search engines

Google recently introduced the Adwords Quality Score to improve the experience for Google's users... and perhaps their shareholders as well.

For those who are unfamiliar with the term "Adwords Quality Score", essentially it is an algorithm which is applied to ads and keywords on Adwords which measures the relevance of the landing site to the keywords chosen & the ad itself... Yes, it's the site & not just the landing page. A-B Testing different domain names with the same ad & basic landing page content has confirmed this well enough to convince me.

Shortly after the Quality Score was introduced, Google added a tool to allow advertisers to see their quality score measured as Poor, Good, or Great. It's nice to have a little transparency. But with only 3 ratings, the key word here is little.

Unsurprisingly, our (good) sites which have always had good ad placement & a proven history of higher than average click-through rates showed a quality score of "great" for most keywords. Some longtail keywords fell into the "good" category. Some of the thin affiliate sites will need some work.

To give an example of financial services sites, our keyword minimum bids are running from .01 to .10 cents. Anyone in this niche knows that Google will gladly set minimum bids as high as $5 to $10 in this category if G doesn't like the site for whatever reason.

Ok, so we survived the Adwords Quality Score rating. But many didn't. Their options include dropping they keyword, raising the quality of the page to match some mysterious criteria in the quality score algorithm, or raise their bids.

Now, Adwords positions (and cost per click) are determined by a few main factors... click through rate, maximum bid, & now quality score. For more competitive niches, the end result of implementing a Quality Score is that many advertisers who wish to continue advertising for a keyword with a poor quality score will have to raise their bids. As they raise their bids, it will affect the cost to maintain a position for even those with a high quality score because the cost per click is determined by both bid & click through rate relative to other ads for the keyword.

Consider what that means in a niche that has thousands of advertisers across a gazillion keyword phrases.

Higher bids in reaction to the Quality Score, will drive up the average cost per click for even those advertisers with a high quality score.

I should have loaded up on GOOG at the $86 IPO.

Do you buy text links? Should you buy text links?

I stumbled on an interesting thread on the subject of buying text links on MattCutts.com. Matt Cutts is the head of Google's Webspam team. Here is the link to the full thread.. In essence, it seems Google's stance is that purchasing text links to enhance PageRank is bad. Matt's Blog, however, is a pretty good read.

This stance by Google regarding buying text links ignores several fundamental issues. The first being that the market for buying text links & selling text links existed long before Google did - let alone Google Page Rank. Google now has a Gazillion Dollar market cap precisely because webmasters & online marketers are buying text links from Google. They call it Adwords, though.

There are several reasons that webmasters and marketers might buy text links (or sell text links). The percieved value in enhanced Page Rank is just one possible reason. An equally important reason could be traffic from related sites. To a certain degree, the whole Text Link argument is absurd. If, for example, Google decided to devalue inbound text links which they determine to be "purchased" in determining relevance, would that cause the market for Text Links to fall? Perhaps not. Those sites which are getting traffic & conversions through text links - but no longer receiving any meaningful traffic through Google because they have devalued those links, still need traffic. Buying more text links might do the trick...

The principles behind any SEO campaign, online marketing campaign, advertising campaign, or any other form of marketing activity has close ties to Darwinism... Survival of the fittest. In the end, the free market will determine which dies, survives, or thrives - not Google or any other corporation. With few exceptions, SEO, whether through buying text links or other methods is an effort to reach consumers who will convert into revenue. It doesn't make any sense to optimize for "red widgets" if you do not actually offer "red widgets" or any ancillary products/services. Obviously, there are a few "broad market" products that would be an exception - but the majority of SEO efforts are designed to provide targeted traffic for a targeted product or service. Google strives to provide relevant results & so do most SEO Campaigns. No conflict there.

Buying Text Links could be seen as a form competition to Google Adwords/Adsense... albeit a relatively small one. As more businesses become aware of Adwords & PPC costs rise from competition, advertisers will HAVE to seek out alternative forms of advertising that can produce the desired return on investment. Buying text links could be among those alternative traffic sources.

Capitalism and free markets have profits at their core. If an activity ceases to be profitable, it will cease to exist or diminish in prominence. Simple stuff. Given that text links were being bought & sold prior to Google's existence leads one to believe the business of buying text links or selling text links will be a profitable activity regardless of Google's stance on it or any actions they take to detect/deprecate purchased text links.

By the way, most sites that are ranking well on Google for a competitive term have a LOT of backlinks. Chances are many of those were purchased... either with cash money or reciprocal links. How search engines plan to determine relevance without weighing backlinks (including purchased ones) remains a mystery. Good luck, Guys ;)

Microsoft (under it's MSN Brand) recently unveiled their own pay per click advertising solution. Previously MSN's text ads were provided as a feed from Yahoo Search Marketing. The new service, named MSN AdCenter, is now out of Beta Format & open to all advertisers.

MSN AdCenter is similar to the other big names in functionality & borrows some ideas from others. This is a good thing...particularly the way that ads are ranked. They chose to use an ad ranking algorithm similar to Google Adwords which rewards ads with a higher click-through-rate by adding that criteria to the ranking formula.

The interface is not as clean & fast as Adwords - but we did find it easy enough to work with. We were invited as an advertiser during the Beta launch & the interface has become much easier to work with since then - largely because less features are broken.

MSN AdCenter also adds a new wrinkle in providing a simple way to target a certain demographic group(18-24 year olds, people of retirement age, etc). We haven't experimented with this feature as yet - but it is good to see some innovation in ppc text ads. Competition is a good thing.

Overall, the traffic quality from MSN AdCenter has been excellent. Our conversion rates have actually been higher than our conversion rates on Adwords or Yahoo Search Marketing. However, there may be a simple explanation for this. Due to MSN Adwords being a newer offering, there is less advertising competition. We found that we were able to easily secure 2nd & 3rd position ads for some fairly competitive terms. The same bid & ad on Adwords would likely be in a 5th or 6th position due to heavy hitters with big bids. Ad position can affect conversion rates (we tend to like 3rd position). A review of the actual numbers would be more appropriate as MSN becomes a more mature platform in regard to the number & type of advertisers.

Currently, on our control ads, we are enjoying more traffic from MSN than from Yahoo Search Marketing (Overture). This again is likely due to strong positions available on MSN AdCenter. However, the traffic flow remains inconsistent. Initially, MSN Adcenter incorporated a feed from Yahoo & ran the "AdCenter" ads only sporadically. Once the relationship with Yahoo Search Marketing had ended, we expected to see a dramitic increase in traffic. In truth, we have. But the traffic volume remains inconsistent & unpredictable suggesting the ads are still being throttled or perhaps tested against ads from other advertisers. Adwords remains the king in regard to traffic volume.

Conclusion: MSN AdCenter is Highly Recommended based on Traffic Quality and Ad Ranking Formula.

Overture, now known as Yahoo! Search Marketing, is Yahoo's Pay Per Click Advertising Solution. Many regard Overture & (Google) Adwords as the best Pay Per Click advertising solutions in terms of traffic quality & reach. As a result of the traffic quality the bids for many search terms are significantly higher than you will find with the smaller Pay Pay Click Search Engines. However, Return on Investment is often higher as well.

Careful selection of keywords can help to keep the Cost Per Click reasonable. With Overture, you can view the bids of other advertisers for a given search term. This transparency can create opportunities to maximize your exposure with a higher positioned ad at a lower cost per click. Look for large bid gaps and bid in the middle. Overture's 'proxy bidding' will lower your cost to one cent above the next highest bid.

Overture provides Geotargeting (and local search) which allows your ad to be shown only in specific countries, regions, or cities. This feature can make your campaign more efficient as you are only advertising to areas your business can service.

Overture's interface is easy to use and allows keywords to be placed into groups for easy editing of ad creatives or bid prices. Any new or revised ads are subject to editorial approval. Ads are usually reviewed within a few days - but sometimes in just a few minutes. Due to this occasional delay in ad approval, we like to test ad creatives on Google Adwords first & then run the same keywords/ads on Overture.

We should note that Overture is the only PPC which has ever declined our keywords or changed our ads. In some cases, approved keywords were rejected when we tweaked the ad creative. In other cases, our ad text was changed by Overture's editorial staff to emphasize the keywords. The revised ads looked spammy & did not always resemble English. While these issues haven't been rare for us, enough of our keywords remain unmolested to maintain profitable campaigns on Overture...but we give A Lot more business to Google Adwords.

Overture also offers a conversion tracking tool for those of you with a shopping cart. This provides a clearer picture of Return on Investment.

Conversion rates will vary due to product, industry, ad position, ad creatives, landing pages, seasonality, & the law of averages.

Using a control set of keywords, a control ad format and the same landing page format as we use with other advertising networks, Overture's Pay Per Click Traffic is converting at 35% for our chosen keywords. Return on Investment is 90%.

Conclusion: Highly Recommended for Traffic Quality and Reach