(Source) No double-digit click increases for Google again in comScore’s assessment of paid click activity, as the firm found a mild 2.7 percent year over year rise in March.
First they wanted click fraud protection, now they want double-digit increases? It’s time for PPC analysts to take a breather and expect some realistic results. Advertisers have beat Google over the head for ways to address click fraud so Google took a measure that looked promising. The number of clicks decreased. So did revenues. And how much money advertisers were paying for clicks. I’d be interested in knowing if all of these decreases has led to an increase in CTR or eCPM.
I don’t expect Google to be perfect. I don’t expect untold riches from every PPC campaign. I do expect a level of realism with regard to prices, results, and analysis. I don’t think we should expect the market leader to see record results every year. The fact that there was an increase at all in paid click activity is pretty good news considering the changes Google AdWords made this last year. In summary:
Citing Mark Mahaney of Citi, the post pointed to a couple of possible reasons for this relatively flat performance: Google’s forceful efforts to make advertisers comply with AdWords quality guidelines, and a general decrease of commercial searches that would lead to ad clicks.
The real test will be what kind of change we’ll see this time next year – assuming Google doesn’t make any more sweeping changes to its AdWords policies as it did this past year.
