Don Reisinger writes …
A slew of companies rely on Google’s AdWords system to bring users to their sites. But in an attempt to improve the quality of AdWords, Google will unveil a new judging system in the next few days that could have a major impact on current AdWords users.
The most important change the company announced Monday has to do with how it calculates the AdWords Quality Score, which helps determine the order of each ad for a given keyword. Google said that it now calculates quality in real-time as a Google user performs a search, along with its current practice of analyzing click-through rates, and landing page quality is evaluated less frequently.
Google is also eliminating its “inactive for search’ moniker for those keywords that would yield few (if any) impressions. The company said that all keywords are now available on Google.com and although the company said those keywords will probably still yield less than ideal results, they may add some impressions for those sites using them.
Google Tweaks Its AdWords Algorithm
Advertising, Google, Keywords, PPC
Joe Nocera writes …
A few days ago, Dan Savage had his lawyer send a nine-page, 4,000-word letter to the antitrust division of the Justice Department. Mr. Savage, 59, runs Sourcetool.com, a business-to-business Web site that acts as a directory, listing — and ranking — hundreds of thousands of companies that sell industrial products.
Like many Internet entrepreneurs, Mr. Savage built his business model around Google when he started it in late 2005. Using Google’s AdWords program, he planned to make bids on specific search terms — “ball bearings,” say — that would ensure that a Sourcetool ad would be placed high on the right-hand side of the Google page whenever someone searched for places to buy ball bearings. That’s how paid search works.
Talking Business - Stuck in Google’s Doghouse - NYTimes.com
Advertising, Google, Site Development
Cade Metz writes …
Google’s strict code of secrecy calls for extra silence when the subject is AdWords, the epic money-making machine fueling the company’s drive towards world domination. But sometimes, the truth slips out.Earlier this month, during Google’s all-important quarterly earnings call, a financial analyst outed the company’s plans to squeeze who knows how many extra dollars from the world’s online advertisers. Though no one seems to have noticed, this astute money man mentioned “Automatic Matching.”
Screwgle™ - Google’s new ad revenue model | The Register
Advertising, Google
Saturday July 19th
Andrew writes …
I usually don’t write about rumors, but Julia Mackenzie of IsItMeOrIsEveryoneElseStupid.com has never floated a rumor without it being true. She’s reporting that a reliable source informed her that Google is going to lay the hammer down on domain parking. Essentially, the company will only serve parking ads to domains it believes have a chance of receiving type-in traffic and conversions:
This new algo will assess all domains calling their parking feed and immediately give domains either a “pass” or a “fail” score. Meaning that if Google decide your domain has little chance of type-in traffic or if it scores low on conversions, it wont serve you a parking feed. Simple as that. The details on what percentage of parked domains this will negatively affect is sketchy at best, but you can bet your bottom dollar the numbers will be significant.
Domain Name Wire » News » Rumor Watch: Google to Restrict Domain Parking - The Domain Industry’s News Source
Advertising, Google, Parking