Adwords ads going to parked pages?!

[MamaDawg]

As if MFA's weren't bad enough - I just noticed some Adwords ads which are pointed to domain parking services - i.e. parked pages!

That's gotta be against TOS... I hope? If so, how do I report.... er ... "bring it to Google's attention"?

[Kings on steeds]

if there are no contact details, and the site isnt fully functioning it will be disaproved. but if his keywords are "domain parking" or "a parked page" ect. he might get away with it.

Alan

[MamaDawg]

Keyword is a very popular medical/cosmetic search term.

The domain name contains the keyphrase and the landing page is a canned set of pages provided by one of the ever-growing number of "monetize your domain name" service - ads, ads and nothing but ads (but formatted to look like a "real" site, at first glance, complete with navigation to "related" pages of ads, ads, ads).

I'm familiar with most of those parking services, so I recognized it immediately - a "whois" verified my suspicions.

There's an email link on the landing page - it goes to a page about fighting spam. No actual contact info (that I could find) anywhere on the site.

It's not just ad either - there are at least 2 on this keyword (different but similar domain names, different whois info, different parking sites - possibly the same person though).

[edited by: MamaDawg at 2:08 pm (utc) on Oct. 27, 2006]

[Kings on steeds]

Umm, they might just be doing enought to avoid falling fowl to G's T&C's. all i can say is if there is a lack of content his CPC is will be amazingly high and he wont be able to sustain it for long... if you want to you can contact G and see what they can do

[adwords.google.com...]

enjoy!
Alan

[RhinoFish]

i doubt they're even violating anything - parked domain type partners are a big part of G's network, and surprisingly, the search network, not the content network.

[webmasterworld.com...]

[google.com...]

[MamaDawg]

They are, BUT I have a number of parked domains in addition to my developed sites, and I can tell you that the parking services I use (most of which are monetized by Google) are VERY strict about only allowing "natural" traffic to your parked domains - i.e. direct navigation ("type-ins"). You will get thrown out of the programs if you are caught doing anything which could be interpreted as driving traffic to your page(s).

I don't personally use these 2 services - they're fairly new, may be more lax about their terms?

Thanks for the contact info - I think I'll drop the Adwords folks a little note.

[Car_Guy]

I've only seen it once. The ad appeared on my site, pointing to a "This domain is for sale" page.

[venrooy]

This often times happens if the advertiser misspells their own url in an adwords ad.

[Atomic]

They are, BUT I have a number of parked domains in addition to my developed sites, and I can tell you that the parking services I use (most of which are monetized by Google) are VERY strict about only allowing "natural" traffic to your parked domains - i.e. direct navigation ("type-ins"). You will get thrown out of the programs if you are caught doing anything which could be interpreted as driving traffic to your page(s).

It's funny how some of these sites use AdWords to drive traffic to them isn't it?

There's a LOT more discussion about this practice within this forum if you do a search for "Adwords for Domains" and you'll discover that many advertisers have found themselves competing with sites like this when bidding for keywords within AdWords. That's something unpleasant to chew on.

[edited by: Atomic at 7:09 pm (utc) on Oct. 27, 2006]