How can I stop my adwords showing on Gumtree?

[Salt & Paper]

Hi,

We have a very effective display ad campaign running on adwords, but I have noticed that the conversion rate off the 'ads related to xxxxx' links at the top of Gumtree pages is zero.

I have the campaign set to 'Search Network Only', but it still persists on Gumtree, Amazon, and a few other sites.

Is there a way I can stop my ads showing on these sites?

Thanks

 

[fraser.birt]

Ah... the persistent issue of search partners who aren't really "search" partners.

We've had success as an agency with this by creating custom referral URL reports in Analytics to show exactly how many clicks we're getting from various search partners, and documenting the heck out of the poor performers. (Gumtree is a common one.)

Once that's done call your Google reps, show them the report, and pester the hell out of them. It doesn't always work, but if you have significant budget sometimes they can bend.

According to them, using the conversion optimiser in AdWords will nuke some of those pesky partners, but that's not always a great tool.

There's no automatic way to do this. It takes documented proof of low-quality search partner traffic followed by manual contact and intervention.

 

[fraser.birt]

I forgot to say. Key to the pestering...

You might want to strongly imply that you find the low-quality search partner traffic to be unacceptable and that you're thinking of turning search partners off altogether.

Back this up with numbers from Analytics.

 

[RalphW]

Hi,

To exclude particular sites you'll need to use one of the following campaign types:

• "Search & Display Networks - All features"
• "Display Network only - All features"
• "Display Network only - Mobile apps"
• "Display Network only - Remarketing"

If you have a different campaign type from the ones listed above, you won't be able to exclude placements or categories.

You can potential change to the Search & Display network and then exclude the sites you mentioned, however keep in the mind the affect this may have on your CTR/CPM and conversion if you already have a well targetted campaign.

 

[directmarketingadvice]

I have the campaign set to 'Search Network Only', but it still persists on Gumtree, Amazon, and a few other sites.

Is there a way I can stop my ads showing on these sites?

These sites are part of the search partner network, rather than the display network.

The only automatic way of excluding them is to opt out of that network.

Some of these adsense-esque sites show up as very unusual search queries. Check your search query data to see if you can identify them and then use these weird queries as negatives.

Otherwise, it's in-or-out for the whole network.

Steve

 

[fraser.birt]

Otherwise, it's in-or-out for the whole network.

Steve

Bang on. For some reason I read the OP's question as implying they wanted to stay on other search partners. If that's not the case, nuke 'em all.

For what it's worth, an American account rep I spoke to last week said that the Search Partner team was going to be doing a review of the partners in the coming month or two. There have apparently been some complaints about low quality search partner traffic.

We'll see what comes of that.

 

[directmarketingadvice]

We'll see what comes of that.

I suspect very little.

Google have a lot of ad inventory that's of lower value and it makes sense for them to package that up with better quality inventory so they get a higher price for it.

Good for google, bad for advertisers.

Steve

 

[Salt & Paper]

Bang on. For some reason I read the OP's question as implying they wanted to stay on other search partners. If that's not the case, nuke 'em all.

For what it's worth, an American account rep I spoke to last week said that the Search Partner team was going to be doing a review of the partners in the coming month or two. There have apparently been some complaints about low quality search partner traffic.

We'll see what comes of that.

Sorry I mean to say I don't want to appear on anything apart from Google search results, as this seems to be where pretty much 100% of my conversions come from. The rest seem to mainly consist of the competition checking out our offering (Lots of 10 second clicks, or wierd non- convering traffic patterns)

Thanks

 

[MASSEY]

Look at the gumtree home page, they have a box ad on the right that appears to overlap the tuition hyper link.

Their whole site is geared up for accidental clicks. It's a case of one rule for the big boys isn't it..

 

[Andrew Baker]

Sorry I mean to say I don't want to appear on anything apart from Google search results, as this seems to be where pretty much 100% of my conversions come from. The rest seem to mainly consist of the competition checking out our offering (Lots of 10 second clicks, or wierd non- convering traffic patterns)

Thanks

We've been campaigning (#ppcchat) for this for over a year now... feel free to sign the petition > http://www.change.org/petitions/goo...han-google-search-be-allowed-to-exclude-sites

To exclude ALL search partners, follow these instructions > https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2616017?hl=en-GB

 

[fraser.birt]

Their whole site is geared up for accidental clicks. It's a case of one rule for the big boys isn't it..

This is one of those cases, and there are many now, where big spenders and/or those with clued-up agencies really do have a big advantage.

Sorry I mean to say I don't want to appear on anything apart from Google search results, as this seems to be where pretty much 100% of my conversions come from. The rest seem to mainly consist of the competition checking out our offering (Lots of 10 second clicks, or wierd non- convering traffic patterns)

Ah, that part is easy then. Just follow the instructions of the poster above. But do make sure you do a segmentation report to show your ROI for Search vs Search Partners. Search partners often works (it's relatively big search names like Ask, after all). It just needs control.

 

[directmarketingadvice]

BTW, if anyone is wondering whether their search partner impressions are coming mainly from search engines that use google's results/ads (e.g. AOL), or from shopping sites, just compare the clickrate from search partners to your ctr for google search.

If it's around the same, then you're mainly getting search engine impressions from the network. If it's much, much lower, then it's mainly non-search engine impressions.

Steve

 

[Pugwash]

I must admit that reading this thread has been an eye opener for me. I always switch off the display network by default.

Being old school, this area of AdWords was always rife with low quality adsense sites that would deplete your bid funds big time, however I understand it might be worth a revisit for the purpose of remarketing.

With regards to Partner sites I wrongly assumed these were still established search engines like "ASK" etc and NOT Gumtree.

I know you can segment down to see how many clicks came from Google v Partners but UNLIKE the display network I haven't found any raw data relating to which clicks came from which partner site.

Maybe this is another hidden setting I have missed as it took me ages to find metrics relating to the actual search phrases people type, and that alone was an eye opener.

Any help finding this data or a definitive list of partner sites would be much appreciated.

Cheers
Pugwash

 

[fraser.birt]

I know you can segment down to see how many clicks came from Google v Partners but UNLIKE the display network I haven't found any raw data relating to which clicks came from which partner site.

Maybe this is another hidden setting I have missed as it took me ages to find metrics relating to the actual search phrases people type, and that alone was an eye opener.

Any help finding this data or a definitive list of partner sites would be much appreciated.

Cheers
Pugwash

There isn't a way to do this in AdWords directly. If you want to see actual search partner members that are sending traffic to you, you need to set up an Analytics custom filter to show referral URLs, and then view your Sources > Search > Paid reports in Analytics and dig them out of there.

You can also sometimes gauge how much is coming through by looking for bizarre, super-long search queries in your AdWords query reports.

For example, if you look at this Amazon product URL:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/KatKabin-DezRez-Luxury-Kennel-Including/dp/B003WAO8F8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368522725&sr=8-1&keywords=katkabin

Halfway down the page, you'll see sponsored ads. Those aren't display ads. They're Google Search Partner ads... cheeky buggers.

In this case, the query would show up in your reports as the full product name:

KatKabin DezRez Luxury Cat Kennel Including Winter Warmer - Green

If you see big long weird queries like that, it's Amazon, eBay, et al showing search partner ads.

 

[Pugwash]

Thanks for your informative reply Fraser, I thought I knew more than most regarding AdWords but obviously not. Looking at your example, I would have definitely thought they were coming from the display network.

Do you find that Google Partners significantly speeds up your overal burn rate? Do you see any real benefit from including Google partners as part of your campaigns?

Cheers
Pug

 

[fraser.birt]

Thanks for your informative reply Fraser, I thought I knew more than most regarding AdWords but obviously not. Looking at your example, I would have definitely thought they were coming from the display network.

Do you find that Google Partners significantly speeds up your overal burn rate? Do you see any real benefit from including Google partners as part of your campaigns?

Cheers
Pug

The majority of our clients are ecommerce, with Search Partners on. For them, the Search Partners are broadly profitable, but less consistently so.

If it's high volume, it's worth splitting it out into separate campaigns.

When I look at Analytics reports, Amazon consistently performs pretty well as a search partner - as do the usual suspects like Ask. It's the ones like Gumtree that are consistently poor.

It makes sense that they're poor. When someone is on Amazon, they're in "shopping mode," so a direct marketing advert has a chance of working. Whens someone is on Gumtree or another site, it's a different story!