冬日购物捞钱季在即，谷歌放弃不作恶信条

    但不管公平与否，这种广告目前深受用户和卖家的好评。Jefferies公司表示，卖家平均每花费1美元打广告就能获得高达9美元收入。所以，梅西百货（Macy's）、亚马逊（Amazon）、沃尔玛（Walmart）和家得宝（Home Depot）等重量级商家都对产品列表广告趋之若鹜。许多数字媒体广告代理商，即便运营着诸多其它广告业务，也同样对产品列表广告投下重注。Jefferies公司表示eBay就是很好的例子。eBay是目前最精明、也是最活跃的互联网广告商之一。它在去年一度暂时放弃了产品列表广告，但在今年假期季决定全力投入这种广告。Jefferies公司的报告指出，eBay已成为英国第一，美国第三的产品列表广告使用商。

    Jefferies公司分析师布莱恩•皮兹写道：“我们认为，eBay决定使用产品列表广告证明，这种广告形式效果很好。eBay对所有广告形式都会进行大量的对比测试，它2012年没有投放产品列表广告，而在2012年之后大量投放此类广告。这只能说明一个问题，那就是产品列表广告确实有效。”

    产品列表广告不仅对投放广告的零售商有效，对谷歌也很有效果。由于用户点击产品列表广告更频繁等原因，它能比传统“链接”广告带来更多的收入。多出的这部分收入帮助谷歌抵消了广告点击单价下降带来的冲击。

    微软在针对谷歌的广告中向消费者表示，必应提供“实在的”购物搜索结果。微软说道：“必应（与谷歌）不同，我们的购物搜索不采用竞价排名。”

    事实上，必应还有一点与谷歌不同，那就是：必应只赔不赚，而谷歌已经成为史上最赚钱的互联网企业。现在，谷歌转而对原本被自己称为“恶行”的做法睁一只眼闭一只眼，随时准备着在今年假期更加大赚一笔。（财富中文网）

    译者：项航   

    Evil or not, the ads have been embraced by consumers and merchants alike. Jefferies said that for every dollar retailers spend on a product ad, they generate $9 in sales, on average. That's prompted retailers such as Macy's, Amazon, Walmart and Home Depot to become heavy users of PLAs. Digital marketing agencies, which run ad campaigns on behalf of other companies, are also betting heavily on the ad format. And Jefferies singled out eBay, one of the savviest and most active online marketers: last year, it shied away from the product listing ads; this holiday season, eBay fully embraced them. It's the top user of PLAs in the U.K. and the third-largest user in the United States, according to the Jefferies report.

    "We think eBay's decision to leverage PLA ads speaks to the effectiveness of that ad format," Brian Pitz, a Jefferies analyst, wrote. "eBay does extensive A/B testing on all ad formats and its high usage of PLAs -- after being absent in 2012 -- can mean only one thing: these ads work."

    The ads work not only for the retailers who use them but also for Google. They generate more revenue than traditional "blue link" ads, in part because users click on them more frequently. The additional dollars have helped Google offset a softening in the prices marketers pay every time a consumer clicks on their ads.

    In its own advertisements, Microsoft tells consumers that Bing offers "honest" shopping search results. "Bing is different," Microsoft says. "We don't use a pay-to-rank shopping search."

    There is another way in which Bing and Google are different: while the former has generated nothing but red ink, the latter has turned Google into the most profitable Internet company in history. By turning a blind eye to what it once considered evil, Google is poised to be even more profitable this holiday season.