Google doesn't care about Display URL violations?

Nothing is done to remove them

[Rehan]

Why is Google so lax about advertisers using invalid display URLs? Some unscrupulous affiliate marketers are blatantly violating the rules and yet Google seems to do nothing to the ads even weeks after they've been told about them.

In one case, the ad's display URL was a domain that doesn't even exist. For several keywords, I also had an ad going to the same website (and mine had the correct display URL). The presence of the 'bad' ad was effectively reducing my CTR as well as increasing my CPC... So I phoned Google and the person I spoke to took the information and said she'd pass it along. Two weeks later, that ad is still running.

In another case, I've seen five separate ads on the first page of the search results, all them going to the same domain and each having a different display URL.

Isn't it relatively easy for Google to verify display URLs programatically when ads are submitted? Even if not, what's taking so long for them to get rid of the pollution in the ads that has been clearly identified?

I realize Google makes more money if they keep all of those ads, but I had figured they're not so greedy or incompetent.

[edited by: Rehan at 7:11 pm (utc) on Mar. 29, 2007]

[robertskelton]

They seem to rely on humans to check them - most of them do get removed after a day or two, but some get through.

If you contact Google via the AdWords interface, and tell them the details, they will disapprove of the ad. I do this every week...

[Rehan]

Yeah, I did contact them already -- once by e-mail and once by phone (I got a "Service Level Enhancement" e-mail a couple months ago, so I figured I'd try it out). Maybe it's just my bad luck that neither of the issues I mentioned to them have been fixed yet.

[Hiccup]

Maybe you should stop worrying so much about what others are doing and focus on your own business.

[Rehan]

Maybe you didn't read what I posted earlier closely enough, because what the others are doing is directly affecting my business.

[Sujan]

...and focus on your own business.

Part of my business is also what is hurting business - and competitors not playing by the rules surely are.

[skibum]

It's not just a problem for affiliates. From the merchant POV, it costs more money in click costs because it drives up bid prices, results in affiliate commissions that should not be paid out and distorts the PPC campaigns when the financial people look at the results and evaluate the performance of the search & affiliate campaigns.

[poster_boy]

Maybe you should stop worrying so much about what others are doing and focus on your own business.

Being that your competition determines in large part what you pay and where your ad is located, I'm not sure ignoring them is very wise...