ads had a pretty low CTR, and we noticed in our logs that it had been clicked three times over the course of about 15 seconds by someone at the same IP address. Those were the only clicks on that ad that day, and Google charged us for all three of them.

But we wrote to them and whined a bit and they refunded us the 20 cents or so

[SearchRank]

I haven't run an Overture campaign in a long time, but I think position there is still just based on how much one bids.

You are correct, Bob. Overture just rewards the highest bidder.

Okay, I sometimes click on high priced ads at Overture as well just because some companies pay ridiculously high prices and I like to reward them for their stupidity. :halo:

[awall19]

If you click it does increase their click through rate, but it still costs them more money.

Visit those you truely hate

[Jill]

Like those who pay $10 a click for "search engine optimization" and the like...

[Haystack]

Does anyone else skip the sponsored listings, or is it worth it to invest in these a little?

While there are lots good anecdotes regarding individual's preferences for PPC vs. natural results, I'm pretty sure the industry average CTR is around 2.2%, so plenty of people are clicking on them.

Overture generated almost a billion dollars over the past year from people clicking on their ads.

People really do click on them and that traffic definitely can be converted to sales.

I don't know what the half-life of PPC advertising is, but it shows no sign of decaying at this time. (That's my ppc-carbon14 joke of the day.)

[polarmate]

That's a good point, Manisha, at least where AdWords is concerned. I haven't run an Overture campaign in a long time, but I think position there is still just based on how much one bids.

And happy birthday, by the way 

Yeah Bob I was talking about AdWords. Overture is still based on the highest bid.

And thanks again for the birthday wishes. The room still spins every so often...and it wasn't any of the drinks you served up in the Pub!

If you click it does increase their click through rate, but it still costs them more money.

Visit those you truely hate

Dunno! I'd rather have them 'pay' by having their visibility drop so that no-one knows they exist! If the CTR drops, then the lower bidding advertisers stand a chance of making their presence felt. In turn this can help 'lower' the high bid for that keyword. <_<

Back on topic: we noticed an increase in both clickthroughs as well as conversions when our ad on AdWords was promoted to a Sponsored Listing. There are many people who don't know that it is a sponsored listing. On LCD panel monitors, the pale color is often pale enough to miss and the grey text 'Sponsored Listing' is way over to the right. So our experience has been - people click on Sponsored Listings and conversions usually follow.

[Randy]

I use both, but with a heavy emphasis on natural listings. I'd guess that 90% of the time I'm clicking on natural listings. Normally I don't even look at the paid listing unless the none of the descriptions of the first 10 or 20 natural listings look promising.

<off topic>
Qwerty, I'm with you on Overture re: Gator. The very day that was announced I cancelled the Overture PPC campaigns we had running. And wrote them to tell them exactly why they would no longer get the couple of grand per month we were spending with them. Won't ever go back either, no matter what they do. Don't trust 'em enough to enter into a contract with them again.
</off topic>

[marybetht]

When I'm searching for information on a particular subject or troubleshooting a problem (I work in User Support) I frequently use Google. If the organic results don't give me what I need I click on the AdWords if they look relevant. Just from being around people all day that don't use the Internet that much, I get the feeling they wouldn't click on AdWords or Overture ads, I think they are blind to them even being there. I was blind to them until I got interested in SEO.

When searching for a product I go right to PriceGrabber or Yahoo Shopping so I can compare prices.

Mary Beth

[rezla]

I'm not one to court controversy (not usually anyhow,) but I find this a slightly unusual question to ask, given most of us here are that bit more knowledgeable than the average searcher.

Having managed a number of retail sites over the years, in that time I have employed SEO 'professionals' (ie I paid 'em!) to write search engine copy for regular run of the mill pages, and also run some bid per click programs, and originate content/copy for those listings.

I didn't always feel that I got good value for money as a user of these SEO services, so started doing it myself. Forget issues of managing bid prices and budgets, my main bone of contention was always that the quality of the written body copy just didn't read right. Straight out of the "write SEO good copy" manual it might have been, but it certainly wasn't retail!!

Regardless of if its a bpc listing or free, a shopper is always going to be drawn to the most relevant title/description combination, and I think that people with product specific knowledge will always produce more 'organic' and buyer friendly copy than any SEO pro - despite what we might fool oursleves into believing.

Eg: a good number of my overture listings have disproportionately high CTR's on massively competitive keywords, despite being in a shrewd third place. I'm talking about keywords with thousands of clicks per month still getting me >30% of the clicks - and the competition are less than on the ball with their bid prices (or their professional bid managers aren't...) so its a real steal when you get this for 20-30% less what first place is paying, rather than single pennies between each bidder.

Adwords for me seem to generate less of a return for the very reason that people seem to "miss" the listings on the right of the page, compared with the way "sponsored" listings for Overture / Espotting et al generally appear in situ above regular free listings.

In a nutshell, every product market is different, but whilst there are effective ways to write keyword rich copy for the search engines, it doesn't always translate over to bpc.

You should never lose sight of writing for the end user - the customer - with credit on their visa card!

I think you are as likely to skip poorly written, formulaic "free" listings, as sponsored ones. Maybe you just click particular free listings because they have good copy, and got there "innocently" on merit, without being subject to the SEO black arts and appeal to you by offering you the answer/solution to your search query.

Anyone ever click a well written "paid" listing without giving it a second thought ?

rez

[qwerty]

Having managed a number of retail sites over the years, in that time I have employed SEO 'professionals' (ie I paid 'em!) to write search engine copy for regular run of the mill pages, and also run some bid per click programs, and originate content/copy for those listings.

I didn't always feel that I got good value for money as a user of these SEO services, so started doing it myself. Forget issues of managing bid prices and budgets, my main bone of contention was always that the quality of the written body copy just didn't read right. Straight out of the "write SEO good copy" manual it might have been, but it certainly wasn't retail!!

You won't get an argument from me on that. I consider myself a good writer, but I'm definitely not a copywriter. As an SEO, if a client wants me to give them pages with great marketing copy, I'll recommend outsourcing that part of the job to a professional writer. But I'll work with that writer to make sure their work is optimized well.

[Paul J]

I'll definitely go to a sponsored ad if it's something I'm looking for. For whatever reasons, I'll quite often type in the URL instead of clicking the ad. Save them the dime or buck I guess.

I've always done a lot of competitive analysis and it can be really easy to rack up these clicks on competitors. It's definitely tempting to click away . But I usually just type the URL. Maybe I'm just paranoid someone will abuse my sponsored ads, or I'm doing that freaking Minnesota Nice thing. I dunno...

[Bill Slawski]

I skip right past the sponsored ads. I very rarely look at them.

[dragonlady7]

I do rarely look at them, but when I do, it's because I generally want to buy something.

I wonder if the decent conversion rate from ppc ads is a result of the fact that generally, the very informed and the very ignorant are the ones clicking on them? The very ignorant probably don't use search engines as often, so they're more results-oriented when they're on them, and thus more likely to buy, whereas the very informed use search engines all the time and tend to ignore the ppc listings unless they're looking for something specifically described in them, generally to buy. What do you think of that theory?