Traffick: Online Advertisers Say "Good Riddance" to August from Hell

Andrew Goodman, a search engine expert, calls it the "August from Hell." I'm not sure if I'd be quite so harsh. We saw several campaigns adjust themselves over the summer months… Then again our clients are marketers that optimize campaigns based on performance, and non-performing listings are immediately adjusted or shut down if they are not meeting goals.

Some marketers were coming in under their allowable CPO/CPA on campaigns in the past, and reductions in conversion and increased competition have forced them to increase spending and get closer to their allowable. Also a marketer with a position-based strategy would see spending increase (more marketers entering the fray), with a correspondingly lower ROI.

Clients spending based on profit maximizing formulas have found themselves spending lower gross amounts, as listings exceeding an allowable CPO/CPA were dropped or were deleted due to poor conversion. Those marketers see lower revenue as well.

In any case, Andrew makes a good point that quality of traffic from the search engines must be maintained for the industry to thrive. Pure search traffic has in the past benefited from having a user profile of someone on the hunt for information. The search mindset helped conversion, which might not be quite as strong with the increasing proportion of contextual placements relative to pure search placements.