Good point Ian – I forgot about the smart pricing thing a while back – I suppose it was about time for something to really benefit publishers.

And good point about the “Content Network on by default” thing – back in my early days of PPC I accidentally turned on a campaign without turning off Content Network and wasted quite a bit of money! I certainly learned my lesson fast and developed a nice little checklist of things to review before turning my campaigns on.

Years back, the whole “smart pricing” ordeal was a big plus for advertisers, and a big hurdle for many publishers. This seems to be a pretty natural swing back in the other direction.

I’d look for another piece of news inside a year or so that favors advertisers over publishers. They need to keep a balance between publishers wanting to earn the most they can per click, and advertisers wanting to pay the least they can.

Also – given your insight on likely increases in CPCs, this makes the whole “Content Network on by default” thing all the more dangerous for amateur advertisers.