(4)
Rumors have been swirling the last few weeks about Google offering impression based advertising (ads sold in blocks of 1,000 impressions). According to various media sources, Google is expected to make the announcement later today that AdWords advertisers will get some new options (ability to base pricing on impressions, purchase ads only on specific sites, etc.)
The upgrade is currently being beta tested with a few select advertisers, and should be available to all advertisers 2-3 weeks following the official announcement.
A new "site selection" tool is also rumored to be in the works that should make it easier for advertisers to find specific publishers they want to run their ads on.
Comments:
Razvan Antonescu
04/25/2005 08:29 pm
That will be a crap option. If PPC fraud is a problem this will cause a more unsolvable one. Smells like a suicide action
Max
04/26/2005 12:51 pm
Looks like they AdSence publishers just got this option available, so AdWords should be available shortly (https://www.google.com/adsense/new item#3).
David Lilley
02/09/2006 06:17 pm
I tried running a site targeted, impression based campaign. I selected sites based on Google’s suggestions, using their site tool. I was immediately impressed with the number of impressions and clicks coming from some of the sites. One site seemed to be doing a little too well, so I went to the site to see how and why my campaign was getting so many impressions. However, when I went to the site, there was one little problem. They were not running Google ads - anywhere! I searched through the entire site, and I could not find any Google ads. I wrote Google to inform them that it appeared a fraud was being committed by the site in question. The reply stated that the site had been removed from the Google Ads program. However, another search that day still returned the same site in the suggested results on Google’s AdWords site suggestion tool. I wrote Google again to clarify that I wanted to complain about what looked like fraud. This time Google replied with a refund offer, but made no mention of fraud or any actions they might take to ensure this would not happen again. Furthermore, as of today, the offending site still comes up in the “available sites” list using the site tool. Now I am left to wonder who is committing the fraud - Google, the site in question, or both. Google has a vested interest in getting impressions for my ads. Therefore, if they could falsify a few thousand ads views and clicks here and there, who would notice as long as the numbers per offense were small? If they did this to a large number of companies on a very small scale per company, who would be the wiser? I am not saying this is what happened, but I am now very suspicious of their numbers.
mininovax
11/12/2006 01:09 pm
Yes, indeed. I tried this the other day, and was very unhappy with the results. Lets just say that I say very few clicks, and a whole lot of impressions. So much so, that the average cost per click was way more than what I was used to paying for a "click". I would suggest for those that are interested in site-targeted ads that they really watch those numbers .... impressions are so hard to justify from a pubisher and advertiser stand point. 1000 impressions = .25 cents 10000 impression = 25.00 Google could put your lights out in a blink if you are not careful. 1,000,000 = 250,000 dollars (better start filing for bankruptcy) Personally, I would stick to the CPC model, as it will give you more "bang" for your "buck" Just my 2 cents.