Adsspy plays hardball with Made-for-Adsense Sites
Playing on the content network is usually just that, a big unorganized and chaotic game. It pits advertiser against publisher, in a constant battle for cheap traffic, domain monetization, campaign optimization, and even fraudulent clicks. Marketers have a heck of a time keeping up with the onslaught of poorly converting clicks originating from hundreds and even thousands of unique domains on the content network. Enter Adsspy.com, a new tool by the creators of the hugely popular FireFox plugin SEO Quake.
How many of us have wondered whether sites we exclude on the content network ever pop up again in different iterations or versions in an endless cash grab? A few of us that remain active advertisers on content-based networks such as the Google Content Network and Yahoo Publisher Network keep a close eye on placement reports and conversion data, weeding out the bad, and targeting the good.
The problem is, bad publishers on content network sites are downright dirty, and the good are far and few between. Advertisers face a double, triple, or infinite whammy when those bad sites spawn into an endless sea of “made for adsense” sites (MFA’s). Advertisers that don’t know any better are undoubetly duped into taking a loss for advertising efforts and reluctantly fork over their budgets week after week.
That’s the cost of doing business, right? Well, maybe, but it doesn’t have to be.
If you’ve taken my advice in the past, and scrutinize your content network campaigns on a monthly, or even better, a weekly basis, you’re undoubetly going to find a number of sites with highly suspect traffic patterns. Some sites are notoriously bad for click volumes greater than impressions (a technical impossibility, or one would think), suspiciously high click through rates (anything greater than 25% if you ask me), or even sites that generate clicks after being excluded from campaigns for weeks!Enter Adsspy.com, Exit Poor Placements Fast
Adsspy.com is a project started to combat the iron curtain of internet anonymity, especially when it comes to domain monetization and questionable content publisher networks. Certain publishers, and they know who they are, will have hundreds – even thousands – of sites linked together using the same Adsense publisher IDs. Adsspy.com removes the veil of secrecy and uncovers the networks behind your content network report. The process couldn’t be simpler:
- Run a content placement report on a content network targeted campaign of your choice. Be sure to include enough clicks in your reporting period so as to show a significant amount of actionable data, i.e. if all your placements register 1 click, your reporting period is too short.
- Find a questionable domain that is generating an odd traffic pattern such as:
- Greater clicks than impressions. Hint: look for >100% click through rates.
- Greater than 50% click through rates on a low amount of impressions.
- A relatively high click volume on a page unrelated to your ads.
- Multiple ad placements on one URL with combined traffic exceeding 25% click through rate.
- Take the domain name of any placement and throw it into the search field on Adsspy.com.
- If you’re lucky, you’ll get a laundry list of other MFA sites within a publisher’s network that you can use to exclude from your content network campaigns.
- Lather, rinse, repeat.
Although there are a few legitimate sites that operate a number of networked domains on the same Adsense ID, these are a seldom exception. Large sites will tend to operate ethical accounting practices, opting for unique Adsense or Yahoo ID’s due to their size and internal processes.
Webmasters on quality sites generating the best converting placements often side-step Google, Yahoo, or other networks, preferring direct relationships with advertisers. If you’re site is good, it just doesn’t make financial sense to involve a middleman.
So, if you’re investing significant campaign budget to content matched ads or content network placements, do yourself a favor and buy a subscription to Adsspy.com. Filter out unsavory sites where your ads show up and enjoy the cheap clicks and high return that content network ads can acheive.
Please note: This post was not sponsored in any way by Adsspy.com or the creators of SEO Quake.
