Google Search PartnerS, oh come on...

Benji49

New member
Feb 6, 2008
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Did a quick audit of a Google search campaign run by one of our marketing guys.

Didn't like the numbers coming from G's search partners so I asked him to turn them off.

In 24 hours, our CPA dropped 33%. That's basically means 100% of the clicks coming from the partners were shiite.

OH COME ON GUYS IT'S 2011, do I REALLY HAVE TO LOOK OUT FOR THIS?

I mean, you can read blog posts on the web complaining about search partner fraud from 2007. And the crap still gets pushed down our gullets.

I feel like buying an Xrumer blast just for giggles now.
 


Isn't it common knowledge? Yahoo's search partners were absolutely terrible as well.
 
depends on your targeting and niche. It' s a marketplace. If everyone's shit isn't converting well enough to justify their cost then everyone is going to lower their bids until its profitable.

However I've definitely noticed a lower conversion rate per click, So Ill pay less for that network click.
 
Did a quick audit of a Google search campaign run by one of our marketing guys.

Didn't like the numbers coming from G's search partners so I asked him to turn them off.

In 24 hours, our CPA dropped 33%. That's basically means 100% of the clicks coming from the partners were shiite.

OH COME ON GUYS IT'S 2011, do I REALLY HAVE TO LOOK OUT FOR THIS?

I mean, you can read blog posts on the web complaining about search partner fraud from 2007. And the crap still gets pushed down our gullets.

I feel like buying an Xrumer blast just for giggles now.
That's the beauty of being able to segment by Google/search partners and stats, and deciding for yourself. I have campaigns where search partners is full of crap and has CPAs that were 5x+ the CPA of Google search, whereas I also have a campaign right now that search partners delivers 12% as much traffic as Google, and at 1/5 the CPA. It all depends on what kind of sites you show up on, and how "real" was the intent to search (vs. arbitrage disguised as a search partner).
 
Ya I have had it work well. It depends. One campaign for a real business it was more traffic, lower CPC, and lower CPA than search.

I am still scratching my head over that.

It is good to run a site report for a long time and pause the crap domains. Download to excel file and search for .infos. Them be running bots to click on ads.

Its funny seeing 20 to 100% CTR on .infos. Ban them already Google!
 
Google are arseholes. Bet you didn't know this:

[shh secret]
Google serves Search Ads to error and parked domain pages even with content and search partners turned off.
[/shh secret]
 
bing ftw
sig.jpg
 
That's the beauty of being able to segment by Google/search partners and stats, and deciding for yourself.
^this

It sounds like the OP wasn't actually looking at segment data - just overall data. Make sure you look at the "network" segment so you can actually get data on your costs. You'd be surprised at how damn well the search partners perform on certain campaigns - on more than half of my campaigns, partners come in at a lower CPC and CPA.