The Pay Per Click Arbitrage Blog

Is Google is a steamrolling web despot on amphetamines?

Trust issues, privacy concerns, foul treatment of partners and Big Brother is shinning through the seams.

With over three times the search market share of closest competitor Yahoo, Google is careening towards an ever expanding dark empire.

Paid search puts them even further ahead.

In comparison, Microsoft is starting to look like the gentler, softer monopoly of the past.

And the summer before that.

And:

- who your friends are

- what you discuss with them by email or chat (gmail, gtalk)

- what you look for in the dark of the night when nobody’s looking [sic]

- what sites you own

- what products you promote

- Generally, more about you than you can probably consciously recall

- What content you watch (youtube)

- What music you may be stealing

Without getting political, does the recent climate not warrant a question such as “what if all this falls into the wrong hands?”

And that’s only if you consider that Google’s hands aren’t them…

Google Slap anyone?

Yes, there are rules. But those rules could stand to be far clearer. Warnings could be issued.

Instead, Google is remarkably trigger happy when it comes to the little guy. They think nothing of disabling your account with only vague cryptic explanations given.

If you’re big enough or popular enough, you can cloak at will (NY Times), spam like there’s no tomorrow (About dot com), dominate search results across the board (Wikipedia) and buy links from Google itself.

To the untrained eye, it may not be clear what’s happening.

That’s why it’s time to take a stand and say no.

Here’s how this works:

1) Copy this post or reproduce it on your blog in your words

2) Click “view source and grab the links below once they are added”

3) Make a comment with your post url

4) Get your link added here and every other site that participates

5) This site will be updated with new links, as should your page

Bonus points: when linking to Google, use the no follow attribute and / give them the anchor text they deserve: web apartheid.

You all have to read that if you are involved in any kind of seo or Online marketing:

http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1869/172/

If we now have to compete for ranking with the Search Engines themselves, where are we going??? I guess it’s time for a virtual riot! What if we all pull our adwords publicity at the same time? We could also organize a click no Google ads day… We need to do something before these guy take over the web if its not already too late.

Maybe a good book to read:

Mike

Well it looks like Ask.com is going nuts on the advertising budget… 47 million in June only! Well it looks as if they are the biggest arbitrager and that Google is even allowing them to do so. How is it possible? Well I guess you have to be  a Google Partner to be allowed to do arbitrage. Another proof of the Google’s bias towards the people that do not follow the rules but brings in a ton of money! Just look at the all the cloaking going on with Google Partners and it will show once again the favoritism taking place with Google’s Partner. The moral of the story is simple, become a Google Partner and you will get a free pass to do what you want and bypass the Google TOS!

Nielsen Ratings for June:  http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/pr/pr_070711.pdf

Thanks Seven Mile for outing them…

Mike

Today I was bored and decided to take The Google adwords Professional Certification Exam. Wow, it was something… There was 111 questions and 1.5 hours to do it which is kind of enough as I had finished after 65 minutes. I got 84.3% which is not bad considering the efforts that I put into studying which is none. Here’s a few questions included in the exam:

Questions:

1. What is cost-per-click (CPC)?
   
2. Along with text ads and image ads, which of the following are also available as Google adwords ad formats (Select all that apply)?
   
3. What are impressions?
   
4. Advertisers on Google pay to appear in their adwords ads using which pay model?
   
5. What determines a keyword’s clickthrough rate (CTR)?
   
6. The goal of the adwords Editorial Policies is to ensure the accuracy and credibility of ad text by supporting specific claims. Which statement is NOT one of the five quality criteria?
   
7. To file a trademark complaint with Google adwords regarding a registered trademark, which piece of information is NOT necessary to include in the claim?
   
8. After a trademark claim is submitted, what happens to the ads in question?
   
9. Which two products does Google monitor in ad text and keyword lists? (Choose two.)
   
10. The Google policy team monitors which of the following in both keywords and ad text.
    
11. Sites within the Google Network _____ regarding the content of adwords that they display.
    
12. In addition to Google, Google adwords ads can also be displayed where?
    
13. What is Smartpricing?
    
14. Which three statements are true regarding image ads? (Choose three.)
    
15. Which three statements are true of distributing ads on the Google Network? (Choose three.)
    
16. The Google Network offers advertisers _____. 
    
17. What does Google Smartpricing do?
    
18. What is Smartpricing?
    
19. Advertiser A has a Quality Score of 2 and a maximum cost-per-click (CPC) of $1.00 on the keyword ‘chocolate bars’.  Advertiser B has a Quality Score of 1.5 and a maximum CPC of $1.50 on the same keyword.  If both Min Bids are met and all other factors are equal, which ad will appear higher?  
    
20. You set your daily budget for Campaign #1 to $10.00/day. However, when you log into your account you see that the charges under Campaign Management for today are $12.10.  Which statement is true?
    
21. The system recommended daily budget for an adwords campaign could be found by clicking on which of the following links within your account?
    
22. Content bids allow advertisers to _________________.
    
23. What is adwords Starter Edition?
    
24. Naming Ad Groups can be useful to _____.
    
25. When your business sells many unique products or brands, what is the most effective way to set up a campaign?
    
26. Where is the most effective position in your ad text to place a keyword?
    
27. If you do not select unique names for your Ad Groups, how will Google name them?
    
28. Which statement about the daily budget is true?
    
29. When you have multiple ads in the same Ad Group, you can view all of these ads _____.
    
30. You can edit the current maximum CPC of keywords in an AdGroup on which page?
    
31. What is a bid multiplier?
    
32. You can change your login email address and password at which page within your account?
    
33. You can _____ from the Ad Group details page.
    
34. Using exact match for a keyword will _____.
    
35. If you want your ad to show for the keyword ‘chocolate bars’, but only when the user searches on ‘chocolate bars’ with no other words, what should you surround the keyword with?
    
36. Which keyword matching options should you use to filter out search queries you do not want your ad to appear on?
    
37. What is a function of broad match?
    
38. What is a helpful negative keyword for a site that sells a variety of consumer products?
    
39. What is a benefit of using broad matches with negative keywords, instead of exact match keywords by themselves?
    
40. What is the most effective way to target multiple countries individually?
    
41. adwords allows you to use the ‘Regions and cities’ targeting option in where?
    
42. Using adwords, advertisers can target their ads by _____.
    
43. One of the ways which adwords uses to locate users to a particular geographic location is _____.
    
44. If you are currently publishing adwords ads in a language other than Japanese and are interested in targeting Japan with ads in the Japanese language, what is the best way for you to target Japan?
    
45. Which advertiser would most benefit from region and city targeting?
    
46. Which two are advantages of distributing your ads internationally? (Choose two.)
    
47. When advertising internationally, it helps to stay organized by _____.
    
48. In order for a site-targeted image ad to appear on a page, its CPM must _________.
    
49. Your max CPM bid is ________________.
    
50. With CPM pricing, you are charged ________.
    
51. A keyword with a status of Inactive for search _____.
    
52. Quality Score is synonomous with clickthrough rate.
    
53. Keywords labeled ‘Inactive for search’_____.
    
54. What determines the status (Active or Inactive for search.) of a newly added keyword?
    
55. Which action can you take to stop receiving regularly emailed reports?
    
56. adwords reports are emailed to which email address?   
    
57. You are reviewing your reports and notice that there is a discrepancy between the number of clicks that Google has reported for your ad and those registered by other means. What are three possible reasons for this discrepancy? (Choose three.)
    
58. The bottom line for any keyword is how much value it generates compared to its cost. Given the following chart, the keyword ‘buy used books’ generates a _____ and the keyword ‘buy books’ generates a _____.   (Media)
    
59. Which action should you take if you want to stop conversion tracking for any reason?
    
60. Which formula expresses Return On Investment (ROI) as a percentage?
    
61. Reviewing custom reports for conversion tracking can help you develop your advertising strategy since you can evaluate keywords based on performance for each _____.
    
62. An advertiser is using conversion tracking to track how many CDs she has sold as a result of her adwords ads. Which type of conversion should she select to track?
    
63. A credit card might be declined by Google adwords if _____.
    
64. Which step must you perform to edit your billing information?
    
65. You view the statistics listed on your Campaign Summary page for the date range July 7, 2004 – August 7, 2004. You see that Campaign #1 accrued a total cost of $200.33 for that time. However, when viewing the same date range on your billing summary, you see a total charge of only $190.00 for Campaign #1.    Why does the billing summary list a lower cost?
    
66. Once your account has been activated, which two preferences can you edit? (Choose two.)
    
67. Where will you see overdelivery credits appear within your adwords account?
    
68. When using bank transfer as your method of payment you must pay  ____ when users click on ads. 
    
69. To help ensure that your ads show as frequently as possible, which action should you take?
    
70. Advertisers paying in US Dollars who qualify for the invoicing payment option typically have a spending level of _____.
    
71. Which advertiser could be approved for monthly invoicing in the US?
    
72. When optimizing an account, why is it helpful to research competitors’ ads and websites?  (Choose two.)
    
73. If a keyword has a high clickthrough rate (CTR), but clicks are not converting to sales, what should you try changing?
    
74. How can an advertiser test the effectiveness of the landing page?
    
75. Which group of keywords forms the most effective Ad Group?
    
76. Which three words are examples of call-to-action words? (Choose three.)
    
77. The more _____ a keyword, the more impressions it is likely to generate.
    
78. An advertiser is optimizing the following Ad Group. It has a clickthrough rate (CTR) of 8.4 percent. Which keyword or group of keywords should be placed in their own Ad Group utilizing this ad text?   Ad text: Nike Running Shoes Buy 2 pair of shoes & get 1 free Satisfaction is guaranteed www.buynike .com   Keywords: nike, shoes, nike running shoes, basketball shoes, nike shoes, running shoes
    
79. Grouping keywords in a single Ad Group that shares a central theme helps improve performance the most when ads are shown on _____.
    
80. When deciding whether or not to include the price of your product in your ad text, what are three questions you should consider? (Choose three.)
    
81. Increasing your _____ can cause the total number of clicks to your ad to increase. 
    
82. Conversions are more likely to occur during which part of the buying cycle?
    
83. An advertiser sells boxes of chocolates via the web.  The average cost-per-click (CPC) of the broad-match keyword ‘boxed chocolate’ is higher than the average revenue-per-conversion of that keyword.  Which of the following should you do first?  (Assume the keyword generates no leads.)
    
84. What should you add when optimizing to increase the number of clicks your ads receive?
    
85. Which three are negative keywords to help you prevent clicks that most likely will not lead to purchases? (Choose three.)
    
86. Which keyword would probably generate the lowest conversion rate for a site that sells only running shoes?
    
87. When you are creating a new keyword, you can find out the position in which your ad is likely to appear by using which feature?
    
88. If the keyword tool offers irrelevant variations, you should _________.
    
89. The Traffic Estimator estimates may vary depending on which changes?
    
90. The Change Keyword Matching Options tool can be used to apply keyword-match changes across multiple _____.
    
91. Which of the following is very UNLIKELY for you to see in the performance of your ad after an adwords Specialist reviews and approves it?
    
92. What can result in a quick drop in the number of impressions that your ad is accruing?
    
93. ads will not show if the maximum cost-per-click (CPC) for an Ad Group is higher than what?
    
94. If you suspect invalid clicks, what should you do first? 
    
95. Google uses _____ to investigate invalid clicks on adwords ads.
    
96. What is needed to link accounts to your Client Manager account?
    
97. While logged into your My Client Center you are able to run a keyword report for a linked account.
    
98. Which statistic is visible in My Client Center (MCC) under the My Client Center tab?
    
99. What are two benefits of making a separate adwords accounts for every one of your clients? (Choose two.)
    
100. After first identifying your client and explaining the advertising opportunity on Google, what is the second most important discussion you should have with them in designing an adwords campaign on Google?
     
101. What is the monthly minimum spend for adwords?
     
102. What are two cost-saving features that adwords provides? (Choose two.)
     
103. Online marketing professionals who want to automate campaign management for their clients would benefit from ____________________.
     
104. Which of the following tasks cannot be accomplished using the API?
     
105. Image and Animated ads can be created in _______.
     
106. Local business ads have the ability to show on the Google Content Network.
     
107. You can upload a custom map marker and business image for your enhanced listing on Google Maps.
     
108. Mobile ads contain _____ lines of ad text with a maximum or ____ characters on each line.
     
109. Before you can create a local business ad, you must first:
     
110. What is the maximum file size for an uploaded image?
     
111. Video ads are ‘click-to-play,’ so the first thing users will see when your ad is shown is:

Of course the answer choices are not available but I think the question list will do the job… Enjoy!

Very interesting Google advertising Guerilla Tactics:

Mike

Is Google bouncing checks now? This is history guys, the 1st Google adsense NSF check. You can read the whole story here:

http://mobilejones.com/2007/07/11/adsense-nonsense-20-google-writes-a-bad-check/

That has to be the funnyest event of the week… enjoy!

Is Matt Cutts running a Unix shell tutorial site? I just had a look at my favorite feed reader (http://www.rssbandit.org/) and just saw a post about a Unix shell session tutorial. Guess what? It was Matt Cutts’ blog! I have always been under the impression that this blog was about Google and for webmasters… Please Matt, stick to what you do best, getting us webmasters to learn more about Google and related topics. There is plenty of Unix tutorial out there and I think you must have more interesting things to talk about that Unix sessions…

Read the post here: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/a-quick-tutorial-on-screen

Mike

As usual… They are updating again! I really like that part:

“We’re now requiring adsense publishers to comply with the spirit of our Page Quality Guidelines. If you’re an adwords advertiser, you might already be familiar with these guidelines, which are intended to provide a better experience for users, advertisers, and publishers alike. If you use any kind of online advertising, know that these guidelines encourage publishers to, among other things, create sites with simple navigation and substantial, useful content. ”

Would it be possible to ask your customers’ opinion first? All of us publishers and advertisers just need to comply, comply comply! We should do a Google adsense protest and do some kind of buy no advertising day and boycott them by not spending a penny on some designated days… I am sure they would ask our opinion next time!

Mike