Google takes a stab at arbitrage?
Google appears to be adjusting its adwords algo this weekend, increasing the weight of “quality score of the landing page” .
As usual they do not declare what aspects of it are changing, so those who have numerous sites out there will hopefully be able to tell what exactly seems to be making an effect. It is strange that pay per click used to be a pretty simple model, now it is changing to a secret sauce no secrets shared model similar to that of their traditional organic model.
I think it is fine to have secrets, but when you are paying for traffic all things should remain open and defined. CTR x CPC was a great model, it maximized value for them and forced advertisers to write better ad copy.
Now we have CTC x CPC x ????unkown algrithmic characterists???? = advertisers paying different prices for the same product.
I think as a whole, adwords has become harder to use and their new adjustments end up hurting all advertisers more so than just the ones who do arbitrage. I think if they want to control arbitrage they should control either A. eliminate arbitrage sites from being able to buy traffic, or B. control their AdSense sites.
Some discusion here at threadwatch .
What is your take on the whole situation?