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I googled nordvpn and these top 2 sponsored ads were paid results from review websites. At 3rd position was actual nordvpn. How are these affiliate websites doing it?
I googled nordvpn and these top 2 sponsored ads were paid results from review websites. At 3rd position was actual nordvpn. How are these affiliate websites doing it?
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1 Reply
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They are bidding more than Nord VPN for that keyword. Google Ads runs via an auction system. You can just tell it you want to bid more than the incumbent and presto!
I mean, in reality it’s actually slightly more complicated than that; Google Ads looks at things like your relevance to the search term, your general/average quality score etc to determine ad rank – and bidding is significantly more nuanced than “beat x competitor” but you could easily tell Google to target 100% impression share, or set your manual CPC bid at $10 a click to get placement like this.
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Likely NordVPN has their bid set low, and the other companies are paying a premium for those clicks.
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NordVPN probably knows this and they let their affiliates secure the top spots so they don’t have to spend their money on ads.
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IDK how’s that in VPN niche but typically it is not allowed for affiliates to bet their partner’s name.
But yes, they are making the bank. I’ve heard CPA of $250+ and it was several years ago. -
1. Pretty sure this is a r/GoogleAdwords question?
2. Anyone can bid on any brand
1. Anyone can use that brand even if its registered or trademarked
1. There are multiple scenarios even if they enforce it with Google Ads
3. Anyone can bid on any brands domain name
1. You dont have to own or authenticate or validate like say, GSC or Analytics
2. You could technically start running ads to [dell.com](https://dell.com) today
4. You didn’t share the search, but are you sure they are affiliate sites?
1. Not all of the review sites are affiliate in b2b tech – just sayingBeing number 1 comes down to ad strength, quality score, bid, daily budget, matching. When you said “actual nordvpn” – do you mean their organic or paid? Some markeitng executives don’t like buying their brand or competiing with affiliates, resellers or comparison sites.
tl;dr not 100% sure what your main struggle/heartburn with this is….
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That’s interesting. Most affiliate programs don’t let you bid on their own keyword
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This doesn’t mean that they’re profitable. They try and hope that something converts. If they fail, others try it again.
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