AdComp and Sponsored Links ???

[krx]

There does not appear to be a strong correlation between "Advertiser Competition" on Google's keyword tool external and the number of "Sponsored Links" on Google searches. For example, the keyword "equity" has a full bar of AdComp - presumably meaning a maximum number of advertisers competing for the term. But it has almost no Sponsored Links. This is just one of myriad examples.

Shouldn't the two figures correspond? What does strong AdComp mean in the absence of Sponsored Links?

 

[angilina]

I am not sure but may be the competition is for displaying in different publishers sites?

A search for a KW one time in Google and see the sponsor ads, and if I do the same search again, after sometime or at once, I see no sponsor ads. May be Google do not always show the sponsor ads ?

 

[krx]

Yeah there's something kind of bizarre about it. A Google search for "equity" turns up no sponsored links. But if I go into the sponsored links page and do the same search I get 590 results - which is about what I would have expected. Go figure.

 

[krx]

Another good example is "whole". Shows "very high advertiser competition" on the keyword tool and ~7800 sponsored links on the sponsored links page but no sponsored links on a google search.

Can anyone explain this?

 

[enlytend]

Because nobody is bidding on the single word "whole" by itself (exact match) - it's being pulled into the sponsored links result because it would come up for broad match and phrase match keywords.

Match types for Google Adwords


I believe the keyword tool shows broad-match advertiser competition regardless of whether you select broad, phrase or exact search type from the dropdown.

It makes no sense for someone to advertise an exact match on the word "whole" ... or even the word "equity". Neither is targeted enough.

 

[krx]

Because nobody is bidding on the single word "whole" by itself (exact match) - it's being pulled into the sponsored links result because it would come up for broad match and phrase match keywords.

Match types for Google Adwords


I believe the keyword tool shows broad-match advertiser competition regardless of whether you select broad, phrase or exact search type from the dropdown.

It makes no sense for someone to advertise an exact match on the word "whole" ... or even the word "equity". Neither is targeted enough.

Well that would explain it. In fact, I just checked the keyword tool and you're right: The AdComp value doesn't change whether you are using "exact", "phrase", or "broad" search. Seems like this is something Google should make more explicit. I don't get the impression (though I may be wrong) that many people know this. And it can be very misleading, since the actual AdComp for a given keyword/phrase may be quite different that the value shown.

Is there a way to find out the actual number of advertisers competing for a particular keyword/phrase?

 

[krx]

I see that Estibot includes "PPC Ads" in its appraisals. This is defined as "The number of advertisers bidding for the search term that makes up your domain names" - which would seem to be a much more concrete and accurate basis for valuing (and comparing the value of) domains than AdComp in Google's keyword tool.

Anyone know where Estibot gets this info - or where I can?