'microeconomics' Category

• Google Product Search, Ciao, Foundem and the right to make a buck in search results

  The Telegraph gives some details about the cases being brought against Google in Europe, about product search results. Who’s complaining, and about what, makes for some interesting speculation. Let’s have a look at what Google Product Search is, and does, first… so we’ve got some context. Google Product Search It’s free. Anyone can sign up, [...]

  February 24th, 2010

• Google’s Economist Explains The Auction

  Clear description of the importance of managing AdWords Quality Score and the effect on the auction and placement from Google Chief Economist, Hal Varian. I had a chat with a couple of Google’s AdWords Ad Quality Tech Specialists last week, and the description of Quality Score in the 10 minute video massively simplifies what is [...]

  March 12th, 2009

• Search Engine Marketing 2009 Projections

  The main trends that will be visible in 2009: Google will struggle to retain revenues using a variety of techniques Searchers will spend more time browsing and convert after more clicks Online revenues will generally increase – but business margins will be squeezed Internet Theft Scandals – Click Fraud, Phishing and Account Theft Details and [...]

  January 5th, 2009

• Google’s Approach To Click Fraud – 2007

  Well, I’m a year late finding this PDF about Click Fraud, ROI and Advertiser Response by Kourosh Gharachorloo of Google. I was doing a periodic scan to see if anyone else has published how to interpret the autotagged gclid in AdWords. It’s nice to see that my old article anticipated many of the arguments – [...]

  October 18th, 2008

• Exploring Paid Search Auctions

  The generalised second price auction, described in a somewhat mathematical paper by University of Stanford economists, is the dominant auction mechanism for paid search. It is often misunderstood. I’m pretty certain that there’s features of it that I don’t properly understand, too. However, understanding the auction is important for effective bidding and also explains a [...]

  July 29th, 2008

• AdWords Search History Permutation Victims

  Update 2009/02 I can no longer detect Search History Permutation using the diagnostic tests that I previously used – I believe that this is no longer operating, or it has become more subtle in its effects. Original Article I was wrong – Search History Permutation probably isn’t the sole cause of problems. Amongst my clients, [...]

  March 20th, 2008

• Is AdWords Search History Permutation Fraudulent?

  Update 2009/02 I can no longer detect Search History Permutation using the diagnostic tests that I previously used – I believe that this is no longer operating, or it has become more subtle in its effects. Original article My first article on Search History usage was experiential; you can do the searches yourself and see [...]

  March 17th, 2008

• Spam in Comments, Unattributed Content

  This article was triggered by a possibly spammy comment, and lead to investigating the quality of the site that was offered in the link. Bizarrely, it leads to further reflections on Google, and the Content Network. I struggle to make the Content Network work for my clients, at a reasonable ROI, and Google itself turns [...]

  February 7th, 2008