I want to preface this post by saying that I have never participated in PPC arbitrage. Having said this, I’m not terribly upset to hear that Google is shutting down Adsense arbitrage sites.

We’ve always maintained that SEM is not six degrees of Kevin Bacon. That is, conversions work best when the SERP (either organic or paid results) delivers exactly what the user is searching for. Your visitors are not looking for something similar to the keyword they type in. If I type in “ipod,” then I might need “ipod accessories” at some point…just not at this part of the buying cycle. And that means if I have to click through on a result, only to have to click again, then I’m not going to have the most positive user experience.

This is one of the main reasons why we rarely use content networks. In fact, when we first begin working with a new paid search account, the first thing we do is baseline the first few weeks (to include existing content network activities). There has never been a time where average CPC, CPA or overall ROAS has been higher when using content networks. This means if client’s goal point is a CPA model based on a predetermined adspend, there’s a pretty good chance I’m going to increase CPA immediately by simply eliminating content network.

Someone is getting an acceptable ROI on content network…just none of our clients.

Shoemoney has an interesting video post regarding why he doesn’t believe this will stick. His two main reasons are:

1. Google considered Arbitrage to be a respected business model.

2. Instead of cutting Arbitrage participants off, it makes more sense for Google to remove those sites that do not perform well for advertisers.

The bottom line is that Google is going to continue to try and “make the user experience as positive as possible while still providing value to publishers and advertisers.” If publishers that don’t perform get dumped, then they need to work harder to show value for readers and advertisers.

Who knows? After the dust settles, maybe we’ll think about content networks again.