Type in “text links”, “buy text links” or “text link ads” in Google and you will notice that there are no longer any ads for companies that offer these services. That’s right, you can no longer bid on these or other related terms through AdWords.

While this move is being praised by some:

This is the first time that Google has actually taken a stand that makes them lose money in their war against text links and I think it is a good move. There is nothing more hypocritical than Google starting a war against a certain industry on one hand and accepting money from them on the other.

I see this argument as fundamentally flawed. This move by Google will actually help them make more money, as people interested in buying text links to drive traffic will have fewer choices, and a large number of them will end up biting the bullet and buying ads through AdWords.

These kinds of anti-competitive business practices show that while Google claims not to be evil, what they really mean is that they’ll spin the motives behind their actions so well that their “evilness” will be praised by the very targets of their ploy.

Update:

Looks like Matt Cutts has confirmed that Google is banning these advertisers in the comments on his blog.

One question I see a lot on SEO forums and blogs is, “How can I increase my click thru ratio on Adwords?” What’s alarming to me (and wonderful for Google) is that the most common answer I see on these forums is, “increase your bids.” Not to say that increasing you bids and raising the placement of your ads won’t improve your click thru rate, it just happens to increase your costs per click, which we all know can greatly affect the ROI of the campaign.

So let’s rethink the question. What we need to ask is, “How can we increase click thru rates while maintaining the same cost per click or even lowering the cost?” I know you’re thinking that you can’t increase results and lower cost with a pay per click campaign. This is supposedly the unattainable Holy Grail of search engine marketing. Well, we’ve found it, and we’re even going to share.

Our approach to increasing click thrus is Testing! Testing! Testing! Testing different ad copy with Google can be labor intensive to get up and running. And without a PhD in statistics, you won’t be able to make sense of the numbers without some sort of automation. That’s what we offer. Our web based proprietary software syncs with your Adwords account and allows you to test 54 variations of your text ad for every keyword in your campaign. Our system will identify the top performing variations and provide you with easy to understand reporting, allowing you to adjust and refine your marketing efforts.

You’re probably thinking, “That’s great, but I don’t see how this will actually lower my cost per click.” You’ve got to remember that Google rewards ads that perform better. By simply increasing your click thru rate Google will actually lower your average cost per click, saving you money and increasing your ROI.

For more information about our multivariate testing for Adwords click here, and if you’d like to speak with a representative please contact us today!