Yes, even search engines do it…
For example, I was on playlist.com:
CPC here? my guess.. anywhere between 25 cents to $1 per click.
Where does it land?
Of course.. a page with HIGH CPC ads (probably $5+ CPC)
Is this wrong? Legally, no.
Is this ethical? No.
There’s a reason why advertisers pay the premium bucks to be on search engines and not so much on display networks.
If the advertiser WANTED fly-by display traffic w/low intent, then they WOULD have put their own ads there.
In another words, this is no different than stealing.
Some call it “arbitrage”.. but to me, this is right down theft and ask.com should be severely punished for this.
Of course, smart advertisers will see that their traffic from ask.com is junky and should end the advertising with ask.com in general, but alas, world is full of dumb asses.. including advertisers who don’t know what’s what.
If you’re a national advertiser who’s suspecting of this, feel free to reach out to me. I’d be more than happy to help.
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any strategy on how to avoid this without completely terminating advertising on the search networks for google including ask.com? having the same trouble myself but get enough conversions from ask.com i dont’ want to cut it completely, just the instances of arbitrage.
Jon, im not sure. Arbitraged traffic does convert .. for some.. for certain niches. So if you care only about ROI, i guess it really doesn’t matter too much. In that case, i say watch the ROI carefully.. if it tanks, kill the publisher (i.e. arbitrager).
What vertical are you in?