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Google Hits Affiliates Hard
Google has sent Internet marketers - especially affiliates - into a uproar with their latest AdWords “summer cleaning.”
Over the past week, advertisers have literally been getting booted out of Google Adwords. That includes advertisers who spend more than 5 figures a month on AdWords. I’ve spoken with multiple super affiliates, and they are all in an uproar over what appears to be yet another “affiliate-unfriendly” move by Google.
I can’t say Google never warned us. They announced new algorithm changes in December of last year. But when advertisers started getting kicked out starting a week or so ago, it hit hard - like it came out of nowhere
An anonymous Affiliate Classroom contributor and PPC affiliate complains…
“I had an ad doing 6.7% CTR and have spent well over $150,000 on Google Adwords in the last 2 years - now they’re telling me that I need to increase my minimum bid by 300%! No way!”
So what is Google really up to? Have they gone the way of pure evil? Or is this part of a larger and more complex agenda?
Well, “I” firmly believe that they are up to something. Very recently our own, Eder Callejas posted that Google is testing the CPA revenue model. Given their latest changes and the sites that have been impacted the most, it seems that Google may be getting ready to do more than just “test” a CPA model.
The first of the landing pages that got the boot were lead generation pages - the sites that are just a small box with an opt-in box on them. Interesting…could it be that Google themselves wants to collect those leads and then sell the leads to us rather than let us just pay per click?
So the 4 main kinds of sites that seem impacted the most are:
1) Squeeze pages (landing pages whose sole purpose is to gather an email address in exchange for a free report)
2) One page sales letter websites
3) Adsense sites (particularly Adsense arbitrage sites)
4) Affiliate sites
More information on their landing page guidelines - https://adwords.google.com/select/siteguidelines.html
Bottom line is, since Google constantly says it’s trying to make the search experience better for their users, it must believe that landing pages provide a bad user experience. But is that true?
Maybe, maybe not. I think it all depends on the user’s intention. A shopper has a different search intention than a researcher. It all depends on the intent of the query. Why punish advertisers for not being able to read people’s minds?
Since affiliates bear much of the cost of lead acquisition, Google’s not just punishing affiliates with this latest update - it’s punishing some of the biggest web-driven businesses in the world.
Of course, as marketers, we’ll find how to get around this. And when we do, I’ll be sure to post it!
12 Comments
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Does this tend to affect shopping-site affiliates more than content-driven affiliates, or is it just a general assault across the board?
Hey Dave,
So far it seems to be impacting anyone who is using adwords and is sending traffic to a landing page that Google does not find fitting or useful.
My guess is that if the keyword being searched for is a product name or number, in that case the consumer is expecting to land on a shopping site.
But maybe if a more general (research type) keyword is going straight to a shop site, maybe Google will not find that acceptable.
For example, many “sales letter” type sites that just promote one product are getting the boot…
I guess as more and more people who have been impacted start to speak up, the puzzle gets put together a bit more..
Anik
http://forum.abestweb.com/showthread.php?p=590444#post590444
A letter was posted from the Adwords Team. Pretty much encouraging linking straight to the merchant.
you see the thing is google is going to be losing loads of money now because I way over invested in them and now my advertsing is going to go to smaller companies whos pages just get listed on the spam sites which are what google is full of so either way my sites are going to get listed even if it’s through googles back door.
Hey Jonathan,
Thanks for that link - reading that letter
was really interesting.
Is it right for that letter to be summed up
as:
“Screw you affiliates, we only like merchants”
Interesting…
Anik
Hey Jesus,
Not sure what you mean exactly. You mean
you’re going to advertise on smaller sites
that then in-turn get listed on those page
generator type sites?
Anik Singal
A ton has been written on what Google is looking for. This is from SEOrountable. http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/004185.html
Chris wrote about Suggestions for Improving Google Quality Score linking to a bunch of threads, but I thought I share a single post from a new WebmasterWorld thread that perhaps can help many of you. I understand how serious this issue is, and that is why you are seeing much coverage on it from here.
Why would a landing page receive a low quality score?
1. Not enought content
2. Privacy policy is lacking details
3. No contact us page
4. No external links to helpful resources
Getting the AdWords spider to come back?
1. Copy the site on a different domain
2. Block spiders (web search spiders) from accessing this page (no duplicate content issues this way)
3. Copy your AdWords campaign, but switch the domain name to this new one, make some tweaks so it is not exactly identical.
This may help you and it can’t hurt to try.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Also Jen Slegg (the JenSense blogger) has a nice piece on SEW http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3622950
Thanks Beth, some great suggestions!
We’re also finding that it helps to watch
your keyword density on the landing page.
We made a new report yesterday to help
people understand this better, everyone can
get it at:
http://www.AffiliateClassroom.com/Google_Change/Surviving_Google.pdf
Thanks again!
Anik
I posted in an earlier thread about this. I still want to know exactly what value this PPC ad brings to the Google user experience.
They say this is done to increase quality. Does anyone believe that?
Hahah…nice find. Well, in THAT case, I think they just have such a big contract with eBay that value is put in the back seat…
Anik
Respectfully, I have a few thoughts which will probably NOT be very popular. In no particular order:
1. “Of course, as marketers, we’ll find how to get around this. And when we do, I’ll be sure to post it!” I’m sorry but our respective definition of “marketers” differs. If your involved with AdSence and or Adwords then your obligation is to comply with not only the letter of the rules but the “Spirit” of same. It’s this last point that I predict many folks will find themselves in hot water. By all means, engage in gymnastics/get around this (as posted in this thread) if you wish BUT obtain PRIOR written approval from Google before you deploy.
2. As a stockholder of GOOG, I applaud this move. Long terms it will pay huge dividends. Why? Emerse yourslef in the real world of USERS and find out if they are getting meaningfull results via organic and or paid listings from G. Lets be frank, during the last year or more I have seen a steady deteriation of the user experience which in the case of G means finding what your looking for via the first click in a manner and fashion which underscores the very purpose of a site: Original content, legitimate descriptions, using adverts in a reasonable amount without adversly effecting the user experinece, adding real value to the user experinece, and avoiding looking like the yellow pages (to name a few). Its way out of hand. Even one of our brave Bloggers had the guts to post about this in her Blog here.
3.I’m all for making money. In an aggressive and gorilla like fashion but certainly some of you had to have seen this coming and I would hope your prepared to alter your techniques in a compliant manner. Yep, their will be a few rough spots as G enforces and refines. As you point out with the ebay example, their will still be politics and other high level considerations which make us all wounder but those are the rules of the game.
Continued best wishes to all
Wow, I am amazed, it just happened, I started a campaign on behalf of a mate, they had 122 keywords, all were OK for a week, now google have made 121 inactive for search, leaving just 1 keyword active.
what amazes me about this one is this, each keyword was set at 3p, now google wants between 17p and 25p per click yet, nobody else and I do mean nobody is actually bidding on these keywords, the site is a quality information site that has been on the internet since 1997, it has 100’s of relevant pages, it is on all the search engines, it has many inbound links blah blah blah. why did this happen?, I am really stumped now as it shoots me down with everything I have said in the past.
he site I mentioned above does not in anway sell anything, it is simply an information site, it has no ad banners, no ad text, no affiliate links, nothing, so why has in been punished?
Simon