IMMania.com

There’s been a lot of buzz recently about Adwords Placement Targeting and the impressive results that many are experiencing with it. Ever since the release of “Adwords180“, interest in what was until recently called “Site Targeting” by Google, has only gained in attention.

The latest version of this Adwords Content Network advertising model now supports both CPM (cost per 1000 impressions) and CPC (cost per click) bidding models. In effect, you can specify the sites where you Content Network ads will be shown. Even right down to a specific page on a particular site. Of course these sites and pages need to have Adsense on them.

The beauty, at least in theory, of this advertising model is that you can get your ad in front of targeted, and in some cases, highly targeted Web users. Placement Targeted ads also don’t look like the standard Adsense ads that are crammed within a large rectangle with a full complement of 4 competing ads. Instead they occupy the entire ad unit and really standout.

Think of it more like a mini billboard rather than a tiny classified ad.

This has the potential to be very powerful.

However, the point of this post, if I can recall what is was initially, isn’t about how to leverage Adwords Placement Targeting as an advertiser, but looking at it rather from the other end from the perspective of Adsense publishers whose sites are being targeted by these ads.

As an Adsense publisher I can tell something isn’t quite right when I see that 6 clicks for a particular ad unit netted me .03 in earnings. How is it possible to get an average Adsense CPC of half a cent?

I can only surmise that it’s the result of Placement Targeting that’s using the CPM bidding model.

The upshot is that I’ve noticed a steep decline in my Adsense earnings month after month. This same time last year I was seeing more than double the Adsense earnings with less traffic and fewer sites. I haven’t taken a formal poll, but my hunch is that Adsense publishers from all over are seeing dwindling revenue from their Adsense units.

Now I play both sides of this game, both as an Advertiser that heavily leverages the Adwords Content Network for cheap clicks as well as an Adsense publisher. Now, I don’t place too much blame on the advertisers that are exploiting this cheap source of traffic for all it’s worth. At the end of the day, Adsense really is at the bottom of the IM food chain and I need to re-evaluate its benefit on my sites. Perhaps there’s something else that will pay better for the traffic it leaks off my pages.

The larger concern I feel is that Google has created the conditions for this mess to exist.

First, there is the ever increasing minimum bid prices and the Google Slapping that happens regularly on the Adwords Search Network. I don’t know about other advertisers, but it’s become increasingly difficult for me to turn a profit using the Adwords Search Network.

People are innovative, even cunning, and will find a way around or through barriers placed in front of them. Just witness the market inefficiency that currently exists on the Content Network. And it’s not just placement targeting. Boatloads of cheap clicks can also be had for keyword targeted CN campaigns.

Then there’s the poor Adsense publishers whose earnings are being reduced to next to nothing. I think most of them either don’t care or feel there’s nothing they can do about it. And things are only growing exponentially with the introduction of sophisticated software tools to mine for sites hosting Adsense to even more laser target Placement Targeted campaigns.

And has the overall quality of the sites in the Google advertising network increased?

If anything, I would say the quality is as poor as ever.

There’s certainly no question that both the volume of traffic as well as cash flowing through this network is immense. My fear is that Google has a run away system that is in danger of crashing in upon itself.