We will add the following field to the KeywordEstimate object:
· clicksPerDay - (float) The estimated number of clicks generated
per day for a keyword in a given ad group
Similarly, we will remove the following fields from the KeywordEstimate
object:
· impressions - The estimated number of impressions for a given
keyword
· ctr - The estimated click-through-rate for a given keyword.
· notShownPerDay - The estimated number of times that the ad would
not be shown, despite a keyword match.
These changes will take effect on the afternoon of Thursday, November
3rd (Pacific time zone). At that time, we will update the
TrafficEstimatorService WSDL which may disrupt the operation of your
programs. Therefore, we have posted a temporary copy of the "new"
TrafficEstimatorService WSDL at
http://www.google.com/apis/adwords/developer/wsdl_preview.xml so you
can begin making the necessary adjustments now (This temporary copy
will be removed on November 4, 2005, after the normal WSDL location is
updated).
We are in the process of updating the AdWords API Developer Guide
(http://www.google.com/apis/adwords/developer/adwords_api_intro.html)
and plan to have these new fields added on Thursday.
--Rohit Dhawan, Product Manager
Thanks for the advance notice.
You mention "in an effort to provide more ... accurate .... data".
Does this mean that the algorithm behind the estimator is also
changing?
Thanks,
Darrin
Given that the placement of an ad, the CTR, and the number of clicks
per day for the ad depends on many things (like how good the text is,
how well targeted it is..) it seems that removing the only hard fact,
impressions, will make the tool less usefully and not more.
Though I guess if we can get numbers on what Google assumes will be the
CTR for a certain position, we can get back the impressions value. That
way we can calculate the number of clicks with our own CTR value and
get much more accurate results.
So in short, can you at least give us a hint what CTR the tool thinks
will be on say position 1,2,and 3?
Thanks in advance
That was my thought as well, impressions is the only figure that can be
accurate. Perhaps the reason for removing it is that it gives us too
much information (how many searches there are on Google for a specific
phrase).
Thank you, Google :-(
Any ETA for consolidated and stable release of Google API soon?
I'm also quite disappointed to hear this. I depended on all the data
being removed from the API to offer estimated keyword search volume
data and other extended stats to my customers. Without this info my
tools are not as useful.
Unless I'm missing something, I really don't see the improvement in the
TrafficEstimatorService after the change. It looks more like a
downgrade. Can you please explain your full reasoning for this change?
I think it would help us more if you add the new clicksPerDay field and
keep the rest as well. That way we can choose what to use.
Thanks
---
Nana
http://www.technobloggie.com
Thanks,
Darrin
Thanks in advance
Robert
What do you others think?
Thanks
Thanks
My paranoid theory is that, Google is underestimating the position and
overestimating the clicks on purpose. This way the advertisers would
bid on more and more words lured by the high estimated clicks.
Just to prove the skewness of the estimates, I did a quick experiment
with the help of the Overture's Bid Tool and the Google Estimator. I
used Overture, as the bids are visible to everyone and I have found
Google and Overture to be equally competitive in most of our keywords.
Here is the result.
Keyword Google Estd Overture Actual Overture Price
Position for Position for for first
a bid of $ 0.1 a bid of $ 0.1 position
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
mortgage 7.6 173 $ 3.61
mesothelioma 7.0 33 $42.57
credit card 4.1 101 $ 4.72
life insurance 5.0 112 $ 8.72
auto insurance 7.5 134 $13.00
So what this shows is that for the keyword "mortgage", the Google
Estimator predicted a position of 7.6 when I bid with just $0.1. On
Overture I would have been in the 173rd position. All the other
keywords tell similar story of the huge underestimation by Google with
respect to the position. To keep the experiment clean, I chose keywords
that I have never used in my campaigns and also my overall campaign CTR
is in the normal range and nothing out of the ordinary.
If this is the skewness with respect position, the skewness with
respect to CTRs was also equally bad. Before when we were able to see
the expected CTRs, I had seen many cases in which the first position
was expected to get a CTR of 6% while the 7th position would get a CTR
of 4%. Come on give me a break, I have used Adwords enough to know that
the fall off in CTR with respect to the position is much more
precipitous.
So if Google is not doing it on purpose, it is guilty of wilful neglect
of the estimator or of hubris in thinking that the Estimates are good
despite so many users complaining about it. If Google is not able to
provide reliable estimates atleast give access to the Impression count
which is much more reliable. Overture probably realizes that estimation
of clicks is a tricky business and hence only shows the impression
estimates.(This should in no way be construed as a recommendation for
Overture as it has a whole bunch of other issues)