Opted In To Google Automatic Matching Beta

My adwords account was recently opted into the new Google automatic matching feature (it is still in beta). I don't remember being asked to opt in (or out) so I assume Google just enabled it on my account for some reason or maybe it was in those new feature updates I usually ignore and click dismiss on.

When I have used tools on Google / Yahoo in the past that are supposed to optimize a pay per click campagin the results have been absolutley horibble with the optimization doing nothing but increasing my cost per conversion and the amount I pay to Google / Yahoo but new option appears to be different. It looks like I was opted in around 11/08/2008 and here are the results so far.

From the week before 11/01/2008 to 11/07/2008


From the week it was turned on 11/08/2008 to 11/14/2008


And these from last week 11/30/2008 to 12/06/2008


Unfortunatley as automatic matching is rolled out to more accounts the CPC will probably go up as there will be more competition with Google displaying more ads for each search query.

eBay Auction Sell Through Rates Update

Just a update to the auctions sell through rates chart I posted on 11/22. The results are still good but it looks like the rates down a bit with last weeks listings. Tuesday's (11/25) auctions came in at 30.68% and the Saturday at 30% (perhaps it has something to do with the auction listing sale eBay ran on 11/24 & 25).

Fixed price listing results after eBay puts duplicates back in search

On 11/18/2008 eBay announced that identical fixed price listings would no longer be hidden in search results so I decided to run a limited number of fixed price 7 day listings to see what the sell through rates would be like. The results were pretty bad with 15 out 116 listings sold on my main id for a sell through rate of 12.93% and 12 out of 55 listings sold on my free shipping id for a sell through rate of 21.82%. The rate on the free shipping id is almost acceptable so I might trying listing a few fixed price 7 day listings here and there on that ID.