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7 Ways to optimize AuctionAds

by Scott Bird | August 3, 2007
Filed in Blogging , Favourites , Magnificent 7 , Money

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AuctionAdsI’ve been using AuctionAds for a while now, most notably on my strength-training site Straight to the Bar. With their recent purchase by MediaWhiz has come a great deal of speculation regarding possible improvements. They can, however, be extremely effective as they are; with a little optimisation, that is.

  1. Set a minimum and maximum price

    I’ve found that by increasing the minimum price for the items displayed on the ads, the number of clicks has dropped slightly; however revenue has markedly increased. To do this, simply enter the following as one of the keywords :

    [keyword] minprice:100 (for $100 - change the number to anything you like, eg : money minprice:20)

    For my sites, setting the maximum price isn’t relevant. However, if you run something such as a car-maintenance forum, you may wish to avoid ads for cars themselves (favouring their accessories). Set the maximum price in the same way :

    [keyword] maxprice:1000

  2. Define keywords automatically

    No matter which platform your blog is running on, chances are good that there’s a variable for the category name, tags or something similar. Define your keywords using this tag, and the ads will vary according to your content. Better ads, greater revenue.

    In Movable Type (my weapon of choice) it’ll look something like this :

    auctionads_ad_kw = <$MTEntryCategory$>

  3. Display AuctionAds alongside Adsense

    Side by sideWhen it comes to placement, the usual rules apply (take a look at Google’s ‘heat map’ to see the highest-earning areas of your site). Taking this a step further is the placement of ads in relation to their competitors.

    I’ve found that placing AuctionAds alonside their Google Adsense counterparts to be particularly effective (pictured at left).

    The ads seem to feed well from each other, and the ad content is always good.

  4. Target a specific seller’s auctions

    Once you’ve found a good seller on eBay, spread the word. A good way to do this is by targeting their auctions in your ads (or advertising your own). The code will look something like this :

    auctionads_ad_kw = “userid:www.uogold.com dell”;

    To display random listings from ONLY a certain seller without any keywords, use:

    auctionads_ad_kw = “seller:www.uogold.com”;

    First seen at : The Beef Jerky Blog

  5. Automatically rotate your keywords

    If you run a popular site and receive a large number of visitors in a short period of time, it’s essential to keep the advertisements changing. A very simple way to do this is to rotate the keywords, using a ‘;’ between each item in your list, like this :

    auctionads_ad_kw = "money; finance ; writing; blog"

    First seen at : AuctionAds blog

  6. Use negative (‘stop’) keywords

    It’s possible to define keywords relating to items that you don’t wish to display in your ads. To do this, simple place a ‘-’ sign before each one :

    auctionads_ad_kw = "-playstation"

    These can be combined with the other keyword modifications noted above, eg :

    auctionads_ad_kw = "money -playstation minprice:20; writing -playstation"

    First seen at : AuctionAds Forums

  7. Link to specific auctions

    If you come across a particularly relevant auction on eBay, the AuctionAds URL Converter (NB : you will need to be logged in to AuctionAds for this) will enable you to target it in your ads.

    First seen at : Liew Cheon Fong’s blog

These changes have seen AuctionAds easily move into first place (in terms of advertising revenue) on Straight to the Bar. Let me know how they go for your site.


© 2006 - 2007 Scott Andrew Bird.

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Comments

1

Scott,

One detail, the negative keywords don’t work that way.

auctionads_ad_kw = “-sony, -playstation”

would result in unexpected results

auctionads_ad_kw = “money minprice:20; writing, -playstation”

should be written

auctionads_ad_kw = “money -playstation minprice:20; writing -playstation”

The , are not used when you’re adding negative keywords. The -negative keywords basically describe the keyword you’re asking for.

Posted by: david | August 6, 2007 5:08 AM

2

Nice writeup. Some pretty cool features I wasn’t aware of.

Posted by: Dr J | August 6, 2007 6:24 AM

3

David: thanks, corrected.

Dr J: thanks. Just taking a look through your site now.

Posted by: Scott | August 6, 2007 10:00 AM

4

Great tips scott! sadly though, they don’t do much good when AA is down, which seems to be happening more and more lately.

I hope with the changes they’ve made in recent weeks things will improve and i plan on sticking it out just a bit longer in hopes that things improve. When AuctionAds works, it is a great way to generate some good revenue from your site..

Posted by: Mr. Grown Up Geek | August 6, 2007 11:33 AM

5

Cheers GUG. I suspect that the recent changing of hands, together with their growing takeup by high-profile sites, will make a big difference to their uptime.

Posted by: Scott | August 7, 2007 12:46 AM

6

What does Google have to say about the Auction Ads next to Adsense? I have to wonder if they would question it because of the style and the image might “draw undo attention” to the Adsense. I like it personally, but the big G has some funny rules sometimes.

Posted by: LGR | August 7, 2007 1:13 AM

7

Ditto what LGR said. AA has images and placing it next to AdSense might be an issue with Goog’s “no images next to ads” rule.

Posted by: geomark | August 7, 2007 12:53 PM

8

As far as I can tell, placing the ads side-by-side doesn’t breach the terms of the agreement. You’re right though, some people may feel a little uneasy about it.

Posted by: Scott | August 7, 2007 11:46 PM

9

Target a specific seller’s auctions

I’m not getting this to work?
If i test it at Auctionads.com creator i always get no results? p.s. I’m in the UK not USA if that makes any difference.

Posted by: Mar | August 8, 2007 2:24 AM

10

Hi,
I am using AuctionAds for the first time, and I seem to be having some problems with the minimum price and the keywords. Or does it take a while for them to start working?
The ads are on racingrides.com if you want to have a look.
Thanks in advance.
CDNR

Posted by: CDNR | August 10, 2007 7:16 AM

11

Mar : a friend of mine is currently setting up a few examples on his own site, so I’ll point to him as an example. I’m not sure if the UK vs US thing makes a difference - have you tried linking directly to US auctions in order to determine whether it does?

CDNR : I’ve never tried using multi-word keywords together with the minprice and maxprice options. Have you tried using single-word keywords?

Posted by: Scott | August 10, 2007 10:16 AM

12

Nice post. Definitely nice for AuctionAd newbies like myself.

Posted by: Dee | August 10, 2007 3:43 PM

13

Minprice and maxprice have never worked since I joined up with AuctionAds a few months ago.

dogs minprice:10 - 0 results
xbox minprice:100 - 0 results
lcd monitor 22 minprice:1 - 0 results

I constantly test and wait for them to work so I can get rid of those retail price buynow auctions.. still waiting..

Posted by: Peter Cartwright | August 10, 2007 11:52 PM

14

Peter, are you testing just one change at a time? You don’t currently have either option (minprice or maxprice) set.

Just wondering if you’re doing :

xbox minprice:100

or something like

xbox -imac -television minprice:100

Posted by: Scott | August 11, 2007 9:05 AM

15

Hi Scott,

Hi Scott,

Not sure I understand what you said, I have minprice set in all my examples.

I tried some more examples:

xbox - 34529+ Results
xbox minprice:10 - 0 results
xbox minprice:200 - 0 results
xbox maxprice:300 - 0 results
xbox maxprice:500 - 0 results
xbox minprice:50 maxprice:500 - 0 results

Obviously it’s not working or I’m doing something very wrong.

Posted by: Peter Cartwright | August 11, 2007 4:58 PM

16

Peter, if you can point me to an URL showing the ads (with the minprice option), I’d be happy to take a look.

I like the site btw.

Posted by: Scott | August 11, 2007 9:52 PM

17

Thanks.

Have you tested the minprice/maxprice yourself? Could you paste one example here with the number of results? (from auctionads get code section)

I don’t have any live ads using minprice/maxprice as the results become untargeted.

I have just been testing the feature in the “GET CODE” section of AuctionAds.

Posted by: Peter | August 11, 2007 11:20 PM

18

Scott,

I removed the list of keywords and just entered one with minprice. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not (we’re speaking on re-load of the page ehre, so i know the ads are still on eBay).

Same thing happens for the keyword. Sometimes it works great, sometimes I get handbags or xboxes instead of race cars. Same thing happens on my other site: boatingrides.com

Must be doing something wrong, but I’ll be darned if I know what…

Posted by: CDNR | August 12, 2007 4:53 AM

19

I get much inspiration from your blog. I’ve joined Auction Ads three months ago, and since last month I put off the Ads, because I did not get anything from them. My earning still in “zero” after I place the ads for one two months. So thanks for your nice tips. Oh ya, can i ask the payment from Auction Ads by check? because, i am indonesian blogger, and up to now we can not withdraw any money from paypal?

Posted by: Han | August 12, 2007 1:18 PM

20

Peter: the ads in my sidebar are a live example of the minprice thing. If you don’t want to make the URL public, just put an ad on a test page somewhere and email me the address.

CDNR: Can you point me to a page that’s doing that? I’d love to take a look.

Han: Thanks - I really appreciate that. As far as I’m aware, payment is via PayPal only at the moment. Still, it may be worth emailing them and asking.

Posted by: Scott | August 13, 2007 7:45 PM

21

Thanks alot for the diligent work on retooling my auctionads service.

Posted by: Tony Dee | August 16, 2007 4:21 AM

22

Cheers Tony.

Posted by: Scott | August 16, 2007 9:09 AM

23

Good tips thanks !

Posted by: James | August 16, 2007 11:03 PM

24

Great tips Scott - thanks. I’m just wondering if you or anyone here knows how to define keywords automatically on a Blogspot blog?

Cheers.

Posted by: Sea Eagle | August 23, 2007 4:55 AM

25

Great tips, and i like use auctionads format 120X240 with adsense format 300X250, its really increase clicks on my website, but i am wondering if somebody now how to turn clicks into sales?

thanks

Posted by: lutfiallail | August 29, 2007 12:01 AM

26

Hey Scott, thanks for the great information. I had given up on AuctionAds, as they just didn’t seem to ever match my content, but now, with your tips I am going to give AuctionAds another try.

Keep up the great job Scott.

Posted by: James Mann | August 30, 2007 10:40 PM

27

Thanks James.

Posted by: Scott | August 31, 2007 9:34 AM

28

Hi,
i have problem with rotating keywords. When i use rotating keywords i see usualy handbags or so.

I created skyscraper from small ads with different color and different keywords to increase conversion rate and it works too.

Posted by: Stargate News | September 3, 2007 6:02 AM

29

Cheers for that. I haven’t yet played around with the colours, will do that now.

With the rotating keywords, can you point me to a page where it’s doing it? I’m happy to take a look.

Posted by: Scott | September 3, 2007 9:40 AM

30

Stargate News:
http://stargate-news.com
left panel.
Site is about Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, Battlestar Galactica and other sci fi shows, so i try to show all shows in one skyscraper to give all visitors chance to find the right thing they are looking for.

I think this is easy solution and only one working for me because its more stable than any rotatting system. I have no idea why but when i use rotating keywords in on ads system stopping work correctly after some time and its showing me unrelevant ads…

Posted by: Stargate News: | September 3, 2007 2:03 PM

31

Cool tips.
I’m glad that I visited your site.

Greets from Macedonia!

Posted by: DeeJay | September 7, 2007 3:06 PM

32

Hi
Nice tips. I just joined auctionads and looking for getting profit. I’ve opened some new thing.
Thanks

Posted by: Alex | September 8, 2007 9:44 PM

33

Cheers guys.

Posted by: Scott | September 9, 2007 4:28 PM

34

hi thanks for these tips , one Q for you how do i get the adds to the gbp like yours do when im on here on my site it shows $

Posted by: george | September 11, 2007 10:53 PM

35

Hi George,

As far as I’m aware, the currency is automatic. I certainly haven’t changed anything specifically for that.

Posted by: Scott | September 12, 2007 10:42 AM

36

Can you guys rotate keywords on your ads? The “;” parameter does not seem to work on my site. I am sure I am not alone. Anyone found a fix other than using a comma cos I want my ads to be displayed randomly/evenly.

Posted by: Vincent | September 14, 2007 12:58 PM

37

ive made a post in spanish using some info from here in my blog.

max and minprice is not working for me neither though

Posted by: Alejandro Portela | September 17, 2007 10:31 AM

38

Vincent : I obviously can’t speak for everyone, but they seem to be working fine for me. There are several in action over on the front page of Straight to the Bar.

Alejandro : thanks. I’m also using the max and min price over on Straight to the Bar - take a look. It’s working fine.

Posted by: Scott | September 17, 2007 7:54 PM

39

Rotating keywords usualy dont work for me.
AuctionAds system is crashing time from time withhout a logic. I am checking Mininova.org and when i see they have same problems or they changed ads i am not trying to fix it.
For example last two days my hosting stats showing 50x more clicks on ads than auction stats. Do you have similar problems too?

Thanks for reply.

Posted by: Stargate News | September 25, 2007 3:06 AM

40

Great tips scott! sadly though, they don’t do much good when AA is down, which seems to be happening more and more lately.

I hope with the changes they’ve made in recent weeks things will improve and i plan on sticking it out just a bit longer in hopes that things improve. When AuctionAds works, it is a great way to generate some good revenue from your site..
—————————
www.datingonliner.com

Posted by: Mike | November 14, 2007 11:42 PM

41

I get much inspiration from your blog. I’ve joined Auction Ads three months ago, and since last month I put off the Ads, because I did not get anything from them. My earning still in “zero” after I place the ads for one two months. So thanks for your nice tips. Oh ya, can i ask the payment from Auction Ads by check?

____________________________
http://swimmingpool.dating247online.com

Posted by: Ophelia Moonstone | November 27, 2007 9:54 PM

42

Thank you for this useful information

I was wondering about putting my auction ads next to my Google ads

Google seems to frown upon ptting images next to their ads. Is there an exception with auction ads or am i at a risk of getting banned by google?

Posted by: Affiliate marketing guide | November 28, 2007 9:32 PM

43

Great tips - opens up a whole new world of options for me.

How would one pull in results by location? For instance, auctions for pet items from a seller located in New York?

Thanks for any input on this… Cris

Posted by: New York Pet Friendly | December 3, 2007 10:58 PM

44

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Posted by: Urbawn | February 22, 2008 8:20 AM

45

thanks for the usefull tips

Posted by: Money Blog | March 25, 2008 7:41 AM

46

Great Tips here, I’ll be sure to implement them and see if I can make some more sales. I particularly like the minimum price tag which will help me weed out some irrelevant ads. Thanks!

Posted by: Ed | March 27, 2008 10:10 AM

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