At Google, the algorithm rules. Don’t question the algorithm. It knows what you want better than you do. That goes for advertisers as well. Case in point: Google is dropping a feature on AdSense that places an “Advertise on this site” link in the ads that Google spreads across the Web.
You’d think: Who better to pick which sites to advertise on than the advertiser himself? A clever marketer comes across a site whose readers he want to reach, clicks the link and buys a run of ads. What could be easier? But no, apparently when an advertiser picks which sites to advertise on, those ads don’t get clicked on as much as ads picked by the AdSense computers. Humans rely too much on messy intuition. Computers measure response rates and tweak accordingly.
Hey, the numbers don’t lie. Is it really any wonder that Google has no use for us humans or our pesky choices. Who needs free will, when you’ve got the algorithm?
Everyone is focused on Google right now, but people she realize that Disney could be up to the same kind of thing. Namely, Disney appears to be consolidating its hold over family-related websites. The NewsVisual article on Disney’s acquisition of iParenting Media talks about how their Board of Directors can help the Management Team develop its new Internet properties.
I think this is a mistake on the part of AdSense team. “Advertise Here” link gave the advertisers choice to select which sites they want to advertise on. Why not give advertisers some choice? No one likes to have their ads shown on random sites across the net with limited controls.
Good on Erick, nicely put
Before Google goes a long way in pissing off its user base, it needs some time to rethink if its turning to another Microsoft..
Eric, you’re waaayyy off on this. Can’t say why (damn nda’s), but this feature is *not* going away. At least in its current form
“Is it really any wonder that Google has no use for us humans or our pesky choices. Who needs free will, when you’ve got the algorithm?.”
I hope this was sarcasm.
That’s bad news
You no longer will be able advertise on a specific unique local site to target users?
I for one welcome our Google algorithm computer overlords.
I hate google. Just another way for them to boost their clickfarm cash generators.
@jeremy #4
Do you have insider information with whats going on in Adsense ? Google may have reasons why its being dropped. I can only hope that there is a better reason.
I think everyone is being a little critical, what if that feature was never used.. if that were the case, it is adding clutter to their advertising for no gain – to anyone.
Seems dumb if this is really true.
An advertiser could have good reason for advertising on a particular site – even if click through rate is higher elsewhere. They may know very well that the click throughs from other sites rarely result in any useful action being taken.
Google knows what the are doing. But it all has to deal with their bottom line. It is a way to get higher clicks and more money out of advertisers. It is not necessarily a way to help you have a more effective campaign that meets your needs and the needs of your clients.
I always saw these as self promotion and am happy they have given the googlebots power over us punny hummans.
Jon
“…apparently when an advertiser picks which sites to advertise on, those ads don’t get clicked on as much as ads picked by the AdSense computers. Humans rely too much on messy intuition. Computers measure response rates and tweak accordingly.”
“Who needs free will, when you’ve got the algorithm?”
Did you add the ‘free will’ bit to encourage discussion or do you actually believe that? If google knows best, then this benefits both publisher and advertiser. I think it’s a good thing, y’know? more clicks and more dosh etc..
Like Tim (12) says, “Google knows what the are doing. But it all has to deal with their bottom line.”
And for those who “hate google” (8), please.. get off the bandwagon. Every blogger and his dog hates google when it comes to writing a controversial post, or maybe because their splogs lost pagerank after the payperpost scam was punished (and rightly so), but hating google over this is silly.
Let Google spend $$millions getting things down to a fine art, it leaves us bloggers time to blog, slap the adblock in and reap the benefits.
wow.. first of all didn’t know this feature exists. I’ve google adsense account and always wanted to focus on some of the keywords that are important to us (for example excel sap) and always put highest bid on. If we knew that we could focus only of some of the sap fan discussion sites, it would be perfect. May be we are just little late.. will have to check if this feature has still some life left
thanks TC for informing that something importing will be going away..
Erik,
There’s little doubt that you have some aspect of this story wrong. The “advertise on this site” link gets very little play and is by no means the main way that advertisers choose which site to be on. They are either limiting choice for advertisers OR they are taking down this link because it depresses response rates of actual ads — which is it?
This is great news! As a publisher I’ve always turned this feature off, and I know many other site publishers that have done the same. Having that feature turned on allows Google to undercut your ability to sell ads directly yourself or with another partner who takes a smaller cut.
In fact I notice that Techcrunch has this feature turned off, but offer sit for their FM ads…
“Who needs free will, when you’ve got the algorithm?”
I say leave this kind of remark for the trolls, this is obviously not a human rights issue
@16, the answer is both.
@5, your hope has been realized.
@14, see sarcasm.
The average Adwords user knows that you can search and target any site you want. What’s the big deal here?
I think you got this a little bit wrong. When an advertiser chooses to advertise on a particular site, they are bidding for CPM impressions, not pay-per-click (CPC). Google can just as well optimize total advertising revenue by only showing the CPM ads when they don’t have better paying CPC ads. So it’s always a GOOD THING, for Google to have more inventory of ads from which to select.
So the only way I can make sense of Google’s move is that the presence of the “Advertise on this Site” link, was distracting enough to the average user, that TOTAL AD REVENUE on the site would decline – just by virtue of the fact of having this extra distracting link within the ad block.
Advertisers will still be able to purchase CPM ads and have them run on sites of their choosing – but they have to know how to initiate this purchase from their own AdWords account.
Will that work like sphere-it?
Wow – when have advertisers ever “targeted” their ads? It’s more like – this site has traffic and the user demographic we (think) we want, so let’s get our ad there even if it’s annoying and off topic. I.E. X number of people watch 24 so we want our commercial on feminine hygiene to air then.
If google sees lower revenue when advertisers are allowed to pick sites then it should move to fix that. Advertisers can also contact the sites directly if placement on that site is so important. In the end, the site owner is getting more money for adsens and more from direct ads.
Advertisers can still target specific websites within Google’s content network. This article gave me the impression that website targeting was removed, which isn’t the case. It’s just a little more difficult than it used to be.
good post, erick. the presumption is that the click count is the ultimate measure of both advertiser goals as well as the user intent.
on the other hand, if an advertiser wants to force the ad to be on the site regardless of click-through rates, display ad is a better choice., where the user won’t have an expectation of relevancy (yet).
This is crazy, we advertise with Google and by fare the best result we get from site we choose specifically and that were identify by us as very relevant. The CPA in these sites is about 25% of the average cost of our CPA across Google.
Google – please let us choose whats good for us!!!
that text (”advertise on this site”) damages the performance of the ad unit. as a publisher, you should be happy. it is amazing it took this long for the change. as an advertiser, you can still site-target if you want.
yes, google can be annoying but i’d prefer intelligent criticism.
The post is incorrect. Advertisers can still choose exactly which sites to advertise on; the only thing changing is that “Advertise on this site” links will no longer appear on the ads themselves.
I wonder why the algorithm doesn’t auto-click already on the ad he knows we want to click on …
They need to work harder!
This is such a non-story. Nobody selects sites this way. The easiest/best way to select sites to target in the Adsense network is through the AdWords interface which allows you to search by keyword, category, and demographic. It also shows you what type of ads each site will allow (text, image, video, etc.) and an estimate of their traffic. This functionality is quite popular and is still alive and well.
hmm…bad development. may result in losses for high earning blogs
I think Tech Crunch should stop resorting writing entire posts in Sarcasm. What the hell.. there are a lot of people out there who won’t get it!
Don’t believe me?
Read this:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4566319.stm