- General Distaste: Everything is "Google" these days. Google search, Google advertising, Google, Google, Google. I would not
necessarily say a tipping point is approaching (especially with a 100 billion dollar market cap) but consumers are fickle - the moment something better comes along - they'll use it. Just take the MySpace vs. Facebook scenario - while MySpace has nearly three times the amount of traffic of Facebook currently, MySpace traffic has dropped by five percent for the month ending July while Facebook's increased by five percent. I'm not sure if you can attribute the drop to "general distaste" or not - but it's hard to argue against empirical data.
- Abuse, Abuse, Abuse: AdSense put web publishers center stage in the advertising world
- unfortunately, it's been abused like no other revenue generating program in
the history of Web. These text based ads have been disguised as content time and
time again by greedy affiliates and it's distracted end users to the point of
distrust, resulting in fewer clicks for everyone over time. Sure, Google rolled back the clock and introduced image ads,
then pushed the envelope a little with video ads (now you can even request
to display CPA offers) but it may be too little too late. Savvy online business
owners realize that selling their own products is really the only viable way to
earn money online. Creating something that people want will always surpass all
the splog revenue in the world.
- Too many (good) alternatives: There have to be no fewer than 100 AdSense alternatives in existence at this very moment.
John Chow has an extensive list of advertising networks besides Google Adsense -
many of which are very niche focused (Hispanoclick) and some of which are better
suited to for ecommerce websites (Chitika for example). There are many
alternatives to Adsense that website owners are deploying like AuctionAds (which
recently won an Ebay development award and was later purchased by MediaWhiz)
which provide their users a much different, and some would argue, a better
experience.
Bonus
- SEO Battles: While there is no substance to arguments that the presence of Adsense on a site helps or hinders
natural (organic) rankings, one thing is for sure, if your rankings drop as did Answers.com recently, there's no reason to keep Adsense
on your site. Why feed the beast (even a snack) if they are not feeding you?
Tags:
adsense, google, google adsense