As I have indicated in the past I am both a publisher under Google's Adsense advertising network and a purchaser of advertising under the Adwords network. Generally I have been happy with both -- I have generated suitable revenue and have managed to gain some valuable customers.
I think however the bloom is off the rose for both Adsense and Adwords.
First the Adsense experience:
Over the past year the click through ratio has increased (dramatically -- doubled) but the average value per click has also decreased (dramatically - 1/6) resulting in the revenue also dropping dramatically. In all fairness the subject of the site is getting stale and the traffic has dropped off so I am not really that surprised or upset.
The Adwords experience:
I find this especially troubling (and so should Google and other advertisers on the network). The cost per click/click through ratio has meant that costs here have been steadily escalating. Also I had noticed (this is very unscientific though -- but aren't most advertising effectiveness measurements?) that it didn't seem to be drawing potential customers to contact us(the goal of the campaign) like it did in the beginning.
I started doing some investigation- recording landings and information about them at my end. I noticed some very suspicious clicks (two clicks from the same IP in the same minute) -- not just one but dozens. Contacting Google got the response that they have measures to deal with this at their end and that this was possible in real situations(which is true) -- essentially apparently the kiss off. I don't know if they are continuing to investigate or not but I decided to take action at my end -- I set the campaigns so that ads only appear on Google and content sites (not "search partners" -- where the suspicious activity seems to originate). It seems for now that the suspicious clicks have disappeared.
I suggest to anyone buying advertising on Google's network to pay more attention to the clicks and costs. Somebody may be tricking you into paying more than you should. If you are really concerned turning off the "search partners" end of the campaign may be a wise plan.
