Why you should carefully review your ads & campaigns

A perfect example...

[Jenstar]

I did a Google search with the word "example" in it today. For hypothetical sakes, let's say I was searching for "apples oranges example" (without the quotes). Now, the real search term was something that nobody would bother advertising for. But lo and behold, up pops an Adwords ad on the right column.

Sponsored Links:

example
example1
example2
example.com
Interest: <insert completely green interest bar>

Hmmmmm.... So I do a search with just the word example, and up it pops again, but as the top sponsored listing this time (the ads that appear above the serps). And I couldn't resist, I had to click. And it took me to, you guessed it, www.example.com where the page says:

You have reached this web page by typing "example.com", "example.net", or "example.org" into your web browser.

These domain names are reserved for use in documentation and are not available for registration. See RFC 2606, Section 3.

My best guess is that someone was showing a coworker or business partner how to go about setting up a new listing. But made it live. And forgot to delete the campaign and/or listing. Then has not noticed that they have the keyword "example" sitting in their account that they are paying clicks on.

And the real kicker is that the little green interest bar is completely green - other people like me whose curiousity got the better of them also clicked on it too. And think how often people search for keyword example each month.

Now, how many members remember showing someone how to do an example listing in AdWords, and are now rushing off to check their account to see if that example belongs to them ;)

[jeremy goodrich]

I've read this a few times, and each time, it brings a smile to my face thinking about the poor guy who paid for his mistake ;)

Proof reading, double checking, etc is all *very* important when using Adwords because they go live so fast. If you don't double check your work, it can cost real money real fast.

[colinirwin]

We spotted this a few days ago. I have the feeling that he has set his max bid pretty high - he's there for 'disaster recovery example', 'laptop example' and 'loan example' - all of them pretty competitive areas.

I hope its a Google rep who uses the ad to demonstrate the power of AdWords to prospects. Otherwise someone's going to be cutting back on his Xmas pressies this year.

Col