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If you really want to put a dent in things, search for medical issues and click the law firm ads. I've seen clicks costing in the high hundreds.

by ssharp 10y ago

Bombthecat 10y ago
For real? I also think that prices are extremely inflated. Even stuff which shows like hundred people a day costs you 8 dollar per click. No amount of selling will you get back the money. Imho something is wrong there...
- nemild 10y ago
  You'd be surprised - it often implies the lifetime value of the potential customer is exceptionally high, despite low conversion rates (a medical lawyer is a good example, as are insurance products with high stickiness).
- ssharp 10y ago
  I've never done work for a law firm but have talked to some and the small shops specializing in easy cases like DUI's and personal bankruptcies can pretty easily fill up their billable hours by turning an AdSense campaign on and not coming close to eating away their margin. I'd guess on the keywords where law firms are spending hundreds per click, you're dealing with malpractice and personal injury cases. Those cases are likely to be done on contingent and can have pretty huge upsides. I'd think a well-run firm would have some idea of the expected value of those types of cases and can spend accordingly to acquire clients. Considering how targeted search ads are compared to how these firms normally advertise -- local TV, radio, billboards, busses, etc. the costs probably aren't radically different than they're used to spending on advertising.
- johnward 10y ago
  > No amount of selling will you get back the money. If that were true these ads would just go away, or cost less. They are making money.
- wmeredith 10y ago
  Early on in my career I was an SEO Account Manager (barf) and mortgage lending PPC ads could run up to $50/click. This was in 2005. Having some specialized markets with clicks in the hundreds these days would make me raise an eyebrow, but certainly isn't shocking.
Bombthecat 10y ago
For real? I also think that prices are extremely inflated. Even stuff which shows like hundred people a day costs you 8 dollar per click. No amount of selling will you get back the money. Imho something is wrong there...
PretzelFisch 10y ago
Do we have an api that will let me know how much a given ad costs? I fancy a bot/extension that clicks the most costly ad.
- ctrl_freak 10y ago
  When ads are sold programatically (at least at the exchange level), they're almost always done on an impression basis, not a click basis. So by the time you see the ad, most of the financial exchange has already taken place. Some DSPs, like Criteo, charge their clients on a CPC basis, so you're affecting their downstream clients but not Criteo itself. Depending on the exchange, you can sometimes see how much the DSP/client paid for the impression by looking at the win notification URL. Typically there will be a URL query parameter that has been filled in by the exchange, like `BID_CPM=4.00`, and when your browser requests this URL (which is owned by the DSP/client), your browser is effectively notifying the winner of the auction that they won and how much it cost. However, ad exchanges are increasingly sending these fields encrypted to protect against manipulation/fraud. If you really want to manipulate the amount of money that advertisers pay to show you ads, look at what ad botnets like the one in this article do. The PDF above only briefly mentions it, but one of the things they do to increase their perceived value to DSPs and clients is they make their browsers visit high value advertisers websites (e.g. they might visit a shopping website and put items in their cart to make it look like they were strongly considering purchasing the items). Later, when you visit a publisher site, this will cause the bidders' machine learning systems to predict a much higher value for you than they otherwise would have, and submit higher bids as a result.

If you really want to put a dent in things, search for medical issues and click the law firm ads. I've seen clicks costing in the high hundreds.

by ssharp 10y ago

If you really want to put a dent in things, search for medical issues and click the law firm ads. I've seen clicks costing in the high hundreds.

Bombthecat 10y ago

For real? I also think that prices are extremely inflated. Even stuff which shows like hundred people a day costs you 8 dollar per click. No amount of selling will you get back the money. Imho something is wrong there...

nemild 10y ago
You'd be surprised - it often implies the lifetime value of the potential customer is exceptionally high, despite low conversion rates (a medical lawyer is a good example, as are insurance products with high stickiness).
ssharp 10y ago
I've never done work for a law firm but have talked to some and the small shops specializing in easy cases like DUI's and personal bankruptcies can pretty easily fill up their billable hours by turning an AdSense campaign on and not coming close to eating away their margin. I'd guess on the keywords where law firms are spending hundreds per click, you're dealing with malpractice and personal injury cases. Those cases are likely to be done on contingent and can have pretty huge upsides. I'd think a well-run firm would have some idea of the expected value of those types of cases and can spend accordingly to acquire clients. Considering how targeted search ads are compared to how these firms normally advertise -- local TV, radio, billboards, busses, etc. the costs probably aren't radically different than they're used to spending on advertising.
johnward 10y ago
> No amount of selling will you get back the money. If that were true these ads would just go away, or cost less. They are making money.
wmeredith 10y ago
Early on in my career I was an SEO Account Manager (barf) and mortgage lending PPC ads could run up to $50/click. This was in 2005. Having some specialized markets with clicks in the hundreds these days would make me raise an eyebrow, but certainly isn't shocking.

Bombthecat 10y ago

PretzelFisch 10y ago

Do we have an api that will let me know how much a given ad costs? I fancy a bot/extension that clicks the most costly ad.

ctrl_freak 10y ago
When ads are sold programatically (at least at the exchange level), they're almost always done on an impression basis, not a click basis. So by the time you see the ad, most of the financial exchange has already taken place. Some DSPs, like Criteo, charge their clients on a CPC basis, so you're affecting their downstream clients but not Criteo itself. Depending on the exchange, you can sometimes see how much the DSP/client paid for the impression by looking at the win notification URL. Typically there will be a URL query parameter that has been filled in by the exchange, like `BID_CPM=4.00`, and when your browser requests this URL (which is owned by the DSP/client), your browser is effectively notifying the winner of the auction that they won and how much it cost. However, ad exchanges are increasingly sending these fields encrypted to protect against manipulation/fraud. If you really want to manipulate the amount of money that advertisers pay to show you ads, look at what ad botnets like the one in this article do. The PDF above only briefly mentions it, but one of the things they do to increase their perceived value to DSPs and clients is they make their browsers visit high value advertisers websites (e.g. they might visit a shopping website and put items in their cart to make it look like they were strongly considering purchasing the items). Later, when you visit a publisher site, this will cause the bidders' machine learning systems to predict a much higher value for you than they otherwise would have, and submit higher bids as a result.