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The mysterious disappearance of Google's click metric

zdnet.com

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Re: The mysterious disappearance of Google's click metric

#21

Post by asdfasgasdgasdg »

reaperducer wrote: post #14
GordonS wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it incredible that cold calling works for you; everywhere I've ever worked in the UK and across Europe, cold-callers get short-shrift - with no exceptions.

I think he means calling established leads, not telemarketing, which I believe is what you are referring to. Like calling an existing business partner and offering them an additional service. At least that's what I hope he means, rather than telemarketing.

That's not what cold calling is but I suppose it's possible the top poster is confused about what that phrase means.

Re: The mysterious disappearance of Google's click metric

#22

Post by asdfasgasdgasdg »

fogetti wrote: post #20
DevKoala wrote: post #4

I am not rejecting the author's analysis, but the industry is moving towards cost per conversion. Even marketers for small time ad agencies have gotten savvy and realized that the click is nothing but a proxy. Also, I never realized Google actually posted CPC numbers, I don't track B2C in depth, but considering the amount of synthetic traffic, CPC numbers can be meaningless.

I think you are conflating the seller and buyer side. In Google's case the CPC is actually a revenue and they do not see it as cost as the marketers you described. So from marketers' POV, yes, conversion makes more sense. From Google's POV they couldn't care less I think. And the important thing is the trend, not the actually quarterly numbers anyway. Which I assume would be the same even if we took a look at the con…

Google absolutely cares about conversions. Customers that don't see conversions will eventually stop doing business. Iirc in the early days of google analytics one of the much touted features was the ability to connect google ad clicks to the conversion funnel.

Re: The mysterious disappearance of Google's click metric

#23

Post by JohnFen »

DevKoala wrote: post #6
DailyHN wrote: post #2

Desensitization to ads caused by perverse tracking and targeting. It's not getting better.

There is no such thing. People still buy online marketed products a magnitude times more than non-marketed products. In fact, advertisement techniques are now so advanced that consumers believe they were not "influenced" in their purchasing decisions. "Hahaha, my ad-blocker and 7 proxies make me un-trackable"

> advertisement techniques are now so advanced that consumers believe they were not "influenced" in their purchasing decisions.

This isn't a new thing. People have believed that for the entire existence of advertising, and it has never been true.

Re: The mysterious disappearance of Google's click metric

#25

Post by drmabus »

JohnFen wrote: post #23
DevKoala wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no such thing. People still buy online marketed products a magnitude times more than non-marketed products. In fact, advertisement techniques are now so advanced that consumers believe they were not "influenced" in their purchasing decisions. "Hahaha, my ad-blocker and 7 proxies make me un-trackable"

> advertisement techniques are now so advanced that consumers believe they were not "influenced" in their purchasing decisions. This isn't a new thing. People have believed that for the entire existence of advertising, and it has never been true.

eventho i'm completely banner blind i suspect my subconscious still picks them up. one time I had to ask for help finding a download button on an almost empty page. i was pointed to the "blank" spot in the middle of the screen and then the button appeared. it was a shocking experience. the wetware addblock is probably storing all the adds? then it uses them for god knows what? a terrible invention, we would do so much better filling heads with productive things?

Re: The mysterious disappearance of Google's click metric

#26

Post by privateSFacct »

zenincognito wrote: post #3

After 10 years of spending 100k on average per month, we stopped spending in 2019 and put money into cold calling. Conversions tripled and we could only spend half our yearly budget in our call campaign. Google is expensive and returns now suck even more than they did in 2017.

What is this product?

When people cold call me to sell me investment advice I hang up.

When I get a betterment / personal capital / fidelity advert in my feed talking about their new whatever, I'm at least mildly interested and sometimes click through.

Do people really fall for the boiler room stuff still - it's VERY hard to believe that beats google / facebook / instagram (for product sales) etc

Re: The mysterious disappearance of Google's click metric

#27

Post by H8crilA »

I wish that shareholders would frequently vote on what data is included in the financial reports. Either that or have the SEC be much much more pressing on the issue.

Perhaps even a minority of shareholders (say 30%) should be allowed to enforce data publication rules.

Why should the management decide on which data is disclosed and which is not? It should rather be entirely decided by the management's supervisors, this is the shareholders or the regulators. Makes no sense to me otherwise.

"Yes, it's all your money that we manage here, but you can't look at it. You can only look at what we allow you to look at. Now go model our company and figure out what our stock should be worth without whatever it is that we don't give you."

Re: The mysterious disappearance of Google's click metric

#28

Post by busterarm »

Narkov wrote: post #18
busterarm wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not accusing, but it's still worth considering - could it just have been that your targeting was bad? I worked in a heavily regulated industry with some of the Top 10 most expensive keywords and we spent about $150 million a year on advertising with a solid 1/4 of it going to digital (almost exclusively Google) and it was worth it. Digital spend got customer acquisition costs way way down and we spent significant eff…

I get the feeling that you are both right. ROI is heavily industry specific.

I'm inclined to agree.

Re: The mysterious disappearance of Google's click metric

#29

Post by busterarm »

6nf wrote: post #19
busterarm wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not accusing, but it's still worth considering - could it just have been that your targeting was bad? I worked in a heavily regulated industry with some of the Top 10 most expensive keywords and we spent about $150 million a year on advertising with a solid 1/4 of it going to digital (almost exclusively Google) and it was worth it. Digital spend got customer acquisition costs way way down and we spent significant eff…

Facebook is killing it. It's harder than ever to justify spending a lot of money on Google.

This is the same Facebook that inflated view numbers?

We ran Facebook ads when I was there and they just didn't convert at all. It was pissing money away. We got better engagement from posting on Twitter for free.

Re: The mysterious disappearance of Google's click metric

#30

Post by Scoundreller »

Ugh, one of the graphs is for YoY decline in CPC rates, but it it shows 2015 at the right and 2019 at the far left. Who does that?

And it shows it by quarter, so is this a rolling window?

Then:

> As long as Google can keep growing the blue line -- growth of paid clicks faster than the red line its ad click deflation -- then it is golden.

> Every three months Google has to find faster ways of expanding the total number of paid clicks by as much as 66%.

NO! The blue line, from the 68% value, was their growth in click quantity. And the direct comparison between CPC and clicks isn’t valid: GOOG could have the less clicks but increase its CPC revenue if it targets poorly. Total revenue is what we should look at.

Other than all this, this seems to be much ado about nothing. If GOOG can better target ads, they’ll get more clicks. And when an ad pays well, publishers create content that will show that ad, driving down rates but increasing clicks.

And GOOG’s ad growth is international. Where GDP is lower; as CPC rates will go lower. And international increasingly favours CPM in my opinion. A fast food chain or a brand of soap doesn’t need clickthroughs.

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