Comments!

[maninderwalia]

Hi! Check out the following article and express your views:

http://news.com.com/2100-1023-984252.html



Maninder

[ihelpyou]

Good article!
For Overture's advertisers especially, wider distribution on sites like CNN could mean more unqualified traffic. Overture hosts an ad network that is widely distributed on major Web portals as well as smaller ISPs and search sites. But as that traffic branches out even more, advertisers may get tired of paying for exposure on a site that doesn't draw customers like MSN, for example, would.
Very true. Again I'll say it. Overture are greedy ******. They want money for their investors and could care less about their advertisers. The more spread out they get, the more bogus clicks the advertisers will get. Lots of irrelevant clickthrus and lots of wasted money.

Watch your ROI Overture people.

[Advisor]

I think Overture and Google AdWords should give every advertiser the opportunity to check off which sites they wish to appear on, and which they don't.

That way everyone would be happy.

Jill

[polarmate]

From an advertiser's point of view: Our Overture conversions bypassed our Google conversions a couple of months ago. And with most of our bids at 5 cents a click or lower, it's a lot cheaper than Google. We were also very lucky that we added a truckload of keywords a couple of days before the minimum bid was raised to 10 cents - so these remain grandfathered at the current bid.

As of now, we are not seeing any undue increase in CTR. However we are seeing an increase in conversions - which we are very happy about. Only time will tell if there is overexposure. I will keep you guys updated.

[ihelpyou]

Jill, I thought AdWords allowed you to delete a site you did not want your ad to appear on?

I agree, that is a needed requirement. But if Overture allowed that, they would not make as much money.

[Advisor]

I believe with Google you can be on JUST the Google site, or Google and everything else they partner with. As far as I know, you can't pick and choose. Although, I do believe you can pick and choose countries, or at least languages.

All of these ad places should have a list of all the partners, with checkboxes of where you want to appear. Should be opt-in to which ones you choose.

Jill

[polarmate]

Originally posted by Advisor
All of these ad places should have a list of all the partners, with checkboxes of where you want to appear. Should be opt-in to which ones you choose.

Jill
To do this the 'ad place' would need to invest in 'enhancing' their systems which would inevitably be passed on to their customers ie advertisers - which would mean a further increase in minimum bids?

[ihelpyou]

The problem with Overture is this; their partners like MSN and Yahoo are wanting more of a 'piece' of the pie. Because Overture HAS to abide to these two partners and their wishes, in order for Overture to keep the "status quo" of their own monies, they raise the minimum bid to the advertisers. So there are a couple of things happening:

The bid increase is because Overture wants more money.

The bid increase is because the partners want more money.

Look for Overture to raise the minimum again in about 6 months. They have to keep Yahoo and MSN. To lose one or both would be disastrous for them. They are at their mercy.

[polarmate]

Doug,

Just a bit of transitive math here:
if the bid increase is because Overture wants more money cos their partners want more money, then it's the partners that are the 'greedy ********' :slywink:

But really, is it wrong to attempt to stay in business by raising your charges if your partners are squeezing the juice out of ya?

Oh! maybe it's the much chardonnay down that is talking ...

Hope you all had a great Valentine's - we celebrated today!

<oops! changing and is to an if...>

[polarmate]

Originally posted by Advisor
I believe with Google you can be on JUST the Google site, or Google and everything else they partner with. As far as I know, you can't pick and choose. Although, I do believe you can pick and choose countries, or at least languages.

Google calls that 'syndication preference'
From https://adwords.google.com/select/faq/basics.html#basic2
On what sites could my ads be shown?
Your ads may be shown on search results pages for Google, Google Directory, Google Groups, and Google's partner sites, including our partners' directory results pages. If you choose not to participate in the Google syndication program, your ads will be shown only for search results on Google.

Our current partners include:

America Online, Inc.
CompuServe
Netscape
AT&T Worldnet
EarthLink, Inc.
Sympatico Inc.


And yes, you can decide which languages to target as well as which countries you want your ad to appear in.

Additionally, you can set an expiration date for your ads. This means that if you can have targeted ads for the specials you may run on your site and not worry about whether they will be shown after your offer has expired.