Assumption of CPC on TypoSquatting Sites, But Still $2.03 — Fairwinds Reduces
Fairwinds updates faulty note, but it’s still laughable.
Last month FairWinds Partners, the group behind CADNA, released a note suggesting that typosquatting costs the 250 most visited web sites $327 million a year. I immediately smelled something fishy regarding the biggest underlying assumption in the note: the average cost-per-click on ads on typosquatted domains was pegged at a lofty $2.74 per click.
The note referenced a VeriSign note for its CPC value. There was one problem, though: the VeriSign note didn’t mention anything regarding a $2.74 CPC value. (Representatives of FairWinds did not respond to my initial inquiry regarding the VeriSign reference.)
Today FairWinds updated its note with a fresh value of $2.03 a click. It’s still a joke.
Here are some recent average CPC prices for top verticals in search:
Automotive: 51 cents
Retail: 50 cents
Finance: $1.99
Travel: 60 cents
Keep in mind that the top typosquatted sites, as stated by FairWinds, include MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, and Google. Anyone at all versed in domain parking knows that traffic intended for these sites converts for pennies at best.
I talked to a major PPC advertising firm following reviewing FairWinds Partners’ initial note, and they stated the price assumption was absolutely ridiculous.
So how did FairWinds come up with its fresh $2.03 CPC? It plugged in the term of each domain into the Google Adwords Traffic Estimator. It’s a convenient approach for FairWinds given the junk Google spews back.
For example, type in “You Tube” and Google estimates an average $1.59 CPC. Now go to Google and type in “You Tube” and you’ll only see YouTube’s official ad running. In reality, a typo of YouTube would show ads for lessor terms and pay out pennies, if that.
The Google estimator also shows only prices for the top positions and doesn’t take into consideration smart pricing and content network pricing.
Does typosquatting cost firms? Sure. But suggesting that each click on a typo of these domains is equal to $2.03 in advertising costs is ridiculous.
