Sharp drop in Kelkoo traffic quality?

Anyone else here use Kelkoo?

We've noticed a large increase in traffic with a correspondingly massive drop in conversions over the last few weeks from them. *

Its particularly disappointing when you're paying a premium PPC for a supposedly pre-qualified customer.

The conversions got so bad that we've now pulled our Mobiles listings completely while we review the stats in greater detail.

It would be interesting to hear whether any other categories other than mobile phones are affected.

[* all our other marketing activities are either static or increasing their conversion rates]

Hi Chris,

You'll probably find that it's the MSN effect. MSN now use Kelkoo for their shopping area - so you've got access to all of MSN's browsers, and I guess that is all they are doing!

Our conversion has always been low from MSN (pre-Kelkoo) but we didn't previously pay per click so it didn't matter so much.

Ben.

I've always wondered what Kelkoo was about.
Just looks like an affiliate site to me but maybe I'm insulting affiliates sites by saying that ! It amazes me how many times you can find it on first page of Google or Msn for terms that have no relevence in it's page. If I'm comparing search terms/ positions and Kelkoo is above be it doesn't worry me at all cos I doubt if people will find what they want there. It's selling itself as a comparison site but acts like an affiliate site. Or is it just me that thinks that way ?

Aly

<strong><em>You'll probably find that it's the MSN effect.</em></strong>

Yes, I think you're right. We did some research ourselves and came to the same conclusion.

Its a real shame as Kelkoo was happily converting well for us and then overnight it just dropped to financially unviable levels. We're amazed that our competitors are still using Kelkoo but can only assume that they're not tracking ROI properly. <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/ohwell.gif ALT=":\">

What was particularly disappointing was that Kelkoo themselves denied anything was amiss and weren't really interested. My thoughts are that while most merchants who are not checking their ROI continue to pay 20p, 25p or more then there's no reason for Kelkoo to address the issue. But thats just my opinion.

<strong><em>access to all of MSN's browsers, and I guess that is all they are doing!</em></strong>

That certainly explains very well what happened to us.

<strong><em>It amazes me how many times you can find it on first page of Google or Msn</em></strong>

Prior to the beginning of May, conversion was great on Kelkoo but once they bought a whole load of traffic from (we assume) MSN, conversion plummeted.

I'd watch what empiredirect do - they work well on kelkoo but voiced concerns over conversion rates when MSN joined up so let's see if they stay.

Ben.