New Google Content Network Quality Score
Monday, June 15, 2009 0:57Once again The Great Google has reared its ugly head upon the masses. Not only do we have to deal with the epic battle of seo results with them but also the paid traffic has taken a turn for the worse.
This week I saw a big chunk of my income vanish due to Google now enforcing a quality score on content network ads. This applies to image ads as well as text ads. I have confirmed from this post that I am not the only one who has seen this happen. Now none of this has been announced or even shows up in adwords and talking to Google will get you nowhere.
If this week you have seen your content network impression drop to zero then your account has been manually flagged for review. Every campaign you try and setup will now have to be check over by someone at The Great Google. This has all been done to enhance user experience and to make Google tons of money.
First the user experience bit, Google has flagged all of these accounts due to your site not meeting their standards. If you ask what their standards are you wont get a reply so you basically have to guess. One thing we are finding out is Google is out to kill the whole landing page/middle man business model. If you have a site that gives users info and then takes them to another site you are considered unfit for Google users and can expect to no get anywhere advertising with them.
So how is this going to make Google tons of money? Well they have learned that instead of taking your advertising money and getting a small piece of the pie they can just cut you out and be the only middleman. They only want advertisers that link to their sites and keep the user there to sell the product. This will of course lead to advertisers willing to spend more money on advertising since they don’t have to pay affiliates. Cost per click will probably sky rocket as competition for ad spots disappears.
This is going to affect affiliate marketers, online marketing firms and anyone else who are helping struggling business with out in house experts. If your business is helping others get sales you’re going to be out of work soon, at least with Google. The future of marketing is going to be very different in a few years and only those who can adapt will survive. Hopefully I will be one of them.
New Google Content Network Quality Score | marketFly says:
June 15th, 2009 at 1:11 am
[...] BeerNuts – Original Post Posted by admin on Jun 15th, 2009 and filed under beermonies.com. You can follow any responses [...]
jl says:
June 15th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
This doesn’t really matter since Google is a small percentage of the total advertising space available online. Just means that those who have already bailed Google will now have to deal with tons of idiots showing up and jacking bids on our traffic sources.
blackysky says:
June 16th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
It was predictable since newspaper going down.. They all move to internet. Obviously those newspapers want to bring back the same kind of money they used to make back then…. Google saw an opportunity to increase the competition. Sooner or later you will see something like 50$ to 100$ a click easily. That’s just a beginning in the online advertising transformation…
Pam says:
June 16th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Uhg. I don’t feel good.
Is Google Squeezing the Vice on Affiliates? | tan.gy says:
June 16th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
[...] by implementing what seems to be a version of quality score for content network ads. Quoted from the original post at BeerMonies: If this week you have seen your content network impression drop to zero then your account has been [...]
Wes (MasterlessSamurai.com) says:
June 17th, 2009 at 12:18 am
slaps are now part of affiliate life. i dont see google telling us to go back to the direct linking model, which is essentially what this post says will happen, leading to only having the merchants do the advertising. The problem is that 90% of the merchants out there have no idea how to do ppc. its the affiliates that are making google all the money, and if they cut us out they’ll lose a good deal of their revenue, which wont make share holders all too happy. Its flogs and shit sites that will continue to get slapped.
GoogleSearchSux says:
June 17th, 2009 at 12:31 am
Stop crying.
Figure out how to beat the google and this could be a huge opportunity.
As I see it big companies are dumb animals who will always need others to help them market their products.
Google did this to guys running mostly CPA. All my legit campaigns including content where I AM THE MIDDLE MAN ARE UP!!!
The world is not coming to an end… stop fear mongering.
plunge says:
June 17th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
@GoogleSearchSux
But fear mongering reduces my competition.
Fear monger away, sir.
BeerNuts says:
June 17th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
I understand the comments, but the content “slap” that I got this week was on my legit local marketing adwords account. The only thing they could have slapped me for was for having simple landing pages which re-direct to the merchants.
Sure you can build an entire mini site for each offer but when you are recommending another persons product I find it best to try and not over shadow or take away from the final offer.
Google’s actions are going to be a major pain in the ass for most people. I had a few very basic legit non-flog non-rebill offers going and because of this I have lost that business.
secret cash blueprint says:
June 22nd, 2009 at 2:00 am
It was only a matter of time until the content network caught up with the search network. I think it is better because it weeds out all the people who don’t create effective and good landing pages for their ads.
Captain Obvious says:
August 17th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Google wants to kill the affiliate marketing business model. In their vision of the future, we will all become Certified Google Advertising Professionals and simply manage the Adwords accounts of the businesses who want to advertise online (or become 9-5 employees of those businesses).
I personally dont think this will make them more money, at least not initially. However it will give them more control.
If Microsoft is good to us affiliates, perhaps they will become the future of affiliate marketing.
Evan says:
October 9th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
I manage a lot of accounts and had a well established business get slapped. The net result though is kind of interesting when you think about it. In the short term people have to bid more per click to get those clicks from the content network, or what reaaaly happens is advertisers have to move from the content network (where google gets a rev share) to the search network (where google makes ALL the money) The net effect is google makes more money. My particular client advertised pretty much exclusively at google since 2004. I have now advised him to diversify his traffic sources. Who knows when the next slap will come. The next slap, and he might leave google entirely. Hopefully that will get the big G to stand up and take notice of the little guy.
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