chromate
07-05-2005, 05:12 AM
Just wanted to say how happy I am with SearchFeed.
As some of you may have read, my AdSense earnings have taken a dive since Christmas. As an example, yesterday, my average click generated only $0.03. Pretty stupid on a weight loss site. Being an AdWords advertiser I know that ads displayed on my site have bid prices WAY in excess of this, even taking into account Google's revenue share.
So, I decided enough is enough. "I can't do any worse" - so it was time to look for a new CPC advertiser. I've used SearchFeed before on lower traffic than I have now, and at the time they were nothing compared to AdSense, who were paying around $1 a click back then.
So I switched back to searchfeed on my South Beach Diet site (to start with). The ads integrated more easily than before. SearchFeed now have several different integration options. I setup a simple JavaScript feed using their control panel in seconds, to display 5 text ads. You can set width, background colour etc. All far more customizable than Google. And you don't get the "Ads by Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle" thing either - which I reckon pulls down your CTR a bit. So for all intents and purposes, the ads don't look like ads at all and look like they're just part of your site. Good for CTR.
I chose "low carb diet" as my keyword for the ads - being able to do that is another major advantage over AdSense.
To cut a long story short - the majority of my clicks are now generating $0.22 each GROSS. The unfortunate thing is SearchFeed take a horrible 65% of this. Still works out better than my AdSense rates though, if I can pull in the same CTR.
I've seen that Chris said in his SearchFeed review that you can negotiate them down to 50% which is more reasonable. I've only been running the ads for a day, so I will send them some more traffic over a few more days and then start negotiating.
That's another great thing about SearchFeed - their support is fantastic. No canned responses to emails, at least not for me so far. Personal help / advise doesn't seem to be a problem.
SearchFeed's reporting is nice too. You can see each individual click, even down to which IP made it. Unfortunately no channel reporting like on AdSense though. But as you can see what click was made on what keyword, it almost negates the need for channels unless you're running the same ads from the same keyword on several different sites / pages.
This is not an attack on AdSense. Well not entirely ;). AdSense still have a lot of obvious qualities and probably in the majority of cases will work out better for publishers. However, if the situation is right, SearchFeed can be a nice alternative.
As I say, I've only been running the ads for a day, so this report may be a little premature. Time will tell.
As some of you may have read, my AdSense earnings have taken a dive since Christmas. As an example, yesterday, my average click generated only $0.03. Pretty stupid on a weight loss site. Being an AdWords advertiser I know that ads displayed on my site have bid prices WAY in excess of this, even taking into account Google's revenue share.
So, I decided enough is enough. "I can't do any worse" - so it was time to look for a new CPC advertiser. I've used SearchFeed before on lower traffic than I have now, and at the time they were nothing compared to AdSense, who were paying around $1 a click back then.
So I switched back to searchfeed on my South Beach Diet site (to start with). The ads integrated more easily than before. SearchFeed now have several different integration options. I setup a simple JavaScript feed using their control panel in seconds, to display 5 text ads. You can set width, background colour etc. All far more customizable than Google. And you don't get the "Ads by Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle" thing either - which I reckon pulls down your CTR a bit. So for all intents and purposes, the ads don't look like ads at all and look like they're just part of your site. Good for CTR.
I chose "low carb diet" as my keyword for the ads - being able to do that is another major advantage over AdSense.
To cut a long story short - the majority of my clicks are now generating $0.22 each GROSS. The unfortunate thing is SearchFeed take a horrible 65% of this. Still works out better than my AdSense rates though, if I can pull in the same CTR.
I've seen that Chris said in his SearchFeed review that you can negotiate them down to 50% which is more reasonable. I've only been running the ads for a day, so I will send them some more traffic over a few more days and then start negotiating.
That's another great thing about SearchFeed - their support is fantastic. No canned responses to emails, at least not for me so far. Personal help / advise doesn't seem to be a problem.
SearchFeed's reporting is nice too. You can see each individual click, even down to which IP made it. Unfortunately no channel reporting like on AdSense though. But as you can see what click was made on what keyword, it almost negates the need for channels unless you're running the same ads from the same keyword on several different sites / pages.
This is not an attack on AdSense. Well not entirely ;). AdSense still have a lot of obvious qualities and probably in the majority of cases will work out better for publishers. However, if the situation is right, SearchFeed can be a nice alternative.
As I say, I've only been running the ads for a day, so this report may be a little premature. Time will tell.