If you manage a Tablet PC site that is running Google AdWords, I don’t think you’re earning as much money as you could.
Here’s why. I’d guest most of your Google ads will be served up around the keywords “Tablet PC.” Makes sense. Your site focuses on Tablet PCs. But here’s the rub. Check out the quality of those ads. They probably aren’t very focused.
Right now I’m visiting one of the top Tablet sites. It’s not important which site, because what I find is quite common to all the Tablet enthusiast sites.
In one column are five Google ads. Starting from the top the ads are:
#1 Fujisu Ad for a Contest (www.winfujitsu.com)–This potentially isn’t bad because Fujitsu has a great line of Tablets, however, this is an ad for a contest that is giving away an ultra-light PC–not a Tablet. It has nothing to do with a Tablet. It’s ad spam in my mind.
#2: Wacom–Wacom is selling an upgrade pen for Tablet PCs so this ad is OK.
#3: Splise.com–Links to tables that have other focused ads on them. Looks like they are trying to drive people to their site to get them to click there rather than on your site. Spam in my book, but you might see it differently.
#4: Dell.com–Sure Dell sells the terrific Motion Tablet PCs, however, this particular ad is a generic notebook ad. No reference to Tablets in the landing page. About the best you can hope for here is for your reader to realize there’s nothing here, click back to your site and then click on another ad looking for Tablet products. You might consider this good, I consider it poorly relevant.
#5: Computer-offer.com–The ad says you can get a free Acer Tablet PC, but it’s a survey site and I have no idea how to or what it is. I’d rather click on monkeys flying back and forth across the screen. Others may find it useful. It’s relevancy is low if you ask me though.
Fortunately the ads do change as you refresh the page. If you search Google for “Tablet PC’ you’ll get a more complete listing of the various ads attached to the “Tablet PC” phrase–which is the number one search phrase for Tablet information. If you do this test, you’ll see quite a few ads that are fairly Tablet focused and which your readers would probably be very interested in. There is quite a bit of noise though if you ask me.
I imagine that the more relevant the ads are, the more ad revenue you can achieve.
So how can you improve the relevancy of ads on your site? Here’s some of what you can do:
1) First, give Google feedback. We’ve done this over the years and have found that it can help. Google feedback isn’t just for complaining though, you can also rank an advertiser as excellent. Give them the information they need so that they can improve their relevancy algorithms.
2) Within your AdWords management console you can filter out URLs and ads. You can do this for competitive reasons or to improve the “ad experience” for your readers.
3) Enable image ads within your AdWords account. Images can add variety to your site. People may be expecting to see text ads in a certain spot and an image ad every now and then may help to catch their attention.
4) Keep an eye on your ads. Google is always changing ads relevancies, so expect ads to appear that you’ll need to add to your filter list.
For site owners, the good news about ads under the “Tablet PC” phrase is that this is the most competitive keyphrase in the Tablet market. I don’t know what the bid amounts are for the top positions, however, you can image the amount-per-click gets pretty high. That’s good for you. Unfortunately, it means that the high costs box out most ISVs and aftermarket products. I also wonder if some accounts are not getting favored position because of the size of their ad purchases rather than their strict relevance. Maybe not. Maybe they are just paying a lot.
Now there are some more suggestions I have about ad placements and I want to talk about what it’s like to try to get an ad to appear on a Tablet site–from the advertiser’s perspective, but I’ll leave this discussion for a Part 2.
Update: As of this afternoon (Monday July 3, 2006), who is at the top sponsored position when searching Google for “Tablet PC Software”? You guessed it, Dell Small Business. The ad states: “Tablet Pc Software: Boost your portable productivity, Compare handhelds at Dell.” (By the way: Notice the lower-case “c” in “Pc”. Who writes Tablet Pc like this? An automated tool? Someone who doesn’t know anything about Tablet PCs?)
How is this ad relevant? Dell is selling against Tablets if you ask me. There’s no pitch for Motion Tablets. They are marketing PDAs.
Likewise, as of this afternoon, an eBay ad sits on the second to the bottom of the first page of sponsored ads for the search phrase “Tablet PC Software.” The ad is “Tablet Pc Software: Whatever you’re looking for you can get it on eBay.” Yeah, right. To me this is a low-quality ad also.
The next ad is for the Nokia 770. OK, I might see this one, but you know what? This ad really has nothing to do with “Tablet PC Software” other than its heading “Tablet Pc Software” (which also has mixed case “P” and “c”).
Well, what do you know but on the next page of Google sponsored ads for “Tablet PC Software” I see ads for NexTag, PriceGrabber, best-price.com, Yahoo Stores, Computer.Stuff.AllTheBrands, toseeka, and wisegeek all which I’d call “generic ads” that are doing nothing more than bumping up the bid rates to companies and sites that are really selling Tablet PC Software and help to discourage people from trusting Google search ads.
All this makes me wonder what’s going on here.