New study about the impact of generic domain names in Adwords campaigns

**Edwin** · 09-04-09

I just published the results of an in-depth study I carried out to test how the domain name within an Adwords ad affected the results of the campaign.

Basically, I tested 3 different URLs. One was generic and an exact match to the topic that the Adwords campaigns were targeted, one was semi-generic and on topic, and one was a "coined" non-generic domain name.

I kept everything else about the ads the same: headlines, copy text, max bids, landing pages and so on - only the domain names differed.

The result: using a generic domain name boosted the CTR and also the number of impressions that Google was "willing" to assign to the ad (I'd set them to rotate more evenly, but Google still does a certain level of distribution ad-to-ad even at that setting) which together doubled the traffic vs the non-generic domain name.

There's a full writeup, with the background to the test, the subject area, the keyphrases targeted and specific ads used, plus stats and graphs showing the results, in this report...

Anyway, if you're maxing out your campaigns and looking for a boost, it may be worth considering acquiring an appropriate generic domain name to get the CTR/impression benefits that go with it.

**Edwin** · 14-04-09

I'm curious... this is being discussed, blogged and tweeted all over the place and there's been a lot of interest in the study, but only silence from the affiliate community here.

Is the "conventional wisdom" amongst PPC affiliate marketers that a domain name is basically irrelevant and not worth spending any money on?

**LearnAffiliateMarketing** · 14-04-09

Hi Edwin,

I think that test is awesome! Very interesting and very useful!

I too am suprised that not more people from the forum haven't picked up on this thread - perhaps not so many people come to this section of the site!

Anyway, thanks for sharing!

Regards

Al

**tomj** · 14-04-09

To throw a contrarian spanner in the works here but tbh I assume most smart affiliates already recognise and are aware of the benefits a generic name has not only to their paid but also organic SEM.... (hence maybe a slow take up here....)

Having said that, its a nice study and I've forwarded it to a fair few associates as now I have something concrete to hit them over the head with when I go on about the value of the generic :tup

I hope this got picked up by the various Domainer forums and news feeds etc and I hope you generate some good sales from the extra exposure it gets you. The domainer industry should salute you!

T

**Edwin** · 15-04-09

Thanks for the kind words. Yes, there's been a ton of coverage, but nearly all on the domain rather than SEO side.

BTW, it was an interesting fluke of timing that I just managed to squeak under the deadline and complete the test first, but Google's rule change concerning the use of multiple domains within a single Adwords campaign (used to be allowed, now no longer) means that there's unfortunately no way now to do the same apples-to-apples comparison as in my study.