Advertising for the online world has advanced light-years since sock-puppet dot-coms spent millions of venture dollars for 30-second spots in the 2000 Superbowl. Sophisticated pay-per-click services—notably Google's AdWords program—deliver content-driven ads striaght down the throats of their target micro-demographics.
The prospects? They click, all right, enough to fund the biggest tech IPO since the dot-coms went bust four years ago.
Google's program is particularly interesting, in that a savvy user can play on both sides of the table. e-Insure Services is a case in point. On the one hand, we place ads on other people's websites via the AdWords program, bidding on keyword phrases for placement and paying by the click. On the other hand, we display similar ads from other companies on our own wesite through the AdSense program, pocketing a piece of every per-click fee Google charges.
Managing the two programs, my calculations run something like this (the numbers are round, but not too far off):
- Based on my end-of-the-month receipts, the average visitor to einsure.com will net me $0.25 on auto insurance.
- The average visitor to my product pages will net me $0.10 by clicking on Google AdSense ads.
- Thus, if I bid $0.35 per click on AdWords auto insurance ads, I am guaranteed—in the worst case—to break even on every AdWords click.
- In reality, my spend per click on AdWords is always somewhat lower than my maximum bid. The difference is pure profit.
The more I spend on AdWords, the more traffic I get... but the lower my average profit per click. A few months of data analysis showed that my peak overall return almost always comes when I bid at my break-even rate. I like that, and it's easy, so that's what I do.
So what's this about biting the hand that feeds me?
Consider the mechanics of posting AdSense ads. Essentially, I include a special script on the relevant web page that contains information specifying the ad's dimensions, color elements, and type. The script also designates the content channel I use to track the ad—so I can break out traffic metrics from, say, product pages and e-Insure Journal pages—and the account number to which Google credits the traffic.
Get it?
It would be absolute child's play for an unscrupulous Webmaster to establish a second Google account under his own name and send the proceeds from, say, every tenth page view of his company's website to that account. Here are a few other scenarios:
- The thief gets all proceeds generated between 2 AM and 6 AM. If anybody checks the page source during the day, they see the correct account number... and, since Google doesn't break out ad revenue by the hour, nobody would notice the daily dip.
- The thief displays ads from the company's account to all browsers located in his company's region of the country... and his own ads everywhere alse.
- The thief places an ad group crediting the company's account in the most prominent position on the page, and one crediting his own account at the bottom.
- The thief's profits grow with yours over the months and years... but just a little slower. If he's not too greedy, you'll never miss what you never knew you had.
Think that's scary? How about this: the thief manipulates your AdWords account to quadruple your company's per-click bid limit during the hours when his ads are active. Just like AdSense, AdWords doesn't break out traffic by the hour, so unless you catch the thief red-handed, you'll never be the wiser. Meanwhile, the crafty thief is using the Google Laundromat to shift funds from your advertising budget to his own pocket.
How can you prevent these scenarios from taking place under your nose?
- First and foremost, ask the hard questions. If your online advertising ROI takes a sustained nose-dive, dig until you find out why. There are a number of perfectly legitimate reasons why this might happen... but “the Internet must be running slow this month” isn't one of them.
- Did I say advertising ROI? If you don't know where you stand, you'll never get where you want to go. Modern tools make it trivially simple to track your vital stats, so do it. No excuses.
- Browse your own web pages. View the source... most PPC ad engines use on-site scripts, and most of these contain your account number. If you see an account number that isn't yours, guess what? Your ad revenue is taking a walk.
- Spot check. If twelve years in the service taught me anything, they taught me that a scheduled inspection is a waste of time. Check your site on weekends, on holidays, and at two o'clock Sunday morning.
- Use your head. No matter how many MCx qualifications your Webmaster holds, there is no virus under the sun that will replace your company's account number with his own. If he has actually led you to believe you couldn't operate your business without him, then hand him his walking papers before he appropriates your spouse and your house as well.
So what's the bottom line? Easy: watch your back. For every person who has sacrificed and slaved to build a successful business, there exists a rat who resents your success and stays awake nights wondering how he can stick it to The Man. That's you.
Your company can make a lot of money posting and hosting ads online. Just make sure the cash winds up in the right bank account.