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Questions About Google’s New Sponsored Link Tracking
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Written By Eric Friedman | January 23, 2007 | Share This
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Google recently announced the addition of “sponsored links” within your Google Search History - which means you can now see your entire click stream if you have a Google account and are tracking data. From an SEM’s perspective this raises a few questions:
- Does the advertiser pay for this “latent” sponsored click?
(assuming they are listed there in the first place from an original click)
…And how does it affect your quality score? I’m sure most marketers would prefer NOT to be charged for a click that came from a search history page, because its now in an environment that cannot be classified around the original open auction placement. But, if a user has a solid experience with the ad and chooses to return later (via search history), shouldn’t that improve the ad’s quality score? Furthermore, if quality score can be affected, should the advertiser in turn pay for the click?
I don’t think it’s possible to charge for a “latent advertisement” because by the time a person returns to their search history, the campaign could have already ended or spent its budget for that time period. This introduces problems in analytics and tracking metrics that I’ll discuss below. - Do all sponsored clicks get tracked, including the “click and return” action that Google classifies as a false click?
Google has a habit of classifying quick click and “back” button behavior as not a real click. This prevents someone from quickly clicking on an ad a trying to game the system. But, in the case of a true user behaving this way, I’m wondering whether Google would include this ad in the history if the advertiser is not charged. - What impact does this have on tracking and analytics for a client that is tracking a metric via paid search?
Advertisers want to know down to the keyword what is working and what is not. If a click is derived from what I am calling a “latent advertisement” from the Google History, then how is it tracked? More importantly, how to we evaluate CPC for an ad that may generate latent clicks? For reporting purposes, perhaps the “cost” of a click that generates a second click from a latent advertisement should be spread over the two instances - in which case CPC for each would actually be valued at 50% of the cost of the original paid click.
In another scenario, what happens when someone clicks a “latent advertisement” after a campaign has ended? Need the advertisers eternally track ad performance to follow users’ behavior within search history pages?
Thoughts welcome…
Topics: Advertising: Distribution, Google, Google: AdWords, SEM: Bid Management, SEM: Paid Search |
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