Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I've been an AdSense user for about 5 years now(maybe more?).
For the first 3 years I was getting around 4 jelly beans per click. Then all of the sudden I dropped to 1 jelly bean per click. It's been this way for 2 years. I get around 300-400 jelly bean clicks per day, on my highly targeted jelly bean web-site :)
Note these jelly beans are not cents or dollars, and are only numbers relative to themselves.
I figured, hmm I must have been SmartPriced - my users must not be converting.
Then recently I signed up for an affiliate program - one of the common ones that many of my advertisers use. This is where I get confused! One I signed up for the affiliate I have been averaging 10 to 25 jelly beans per click. This means my users are converting! I still have the AdSense up, and I'm getting conversions that equate to that per click.
Does this make any sense? The first thing you probably want to say is - switch to affiliate full time then. Though, I would prefer to get at least 4 jelly beans per click consistently, since AdSense integrates well into my site and I would prefer to have a steady source of income on the primary products for my niche, and then work other things on the side.
Is there other ways to get SmartPriced than having poorly converting users? Is is possible for AdWords content advertisers to be getting more ROI than Google knows about?
Thanks for any suggestions.
Is there other ways to get SmartPriced than having poorly converting users?
According to what Google has said in the past, smart pricing is about expectations, such as the anticipated conversion rate for a given type of content. So who knows--maybe your site is just performing better in real life, with your affiliate partners, than Google's formula expects it to perform.
smart pricing is about expectations
I think they do monitor traffic behavior (bounce rate, time on page) and use some sample data from advertisers who use adwords conversion tools to evaluate visitors from a site. Otherwise it'd be too easy to just cloak your site with an "expected winning topic".
I think they do monitor traffic behavior
Probably, but they don't necessarily have a ton of advertiser conversion data for every site or page. (After all, not every advertiser uses Google's conversion tracking.)
Otherwise it'd be too easy to just cloak your site with an "expected winning topic".
I don't think it's just about topic, it's also about type of content--or so Google has said in the past. When smart pricing was introduced, Google used the examples of a camera review (higher likelihood of conversion) and a page of photo tips (lower likelihood of conversion, presumably because the reader isn't researching a purchase).
Things like the country where the click is coming from might also be a factor. (It's pretty easy to imagine that, for example, a click from Pakistan on an ad for a New York appliance shop wouldn't be as likely to convert, based on available statistics, as a click from New York).
All in all, I'd guess that Google uses a combination of site-specific data AND more general "probability" data in many if not most cases. Or at least that's what I (admittedly a layman) would do if I were in Google's virtual shoes.
I've been pondering this ROI not only from adsense but other advertising affiliates I work with. I have a site where most advertisers deal with expensive products and services. The average sale runs over $2K and up to $25K. I used to sell the same products and know peoples buying habits with higher priced merchandise.
I don't see how they can calculate a ROI when many don't use the site for purchasing. No confirmation order, no sign up page used etc. Many just find the good price, dial the phone number and place the order over the phone. This is one reason why I gave up on one affiliate because I didn't get credit for the big phone in sales.
How does one go about dealing with this?
I haven't been smart priced but have one affiliate recently that says we've reduced the amount the advertiser pays for your clicks because your site is under performing.
Yea, so my earnings drop 75% Fair?
Based on what some of you have said - I started letting users post content to my pages, sort of in the form of comments but not quite as bland - they're posting in ways which supplement the content more than a message board - but I'm wondering if I got stuck in a 'message board' bracket, despite what I'm seeing about the conversion rates of my users. I think I might be smartpriced due to maybe some words on my site. Like 'community' or something... not sure. Has anyone ever spoke with Google regarding their site and SmartPricing? I wonder if I could get them to take a look, because now I'm wondering how I can continue with AdSense even though I have been a part of and like the program for many years.
