The much expected revision of the Google API terms was released today by Rohit Dharwan on their Blog.
It’s going to have a major impact on bid management companies in the Google space, increasing their cost base dramatically. It will also impact the number of bids placed per day, given that there is a charge for every bid placed, in effect.
It also encourages advertiser to build their own systems, instead of tapping into 3rd party tools. My view is that 3rd party bid management companies are going to have to seriously look at the bid management strategies and start focusing on issues like quality score, instead of just price.
I am currently in Munich, Germany, and I spend the day with about 4 groups of people, explaining how Google Adwords is not a price war marketplace, as Overture current is today.
It’s astonishing to me how many companies feel that increasing prices on Google is the best way to increase their rankings. What’s even funnier is that Overture created this mentality amongst advertisers, and they’re jumping ship and going with a Google-esque system very shortly.
The top advertisers will attest that PPC management is not a bid war, it’s a user relevancy war. The more relevant your campaign is, the higher the rankings, the lower the max bid and the higher the Adwords discounter.
Hopefully these new Google API changes will reinforce these facts.
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Comments On This Post
April 12, 2006 at 12:04 am
Why is there no RSS Feed for your blog?
April 12, 2006 at 12:40 am
Whoops – my mistake! When I changed the blog template, I inadvertently removed the XML links. I’ll add them back shortly.
The RSS feed can be found are:
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April 12, 2006 at 4:04 am
Why is there no RSS Feed for your blog?
April 12, 2006 at 4:40 am
Whoops – my mistake! When I changed the blog template, I inadvertently removed the XML links. I’ll add them back shortly.
The RSS feed can be found are:
http://www.vinnylingham.com/atom.cml
April 12, 2006 at 5:09 pm
Interesting stuff Vinny.
In your opinion, what does this part of the post mean:
“Please note that certain developers, such as those who design proprietary applications to advertise their own businesses, may be exempt from a portion of these fees and terms.”
Does this mean that if my company developed its own API application for our accounts we would not be charged the fee?
Also, do you think the fee of $.25/1000 is a reasonable price?
Thanks!
April 12, 2006 at 6:01 pm
I don’t think the new API fees will increase the cost dramatically, but after reading section III/2/C/i-iii, it would seem as though all the cross-search-engine *self-service* bid management systems (AtlasOnePoint, Omniture’s Search product, Inceptor’s product, KeywordMax, and several others will either not be allowed to use the API, or will have to eliminate the ability for advertisers to view and manage multiple search engine accounts from one interface.
-Chris
April 12, 2006 at 9:09 pm
Interesting stuff Vinny.
In your opinion, what does this part of the post mean:
“Please note that certain developers, such as those who design proprietary applications to advertise their own businesses, may be exempt from a portion of these fees and terms.”
Does this mean that if my company developed its own API application for our accounts we would not be charged the fee?
Also, do you think the fee of $.25/1000 is a reasonable price?
Thanks!
April 12, 2006 at 10:01 pm
I don’t think the new API fees will increase the cost dramatically, but after reading section III/2/C/i-iii, it would seem as though all the cross-search-engine *self-service* bid management systems (AtlasOnePoint, Omniture’s Search product, Inceptor’s product, KeywordMax, and several others will either not be allowed to use the API, or will have to eliminate the ability for advertisers to view and manage multiple search engine accounts from one interface.
-Chris
April 13, 2006 at 10:55 am
Hi Vinny, the T’s and C’s are more interesting… You have to recreate all functionality of the UI. One consequence – this removes the burden from Google’s Web Servers and Support services for any users of the developed API application, but the web developers’ clients are charged to use an alternative interface (there’s got to be a way to pass on the costs of operations via the API). An unusual model – remove your support burden and require your partners to pay you for the privilege.
Can’t say I’m happy with it.
Cheers, JeremyC.
April 13, 2006 at 11:04 am
It does increase costs a lot!
> I’ve got 25,000,000 monthly quota
> for free. So now I’m going to have
> to pay $6,250 to have the same
> quota?
Read more about it here:
http://groups.google.com/group/adwords-api/browse_thread/thread/1344697a36f8607c
April 13, 2006 at 2:55 pm
Hi Vinny, the T’s and C’s are more interesting… You have to recreate all functionality of the UI. One consequence – this removes the burden from Google’s Web Servers and Support services for any users of the developed API application, but the web developers’ clients are charged to use an alternative interface (there’s got to be a way to pass on the costs of operations via the API). An unusual model – remove your support burden and require your partners to pay you for the privilege.
Can’t say I’m happy with it.
Cheers, JeremyC.
April 13, 2006 at 3:04 pm
It does increase costs a lot!
> I’ve got 25,000,000 monthly quota
> for free. So now I’m going to have
> to pay $6,250 to have the same
> quota?
Read more about it here:
http://groups.google.com/group/adwords-api/brow...
April 15, 2006 at 4:35 am
Reading more closely – you don’t have to implement all the UI functionality. Just all the functionality related to what you are offering… which is slightly trickier, because the lines that Google draws may not be the same lines a developer would draw – functional programs can be made using different collections of API components than those identified as groups by Google.
Cheers, JeremyC.
April 15, 2006 at 8:35 am
Reading more closely – you don’t have to implement all the UI functionality. Just all the functionality related to what you are offering… which is slightly trickier, because the lines that Google draws may not be the same lines a developer would draw – functional programs can be made using different collections of API components than those identified as groups by Google.
Cheers, JeremyC.
September 15, 2006 at 12:30 pm
hiiiiiiii
I need some suggestions and techniques about on bidding management. I didnt understnad api estimates of google adwords api. For example for a particular keyword it shows 1-3 position for $3 and it shows 4-6 postion for $4 for the same keyword . I didnt understand how to determine on which bid price i have to use to get wanted postion. I requested u please help me and give some suggestions to maintain the campaign effectively
September 15, 2006 at 10:30 am
hiiiiiiii
I need some suggestions and techniques about on bidding management. I didnt understnad api estimates of google adwords api. For example for a particular keyword it shows 1-3 position for $3 and it shows 4-6 postion for $4 for the same keyword . I didnt understand how to determine on which bid price i have to use to get wanted postion. I requested u please help me and give some suggestions to maintain the campaign effectively
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