How to Manage Google Search Partner Traffic

Ask any experienced Google AdWords Partner for his or her biggest pet peeve with AdWords, and you may hear something like "We need control and transparency with the Search Partner network!" Amen.

Google has always been a bit vague about who these Search Partners are, anyway, as illustrated by this AdWords Help File:

Gee, thanks Google.  That's super helpful.  In addition to YouTube.com, which we know is "huuuge", further  investigation reveals that clicks from these Partners may include: Amazon.com, NYtimes.com, Washingtonpost.com, and AOL.com.

But, try to find out which of these (or others) are actually driving up click cost on your Campaigns that are opted into the Search Partner Network and you'll soon hit a dead end. So, we are left simply to evaluate Partner traffic quality at it's most basic and decide to opt in or opt out. Evauate Search Parter key performance indicators like CPC, Conversion Rate, Cost per Conversion, Revenue, etc.

Here are our favorite hacks for quick and easy evaluation.