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cowper - True. That wasn't an issue years ago on Google when clicks hovered at far lower cost (competition has a lot to do with this, naturally, but also Google's recommendations has certainly had a hand in this - and who can blame them? - they quadruple their profits). Another issue that has cropped up is manufacturers competing for the same keywords as actual sellers (driving the cost per click into the stratosphere - I've seen a manufacturers with $15 clicks! ) . Or any entity that doesn't actually sell products via the web to consumers (some distributors, forums, social media, etc). It doesn't seem too bright to compete with your own sellers and driving their own prices upwards making them less competitive in the marketplace. Google doesn't care where that payperclick goes to - even if a Google searcher gets taken to a page that doesn't actually sell the product! This is a bad user experience (and a contradiction of their own policy of "enhancing user experience" by taking visitors to sites they wish to visit). They allow this, because, well, profit. I can't say how many times I've looked for a product to buy, and was taken to a manufacturer's page (they paid for the click) instead of to an online store where I can actually purchase the product (in my personal searches as a user). Google's practice of not making a purchasable product landing page ("Products" tab) mandatory for PPC account holders is indicative that they truly do not care about shopper's experience. Just an observation. I agree that a high profit margin (and/or big ticket items) is a must, but in some markets, that's just not possible so PPC is a non-solution. I used to sell $5 bumper stickers (got them for about $1, but PPC rates just to stay humbly on page five was still around $1 /click) - the margin was huge, however, if 20% of those who clicked made a purchase (considered an excellent buy rate for many things), I would pay out money to give it away "for free". I shut off my paid campaign immediately, and, used Google Products for free back then, a couple of weeks later, Google decided to charge for it, so I shut the company down since the traffic vaporized and I hadn't been in biz long enough for SEO to take off (GP WAS my SEO and, for many people, the ONLY way to sell cheap products on your own website - Amazon has helped in that regard - paying only when you sell).
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