Google AdSense Accounts Disabled Before First Payment

Recently one of our web hosting clients had her Adsense account disabled right after she crossed the minimum payout threshold so I examined her Analytics and asked about her click-thru rates, if she had ever clicked her own ads, etc. I did a quick search for “disabled Adsense May 2010″ and as expected found a ton of results. What I wasn’t expecting were so many mom and pop websites with seemingly legitimate and hurt web site owners begging Google for even a one line reply about why they were not going to get paid.

The volumes of complaints about Adsense posted in the 24 hours before I started searching was a real eye opener to the potential for fraud from both publishers and from Google.

Could Google steal more traffic this way than anyone else online? I can’t think of a single company in a position to hijack more surfer clicks than good old GewG ;-) The funniest cases I’ve seen are where Google disables Adsense accounts because of fraudulent traffic and Google themselves are the only source of traffic for the account owner.

It’s just good business for Google to review an Adsense account’s quality before sending the first check. They must protect their advertisers and their integrity – I want and need them to do this. I’m more concerned they can use this review window to save themselves a ton of money, and get rid of many small advertisers that aren’t moving the needle with any serious traffic. No one knows what % of publishers get their accounts disabled once they meet the minimum payout level, estimates I’ve seen are sky high. Of course the check is never sent if the account is disabled.

To be honest, from a business standpoint as an advertiser on Google Adwords this is awesome. Every time they nuke a publisher’s site we can keep the traffic and not pay for any of it. I still wonder if Google is crediting back ALL of the money I’ve spent with webmasters they refuse to pay (pesky gewg!).

As a human being, I feel bad for all the legitimate folks who worked hard to grow their revenue to the payout threshold only to have Google kick them in the mouth. What’s the lesson here? Google is evil, but unfortunately so is everyone else. Diversify your revenue streams so you get screwed less directly by advertisers and ad networks.

Lemons Or Lemonade: Did you get screwed on Adsense and you’re sure they are ripping everyone off? Stop crying. Start advertising on the content network and grab your share of the free traffic you know they aren’t paying anyone for!

Google Right Side Sponsored Link Thumbnail Images

Today is the first time I noticed thumbnail images in the right side sponsored ads in google search results. Perhaps Google is taking some lessons away from Facebook’s success using the thumbnail + text for sidebar ad delivery.

Check out this example (click for fullsize)

Notice how many of the links on Google’s search results are now sponsored? They have taken 80% of the first page results for themselves.

BING should have an easier time growing market share if Google can annoy their surfers enough with the sponsored listings.

More Money For Bloggers in 2010?

Web publishers are reaping huge profits as the 2.0 bubble heats up. Google has become better at weeding out spam, allowing higher quality sites to rise to the top and finally starting booking some serious revenue. As the popularity of adwords increases, so does the balance of blogger’s bank accounts enrolled in the adsense program.

Even sites focused on small towns and small communities are able to make a substantial amount of money because local service businesses are one of the most expensive online advertising niches, especially for high dollar items. I have recently seen prices as high as $50 CPM for specialized local service content oriented sites. .

A gigantic spike in click prices is likely to occur over the next 24 months. Google’s recent string of acquisitions plus the price for local service clicks exceeding eight dollars tells me Google anticipates Adwords Advertisers seeking cheaper advertising solutions on smaller networks and is working to combat it by buying them. Bring on the antitrust.

Payouts to blog and website publishers are likely to continue to increase as advertisers abandon social networks because of increased cost, lower quality and volume issues. The fact is, Facebook advertising prices have increased faster than the number of accounts on their network. Businesses that built successful advertising campaigns on MySpace, Facebook and Google are rediscovering comfortable margins on smaller, third party ad networks (Etology, Adbrite, Bidvertiser etc) as these networks continue to improve their targeting capabilities and provide much cheaper traffic and easier ad approvals.

The end result, higher cost per click = good for publishers. Adsense publishers on average receive approximately $0.50/click for their traffic, the highest amount in history. Specialized sites focusing on medical, dental, and insurance are seeing well above $1.50/click as advertisers are finally learning how to properly target sites in the adwords content network. Expect your banner spots to pay more than just your hosting bill in the near future.

Geo Targetting Google Adwords

Local service companies need to focus their ads within a specific radius from their office to target customers they could realistically service.  Setting a physical radius for your ads in Adwords is simple.

To locate the geo-targeting setup area, log in to your adwords account, then select the campaign that you wish to target.  Click that campaign’s “settings” tab at the top.   Scroll down a bit until you see “Audience”.  In the Audience area you will see “Locations”.  Here you will be able to select between continents, countries, states, and cities.  Use the “Custom” tab to setup a radius (measured in miles) from your office’s street address.

Is it possible for anyone outside the radius see your ads?  Yes.

Here is an example: We have setup advertising for a Roofing company in Evansville.  We target the Google ads for this campaign to run within 50 miles of Evansville, IN. Someone in Texas could still view the ad if they type “Evansville Roofing”.   Anyone anywhere can view ads that have a set radius if they include the geo-term.  Google does this so people searching for specific keywords inside a specific geo will get accurate results, maybe they will be travelling there or have family in that area and want to recommend a business to them.

Do you have questions about Adwords?  Call 866-2-google to discuss Geo Targetting.

Pay-Per-Click Search Marketing Benefits Local Service Companies

Colorado Roofing and Exteriors is a great example of how some local service companies are leveraging Search and Social Media marketing to help local consumers easily find their website and contact information.  Local service businesses may be the best suited group to leverage search marketing because their potential consumers are located in a specific geography and the businesses are not competing with Fortune 500 companies that have large budgets and professional PPC managers. In other words, you’re only competing with other local businesses in the same service niche  for Google placement and traffic. Ranking for “Denver Roofing” for example is  easier than trying to rank nationally for a phrase such as “Weight Loss” or “HDTV”.

Being able to define an advertising radius with a system to measure the price per call and ROI has unlocked huge growth in many small innovative service companies across the country. I am often asked what the best strategy is for online marketing. My reply is always the same, anything you can precisely measure and test cheaply. A combination of campaigns on FaceBook, MSN, Google Adwords, and Ask.com may make sense if each campaign is delivering calls cheap enough to leave you with profit after the job is finished.  Without tools to precisely measure your return on every penny spent, you are destined to fail.

Google has a great self serve platform with tutorials that allow businesses to get started within a few hours.  Consider a few hours of consulting from a reputable ppc management company before you move beyond the test phase. Many agencies will manage your entire account and tie together all the reporting (# clicks, web form submits, calls, etc) for 20-30% of your ad budget.