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on the rare occasion that I do see an ad that I find interesting I won't click it With Google, they at least give you a URL below the ad. Sadly, about half th
by seiji 14y ago
on the rare occasion that I do see an ad that I find interesting I won't click it
With Google, they at least give you a URL below the ad. Sadly, about half the time it goes to a non-existing page so you have to search around anyway.
I refuse to intentionally* click on ads because I ran some adwords campaigns years ago. Seeing Google charge you multiple whole dollars for a "click" feels like one of the largest scams in the world. You have to trust that: they are never lying to you, they aren't running a shadow click-happy network, and they monitor and refund bot clicks. Each click gives google money essentially for free. I'm not fond of working for Google for free.
* Google keeps decreasing the contrast difference between the top row text ads and actual search results. If my laptop screen is tilted the wrong way, I can't see the shaded "THIS IS ADVERTISING" box. Each mistaken click there gives Google $3 to $25+. Just for one click of the mouse. The mind boggles.
- jiggy2011 14y agoThis reminds me of the ethical dilemma I face whenever I search for something and the site I'm looking for comes up in both the organic and paid search results. Do I like them enough to save them a few pennies or not?
- nucleardog 14y agoFlipside: Do you like Google and all their ad-supported services enough to click and help pay for them?
- calbear81 14y agoI've worked on many SEM campaigns over the last 5+ years spending millions on Google and calling it a "scam" seems a bit extreme for the following reasons: 1) Very few categories have CPCs upwards of $3. If that's what you were paying, it's either that you had a poor quality score (hence high opportunity cost to show your ad according to Google) or it was a category that was competitive and had the economics to justify a $3+ CPC (simple economics). 2) Google has extensive bot traffic and fraud prevention to ensure ad clicks are not coming from fake people. You tend to find much lower quality clicks when you opt into the content network but from the search network, I've never seen much fake activity (looking at logs/analytics, etc.). 3) It doesn't even matter what is being charged by Google, unless an advertiser is completely naive, they should be paying the cost that makes sense for their business. I don't care if I pay $25 per click if I can make that back overall. Similarly, even if a portion of the clicks are fraudulent or bots, you should be adjusting your bids downward to reflect that.