could time come when you can't support google's brand with AdSense?

they continue to damage their brand

[moTi]

one google pr desaster after another. since more and more bad news, especially the latest issues with "buzz" have made it to mass media, it can be observed that the general mood begins to turn seriously against google as a service and as a brand.

meanwhile it appears obvious, that google is largely tech driven and that they seem to have a massive lack of human resources with marketing skills. otherwise this continued pr suicide is not explainable to me. compared to months ago, forums and blogs are full of google antipathy for various reasons. joe public is getting more and more sceptical of google products and services. cautiously spoken, all this potentially has long term negative effects on all kinds of google performance metrics.

well, after the latest events with google's lousy handling of user privacy concerns i seriously consider removing the adsense ads from my website. now i'm in the position to leave adsense simply because my recent earnings are pathetic compared to years ago. but surely many web businesses rely heavily on adsense income. no real alternative for many webmasters.

the connection between trust in the google brand and clicks on adsense ads may be insignificant or at least not obvious as yet. but could there be a situation in the near future when you simply can't support the google brand as ad label on your website anymore?

[martinibuster]

Advertisers vote with their pockets. They don't give a damn about the brand as much as they care about how well the clicks convert and how much of that converting traffic they can get. The Google brand is not polarizing, it's not offensive to religious or political groups so it's a safe bet. Until advertising on Google is as polarizing as advertising on an abortion rights blog or on a secessionist website, the brand is not going to be an issue. People don't get worked up about privacy. When was the last time you saw a million people march on Washington to protest cookies in their browsers?

So until people start switching to Bing and Yahoo, this is like a 0.005 on the Richter scale, or about the same amount of movement as a truck passing on the street. People don't care about the privacy thing. Is the checkout clerk or the bartender talking about it? Um, no. That's the last thing on Joe Public's mind.

If Google becomes Apple Fanboy Enemy #1, then maybe some tongues may start wagging.

[tangor]

Agreed. But the fact that folks are talking (some of them) is a concern. Observation. Google screwed the pooch on this one (Buzz in particular, banning Adsense accounts, Adwords problems, much less Wave, Analytics, and other intrusive gimmicks). And seems to keep after it these days. Highly likely Bing and Yahoo are doing the same thing... though they haven't managed to shoot themselves in the foot over the last three-four years...

[Edge]

Advertisers vote with their pockets.

Advertisers and publishers vote with thier ROI...

There is no pending mass exodus from Google.

[blairsp]

I would suspect you could count on one finger how many publishers will leave. Perhaps there is SLIGHTLY less "Google is god" (especially on these boards) but anyone who will seriously leave-nah. People see it as easy money. Google could tell everyone that they need to wait 6 months to get paid and you would still have people telling the world how great they were. Evolution over a long period of time perhaps, revolution will NEVER happen.

As the previous poster put it so well. publishers vote with their ROI and for some that is phenomenal as the investment is nil(or as close to nil as to make it that).

[jmccormac]

Like it or not, we are mercenaries. Most of us don't worry about morality issues as this is business. The only thing that keeps Adsense on sites is revenue. When that advertising space can be sold for higher revenue than Adsense provides, then it will be sold that way. For some, Adsense is the most efficient method for monetising websites as it effectively outsources the whole collection and marketing aspect and allows us to concentrate on generating content. It is a business decision and we have to treat it as such.

Regards...jmcc

[tangor]

But there is that little voice... The armor has been chinked. We'll see where it goes. Meanwhile, Bing and what's left of Yahoo are there. Long and short the "free ride" is vanishing and those who haven't got it yet will ultimately suffer. Sorry, I wear that double billboard walking the streets that the "World Is Ending", and guess what, that works for me. :)

[edited by: martinibuster at 8:18 pm (utc) on Feb 14, 2010]
[edit reason] removed injection of politics. [/edit]

[Swanny007]

Unless a truly competing product comes out I see AdSense staying on my site for years to come. At some point it may not be my biggest earner but it will still be there. AdSense has been the best targeted, most profitable form of advertising on my sites for 6.5 years so I can't see that going away any time soon.

However if I got into direct ad sales I would probably drop them or give them a ton less inventory. I just don't have the time or staff to do direct sales, nor do I want to get into that.

[moTi]

ok, so as could be expected, a pure business decision. as long as it brings in the money, there's no question it stays on the website.

can you imagine that at one point users wouldn't click on google ads anymore, solely because they are google ads? the point is, after the recent pr stunts, i'm not so sure anymore that google can promote whatever business decision they like so that users retain their confidence. the effects strongly depend on the type of website audience if you ask me.

think of what google would have to do in terms of publicly relevant corporate action to make you refuse using adsense on your websites. at least there's no obligation to provide them with anything, both parties are free to cancel at any time. surely also a question of financial dependency.

[martinibuster]

can you imagine that at one point users wouldn't click on google ads anymore, solely because they are google ads?

No, I can't imagine it at this time because as I stated previously:

The Google brand is not polarizing, it's not offensive to religious or political groups so it's a safe bet. Until advertising on Google is as polarizing as advertising on an abortion rights blog or on a secessionist website, the brand is not going to be an issue.

And as I stated in the second post of this discussion, it's about the ROI:

They don't give a damn about the brand as much as they care about how well the clicks convert and how much of that converting traffic they can get.

If the clicks do not convert well, that's called poor ROI. If the clicks convert well, that's called good ROI. As long as those clicks are happening a non-controversial brand, they're fine. No problem.

People care about drunk celebrities, politics, TV shows, television sets and dating. People don't care about privacy issues. Privacy issues are not sexy. Especially boring are privacy issues that have been rapidly dealt with and over.

Google's brand is safe. Facebook's brand is safe. It's a non-existent issue. The only people who care are those who want to exploit every hiccup because they personally dislike the brand and others who desire to sell newspapers. ;)