ExpertAdWords

I found this interesting discussion over at Webmaster World about Wikipedia.  For almost all keywords, the top link on the SERP page is a like to Wikipedia.  Usually, in addition to the top link, the second, third, and fourth link will be links to Wikipedia.  With over 2.5 million inbound links, organically, Wikipedia is a monster that no one can compete with.  I’m not sure if this is a bad thing because, after all, Wikipedia is really informative.  However, I don’t know if it should be  allowed to dominate the top spot for all searches.

I’ve been using a tool called PPseer to manage our content network and ads. By inserting some code on your landing pages and your conversion page, PPseer tracks and analyzes your incoming traffic and you can set minimum standards by which to exclude sites.

To start off, set a minimum amount of clicks to filter the incoming traffic. I’m using 750 clicks before a site will come to my attention. Additionally, I look at the conversion amounts in relation to that site. Any site that converts at less than .5% is added to my Google campaign site exclusion for the content network.

PPseer is sort of expensive but the ROI from the wasted clicks makes it well worth it. The system works independently from Keyword bidding software and monitors the source and not the search. For example, the site could be sending you traffic from 1 keyword or 1000 keywords and while a bidding package may lower the keyword bid, PPseer will actually eliminate the site.

We had one site that had 7400 clicks and about 23 conversions. We estimated the Average Order Value (AOV) to be a generous $120 and our average Cost Per Click to be around $0.50. We plugged these results into the formula below and came up with the following results.

(Conversions * AOV) – (Clicks * CPC) = Profit (or lack of)

(23 * $120) – (7400 * $0.05) = -940

We aren’t exactly saving any money but we aren’t losing any money either now. More than likely, you will have a few sites like this that are draining your budget.

Additional, if a website is doing really well and you are receiving a lot of conversions from it, the advertiser will be able to see this using PPseer and then can use Google’s Site Targeting tools to send additional traffic to that website.

Lastly, PPseer was relatively easy to setup and my team had all the code installed in about an hour.

Ad Comparator
Taguchi-Based Ad Optimizer (Free)

This tool is incrediable.
1) Choose the number of elements that you want to test. The AdWord Ads, I would choose 3 Elements.

2) Choose the different elements you want to test; Headline, Description, and Display URL for example.

3) Ad Comparator will arrange the different elements into a variety of ads.

4) Make sure your campaigns are set to Rotate Ads and create your AdGroup Ads based on Ad Comparators guidelines.
5) After your done testing the ad, input the results and the site will show the rank, best option, and the influence of each element in the ad.