DISQUS

Not sure that I agree with you either!! :-)

If the clicks are high, and no conversions, then Google will most likely determine that the ad is not relevant - their ultimate measure of whether an ad is displayed or not.

High CTR & low yield will lead to a scenario where Google should derank the ad, due to non-interest shown by the user, especially in a CPA scenario where the user is not completing the specified event.

Google really doesn't care that much about money if the ads are not relevant, but when it's relevant - they will milk you for maximum CPC/CPA - make no mistake!

In my mind, Google will use a mixture of CTR & Conversion rate to determine whether or not an ad is relevent, so "false" clicks should affect yield and therefore ad rotation.

Hey Massimo,

I certainly agree with you - but the credit card fraud is just one way of creating issues. If Google mixes CPC & CPA inventory for the purposes of yield, then people will click the ads, to generate lower yields - creating a similar click fraud scenario to what we have now. I'm sure that CPA is the way to go, and I'm even more sure that the road will not be easy!

V

I just read a very interesting article, around this post from Peter Rip. This goes to show, why we believe in Widgets & Mashups and also why Widgetopia is looking to be an exciting new business for incuBeta.

It's not quite that simple. Given that at the point in time when the auction for the position is run, the advertiser who has the highest effect earning per click, given estimated CPA, may not even pay for new customers down the line, if the reversals are too high. We've seen reversals of up to 32% on some merchant programs (where some months they only average 15%), this fluctuation is quite unsettling in any calculations that Google may have to run at runtime.

My guess is that they are going to focus on nano payments - 1c incremental payments - which could be used to charge per pageview, etc.

Hi Jean-Marie

Please feel free to translate and reference the posts back to me with appropriate copyrights.

Those are also my favourite posts. You should also read

http://www.vinnylingham.com/2006/05/clash-of-ti...

Funnily enough - it seems that the Google Analyst report vindicates my analysis.

http://longtail.typepad.com/the_long_tail/2005/...

Google is able to serve and target more business and individuals globally, because of their global perspective.

Hi Aurelia

Many top affiliates are using RSS to generate traffic and it seems that, as part of a holistic marketing strategy, that RSS will contribute to better traffic volumes and distribution. I don't believe that in the short term that RSS is the silver bullet, and like all things Internet, requires time, energy, focus and dedication to actually become a profitable channel by itself.

Regards
Vinny

Hey Chris,

From what I understand, it's going to show almost the same number (8+3 =11 - instead of the usual 10) however, sometimes they did not always show the top 2 listings on every search. In theory, yes, they're going to show more on commercial searches, and less on informational searches.

I can definitely see Google moving toward a revenue share model in time.

Now is a good time to read my post on "The Future of Search" (linked on the sidebar).

V

Thanks for the comment :-). I absolutely agree, but I'm just trying to emphasize how ridiculous this whole Web 2.0 thing is. It's like all of a sudden companies need a new term to justify their actions and impress investors on how the Internet has evolved.

Whoops - my mistake! When I changed the blog template, I inadvertently removed the XML links. I'll add them back shortly.

The RSS feed can be found are:

http://www.vinnylingham.com/atom.cml

Hi Johan

There are a number of issues that make South Africa a problematic market for us to participate in. I'll try to outline them here:

1. Politics within companies, as techies tend to run the websites, not the marketers - which lead to badly build sites that don't convert.

2. Lack of believe by merchants in the online space and the potential of it.

3. Shortage of skills in the search marketing arena.

4. Telkom

5. Low credit card usage.

6. Banks that don't have affiliate programs.

It's not just about earning dollars, we are giving back to the community by creating the skills required to participate in the international arena.

I applaud what your company is trying to do, and hopefully, once you have managed to educate the merchants and improve site logistics and conversion rates, it will be possible for us to risk our own money and make a margin.

We also, don't have time to waste in circumventing corporate politics in companies for them to focus on their web metrics and businesses. Most SA companies see their websites as "ad ons" to their existing business, and a not a point of focus.

I don't think we have skipped focusing on South Africa, we have 1 progressive thinking South African client, but unfortunately, after hearing from the marketing director of Sun International in a meeting last year that "people don't book hotels online, they go to travel agents", we have made the strategic decision to wait for the market to catch up and throw too much effort into educating it at this stage.

This of course does allow for local companies and competitors to attempt to get into this space, and I wish them all the best.

Hi Keith

incuBeta does not intend to roll out it's proprietary platform for the public at this stage, and I highly doubt that this will change, except if there is a major unexpected change in the market.

It was a tough decision to make, with various other affiliates deciding to open their backend as a potential opportunity for technology revenues, we have decided that the only way to maintain our competitive advantage in Clicks2Customers, is to protect the IP vigorously.

We feel that our partners, clients and investors are best served by this move and the potential that our technology will offer as the market fragments (Yahoo, MSN, etc) over the medium to long term.

V

Hi Jeremy

Actually, dynamic keyword insertion is so often incorrectly used (for instance with eBay affiliate ads), that the ad quality and grammar is very poor most of the time. Very few affiliate marketers actually implement it properly. My guess is that if the resultant usage of it is good, then you won't be penalised, but if your rendered ad copy is terrible, you will.

Just my thoughts.

V

It was fantastic. Larry Page was actually right behind us in the queue. The food is amazing - alot better than Yahoo's (and by their own admission!). We had salads. The Googleplex has some amazing toys - you should try to make it over there sometime!

Hi Chris

Sorry, but unfortunately, I never did get a copy of that presenation.

Regards

Vinny

p.s. I like your blog!

Google Analytics is simply Urchin (which they acquired), redressed. Urchin is a great tool. I have seen Statcounter in the past and wasn't terribly impressed. I would suggest you also try Clicktracks (www.clicktracks.com).

Update:

From what I've now heard, Google will be testing print ads in more than 1 Chicago Newspaper.

It is also rumoured that they will be offering Pay-Per-Call (I.e. A Telephonic number that bills as it would bill a click), on the ads. One of the obvious issues is how it will conflict with Ingenio's patent on that technology.y

I mentioned many facts - to which do you refer?