Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I'm not so much displeased by the tone as I am by the content.
Specifically, I was told three things:
1) I failed to respond to an earlier warning.
I never received such a warning from Google. Perhaps it had gotten spam filtered, but this seems unlikely. I wonder what happened. Well, at least they DID give me another chance :)
2) They didn't like the title above my ads.
I had written "From Google" above my vertical AdSense blocks, and they asked me to replace this with "Sponsored Links." IMHO, that's pretty dumb. It seems to me that "Sponsored Links" implies that the companies whose ads appear there are affirmatively chosing to sponsor MY site in particular, or that there's some actual and direct connection between me (the Webmaster) and the companies advertised. Particularly given some of the shady or wacky ads I get, I'm not happy about this implied connection.
In contrast, I felt that "From Google" was concise and absolutely accurate. Combined with a small "Learn about this" link which leads to a page with detailed info about the ad programs on my site, I think this served my advertisers far better than "Sponsored Links."
3) They insisted I remove part of my "About ads on this site" page.
Towards the bottom of my "About ads on this site" page (linked from the "Learn about this" small text), I had included the following:
I'm very excited about a new type of ads that I've been permitted to place on my [sitename]. Google -- long recognized as one of the most efficient and accurate places to find what you're looking for on the Web -- is now allowing select Webmasters like myself to carry targeted ads. Why are these ads so great?- They're unobtrusive. They're text-based and thus load quickly... and they don't blink :)
- They're relevant. On my Travel page, for instance, you'll see useful ads for airlines and hotels.
- They often support small businesses. ANYONE can buy advertising via Google!
- They support this site. The ads you see here help pay for my server costs.
Google insisted that I strike the last line. While there's a very, very tenuous possibility that such a statement could incent folks to click on ads, I reasonably think that it would pose no threat to my advertisers in reality. Most people I've chatted with who visit my site believe my ads (and ads in general) are CPM, not CPC. And note that I didn't say "I get paid when you click" or anything like that.
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As someone who spends FAR more on AdWords than I make on AdSense, I'm certainly keen to Google's concern for the integrity of its programs and the security of its advertisers.
However, I think Google's time would be better spent ferreting out some of the blatant abusers ("Click here to make me money, please!") and avoid hassling those of us who are just trying to honestly and communicate information about our site (including the ads) to our visitors.
Lastly, I'm hoping the Google folks have a sense of humor about it given the last part of my response to them:
Can I please, please, please stop getting so many PSAs now? I'm not sure if the abundance of PSAs as of late is due to my account being under review, but it's been depressing for me to see such a lack of targeting on my site and likely puzzling for my members, most of whom are likely NOT greenly pregnant new dads studying literacy in developing Asian nations.
UPDATE: Just about an hour or so after I wrote my note, I got a nice followup response from Google, thanking me for letting them know I didn't get the first e-mail, and assuring me that just because they sent me a second notice didn't mean I had "two strikes" against my account. Whew!
The TOS specifically says not to label the ads "Sponsors," and yet Google *told* you to label them "Sponsored Links?"
I have such a love/hate relationship with Google for reasons like this.
Can I say WTH here? (I was thinking the "F" might be too strong, but that's sure what I was thinking!) :-)
JK
Think about what happened to the likes of Flycast and the also rans like L90, Burst, and a dozen other networks nobody every heard about. They all failed because they lacked a few key incredients: relevance and quality content.
The other networks did a very poor job of assuring that quality appropriate ads were displayed on relavant quality sites. I remember in December of 1999 running GOOGLE banner ads via Burst on completely inappropriate and off topic sites. It was poor targetting, poor display, and ultimatly made both Google look bad in the eyes of surfers to those sites.
So, enter AdWords with all these years of history behind us now. The mistakes have been made, and if there is one thing that Google is good at, it is Marketing and Branding. They have set the net standard for the marketing of a web site. That being the case, they know a thing or two about how ads should be displayed in what context.
By sending you a warning notice, they have gotten more quality pr about AdWords than anything they could have done via policy.
