I quoted AdWordsAdvisors2 from a WebmasterWorld thread as saying:
We are working on making it simpler for advertisers who don’t want to show on domain sites or error pages to exclude them.
The AdSense for Domains, also known as DomainPark, is a product of much controversy. Google places ads from AdWords campaigns on parked domains and match the relevancy of those ads based on the words found in the domain name of the site. In fact, Google was sued for trademark and typosquatting for ads being displayed on typosquatter’s domains.
Direct navigation is some of the most potent traffic there is out there. What will happen to domainers’ income when many opt out not understanding domain traffic? And how will advertisers be able to differentiate from arbitrage players to pure type-in players? While I think it may be a good development to show advertisers the quality of direct navigation, at the same time, I worry about the lack of understanding and measurement tools provided to advertisers by Google.
Shalom Sahar,
Is this for real? Google will be cutting off their blood supply. Parked domains are a huge business for domainers, advertisers and of course google. We’ve seen many stories about how much better direct navigation converts, your facebook story a few weeks back is a perfect example.
Advertisers need to be educated about where their traffic and conversions are coming from. Maybe, it’s time for google to share a little more info and show the world the power of direct navigation.
regards,
Gil
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Many in the domain channel have reognized the biggest risk to our business is having two main players monetizing the channel. If domainers who use domainPark see a substantial decrease in revenue they will be moving to Yahoo. Can Google take that kind of loss on their bottom line? I’m sure Yahoo will be waiting with open arms.
The market will work it out. At this moment I’m not so much worried as both Yahoo and google need the domain channel just as much as we need them.
Hi Sahar. Thanks for the link.
Blocking all parked domains via AdWords is not the best solution. I do think a win-win-win (for Google and advertisers and domainers) would be for Google to implement a domain network. (I’m pretty sure we’ve discussed this in the past either on your blog or mine. Sorry to repeat but I think it’s worth mentioning again to your readers.)
If Google has an AdWords content network for AdSense for Content traffic, why not an AdWords domain network for AdSense for Domains traffic? This would give advertisers visibility into where their clicks are going and how they’re converting. The current practice of distributing the AdSense for Domains traffic across both the search and content networks on AdWords simply confuses and exasperates PPC advertisers.
Also, advertisers can block individual content sites via a site exclusion tool. This feature would be necessary on a domain network because there are some useless parked domains in the AdSense for Domains program. I’ve had clients waste money on traffic from these non-generic domain names with little recourse but to block entire parked domain services. For instance, it is possible to block all searchportal.information.com traffic by adding domainsponsor.com to the site exclusion list. That blocks traffic on the search network as well as the content network. It’s not a good solution, though, as there may be some generic parked domains that are powered by searchportal.information.com.
Hope you don’t mind the long comment.
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Hi Richard,
Not at all, pleasure to read
My main problem is arbitrage players which reduce the value of our potent traffic. As for my company, we do not do arbitrage. I have no problem with those who do arbitrage but putting them in the domain channel, as they do it on domain portfolios, reduces the value of those who don’t.