Forum Moderators: martinibuster
My local newspaper's website recently underwent a complete overhaul and now they display AdSense ads prominently. It's amazing how many of the ads are just plain outright misleading. The landing page/site is an actual site, not a page full of links, but what is offered is not what is promised in the ad.
I wonder if this type of misleading ad isn't worse - or equally as frustrating to visitors - as MFA's.
FarmBoy
I hate finding those things. Found one that was just a whisker shy of being porn and i fired it off to Google and told them I did not appreciate it on my website, as my site is listed and is, a family friendly site.
Ann
In my country, the most widely circulated newspaper has blended ads and ad links very well with navigation and I am sure they must be getting tons of clicks.. Bikini babes, lingerie tag lines do generate a lot of cliks. Where they lead to is very diffn...
So, of course my readers will click the ads because the titles are perfect matches for information that they are looking for. And of course they will be disappointed when they get to the destination url because the title was deceptive and had nothing to do with the destination url. So of course conversion will be minimal. So perhaps the smartpricing filter gets turned up a notch and I get penalized because of their deception.
Their link titles look attractive and optimized for relevance--they 'tell' consumers what they want to 'hear.' But they mislead the public, leading them to, among other destinations, a search engine whose results are new ad links of another online advertising company other than Google.
Sometimes I'll check the site's home page, but it won't even have one! How did Google give it an AdWords account?! These aren't even MFAs--nothing is "made." It's contentless trash.
The fraud is rampant, because the ads aren't approved before publication, and not checked by Google after they are published.
The sad thing is even reputable companies are now joining in using misleading ads (esp. titles) like the Black Hat AdWords crooks they would never get away with in a paper or magazine--or even attempt!
I felt like putting a warning notice on my site:
"If you find ads misleading, please report to Google... Apologies in advance. Google has an awful screening system... if the domain listed in the ad is weird, the ad is probably bogus. Google offers many useless, time-wasting, misleading ads. Its team of talented engineers is currently working on a solution."
Google needs a craigslist bad ad flagging system. Go Google PhDs! See if you can figure out the code. Tip: View > Source.
p/g
I have been getting some ads on my site selling a product that has nothing to do with the content on my site. But they are using titles that match my site perfectly
I get tons of these and have been for quite some time!
I've reported some of tbhe offenders to Google, yet I still see them around.
My local newspaper's website recently underwent a complete overhaul and now they display AdSense ads prominently. It's amazing how many of the ads are just plain outright misleading. The landing page/site is an actual site, not a page full of links, but what is offered is not what is promised in the ad.
I can't help wondering what the advertisers are trying to achieve. If I'm Joe User and I click on an ad for widgets, why would the advertiser expect me to convert if I land on a page about whatsits?
I can't help wondering what the advertisers are trying to achieve. If I'm Joe User and I click on an ad for widgets, why would the advertiser expect me to convert if I land on a page about whatsits?
I think it's because the traffic is so cheap that they are using it for branding. On the site where it's been happening for me, clicks are now less than 5 cents. They have a product that is general enough to be of interest to the population at large(it's not a niche product), but it's certainly not a product that my readers would be looking for on my site. For 5 cents, they get a real visitor, who may or may not remember the site for some time in the future. Their name is catchy enough . . .
But what is certain, is that conversion will be poor because the visitor was shanghaied into going there. So again, I'm guessing the effect can't be good for smartpricing.
I think it's because the traffic is so cheap that they are using it for branding.
If that's the case, it just helps to confirm something that I've believed all along: Newspapers aren't the greatest venue for AdSense (which may be one reason why some newspapers are trying other contextual or semi-contextual networks).
Newspapers aren't the greatest venue for AdSense
That doesn't have to be the case though: certain sections of the newspaper ought to be a great match--the travel section or the sports section for example. News sections do seem like they would have problems getting proper targeting.
Unfortunately, smartpricing works on an account basis (so we've been told) so the poor performance on news areas might cause poor performance in the travel. And once smartpricing kicks in, the newspaper is open to gaming for the MFA crowd and the legitimate advertisers who are trying to shanghai visitors with misleading titles (legitimate in the sense that they are actually selling something, not in there MO), which *may* lead in turn to more smartpricing.
I think MFAs and the legitimate advertisers who use deceptive titles and ad text can ONLY operate in a regime of low-priced CPC. The question is: Do they help foster the low-priced regime?
Newspapers aren't the greatest venue for AdSense...
I started this thread just after leaving my local newspaper's site. But I don't see misleading ads just on the newspaper site, they show up on my sites and I'm not a newspaper.
FarmBoy
I think it's because the traffic is so cheap that they are using it for branding...But what is certain, is that conversion will be poor because the visitor was shanghaied into going there. So again, I'm guessing the effect can't be good for smartpricing.
I have suspected this for quite a while. In fact I recall mentioning that advertisers were deliberately mistargeting my niche a couple of times in the past. What is certain is that both MFA's and real websites are guilty of this practice and it begs the obvious question; why?
Maybe there is a smartpricing loophole that is being exploited here. I'ts been mentioned before that smartpicing is calculated on the likelyhood of successful conversions. Therfore consider this simple scenario:
In it's dertermination of what is likely to convert the bot visits my widget website and the target whatsits website and in it's wisdom, the smartpricing algo determins that there is very little likelyhood of a successful conversion because the content on my adsense page is remotely related at best to the advertisers landing page. I cop a kick in the teeth from smartpricing whilst the advertiser enjoys a discount.
[edited by: Scurramunga at 12:18 am (utc) on April 25, 2007]
