How many times do you need to report advertisers cheating the system using multiple accounts before Google will get off their collective backsides and enforce their own policies?
It took me all of 10 minutes to tie all 5 accounts to the same person/company (it helps that Mr. Wizard uses his company info on all the sites).
Here's what's happening:
This individual is using (what are essentially) throw away domains to redirect people to the same product. It's the same design/adcopy, etc.....just hosted on a different domain.
What's worse...when I first reported him two months ago, he was using two domains...then a third appeared....last month he added a fourth....and as of today, he has five ads occupying five spots on the front page of every term we pay for.
Now, I don't mind competition...if you can out market me using good copy, then so be it. BUT...this low life is cheating his way past his competitors....and apparently has Google's blessing doing it.
I've had enough....I'll give Google another 30 days, and then it's "if you can't beat em, join em."
I remember the quote "Rules are made to be broken". So, follow the devils route.
They've been reported by several AW advertisers and the response is basically 'the sites are different enough'.
I thought the guidelines were designed to give users variety and keep companies from dominating the page and crowding out the competition.
We've also reported ads with claims of 'free' products or services when the offers are found nowhere on the site. Nothing is being done about those either.
(it helps that Mr. Wizard uses his company info on all the sites).
Double serving is big problem, i see it just about everyday.
And these people are getting smarter - many of them use private registration to hide the whois info, or using thier grandma info to make the detection and reporting harder.
I'm planning to raise this issue during one of the sessions at the SMX conference next month.
AWA2
I personally detest double serving. StickyMail me the URLs and if they are related I will have them taken care of as soon as possible. Keep in mind that "he told me at a trade show that he owned both sites" doesn't count for us to consider them related, but if there is hard evidence I can take care of it.
AWA, Stickied you a detailed post, let me know if you didn't receive it ;-)
Has anyone noticed any action at all on their double-serving issue?
Just took a look at my favorite cheater - and he's still proudly displaying all his ads.
Has anyone noticed any action at all on their double-serving issue?
I actually had a similar issue with a competitor, and I had success getting their duplicate ads offline.
In my case, I actually utilized Google's online chat support. The agent I spoke with said she would forward my complaint to the appropriate account manager and action would be taken if any guidelines were being broken. The next day, I noticed my competitor's duplicate ads were taken down. I guess it worked.
In my case, I actually utilized Google's online chat support.
[edited by: jatar_k at 1:10 am (utc) on May 9, 2007]
[edit reason] no specifics thanks [/edit]
Ah well....as least I know what I could get away with if I wanted to break the rules as well.
This is actually very bad... as this means clear cheating for the first position that means... I can have all 10 websites with 10 different accounts for the keyword loan... that I will become rich as anyhow I will be the only person getting leads from the keyword "loans"
:P
From what I can tell, google is either so short handed that they won't/can't look into these double/triple/quadruple serving cases unless the ads are selling/promting something illegal, OR they simply consider double-serving such a low priority that they only give each report a cursory glance. OR....[place tinfoil hat here] perhaps they use an internal ROI system to determine if is more profitable on a case by case basis to allow select advertisers to break the rules.
In my case, I first reported this months ago, and sent a PM to AWA with a very detailed report about with the URLs, the product, and even the name of the individual cheating the system. Again....nothing is done. As of right now (I wish I could post a few example keywords here) he has FOUR ads running for each KW in positions 1,3,7, & 8. Since he's been doing it for months, it MUST be profitable.
[edited by: WebFusion at 10:40 pm (utc) on May 14, 2007]
Maybe AWA and I should have used more distinct names, but rest assured there are actually two separate individuals behind the keyboard. Sending something to me doesn't automatically include AWA in on the issue.
AWA2
Since I didn't receive a reply - I'm assuming the system ate the sticky I sent you ;-)
I just resent it. Thanks for taking the time to check these things out ;-)
Maybe AWA and I should have used more distinct names, but rest assured there are actually two separate individuals behind the keyboard. Sending something to me doesn't automatically include AWA in on the issue.
Thank for the clarification AWA2. Hopefully that'll put a stop to people stopping me on the streets and saying "Hey, aren't you AWA2 on Forum81?" :)
But, that said, I really like your screen name - it has a nice ring to it.
AWA
That is even if I take keyword "jobs" as my main PPC keyword... still I can't have 3 campaigns called: careerbuilder, jobs and monster. I have to create separate account for all 3.
Am I right Mr.AWA and AWA2..............
I actually had a similar issue with a competitor, and I had success getting their duplicate ads offline.
Looks like I spoke too soon. I got one of my competitors taken down, but another one of my competitors is now double-serving ads and getting away with it. Doesn't seem to matter how much I complain.
I know for a fact this competitor has a dedicated Google account rep fly out to meet with them on occasion, and they have a six figure monthly budget.
It's very suspect that my smaller competitor got thrown off after I complain, yet the large competitor gets to continue double-serving.
This really works well for us and sure made my job easier to maintain them.
On the other side though, I often think people who multiple list to mirror sites is bad for them and good for me. I'd rather have 5 competitors advertising online than 10. As long as I'm above the double listings I'm likely to get first shot at introducing my product. If someone is double and tripple listing below me they're more likely to annoy the customer with their spam ads. Multiple listings hurts adwords the most; it diminishes the quality of the paid ads in the surfers mind and generally discourages people from using those links in general.
If I wanted the whole first advertising page in the New York Times or Washington Post classified section, I am sure they would be more than happy to sell it for a large price.
Adwords is all about bidding, the higher you pay, the larger your advertisements should be. That is how it works with magazines, newspapers, yellow pages, etc..
Look at my moniker, if Google wants to open it up so people can buy the whole page of ads, I'll be first in line. I would have no problem using a bankroll to squeeze out the little guys.
Unlike the New York Times, because of limited real estate, its possible to buy all the adspace on a google page. You have to compare apples to apples.
Where the AdWords group is concerned, they have to make a better effort to enforce their own rules. Google says, "we don't allow double serving". Well, we all know the truth. Google swears they don't do a lot of things and then wonder why people don't believe them....
Why do you think big advertisers you see on television do not advertise on google that much? I am talking about sears, coke, pepsi, etc.... Do a search on google for "pepsi" and you will not see a single advertisement for pepsi that is paid for by pepsi. Googles rules more than likely limit larger advertisers this way.
If pepsi will shell out millions during the super bowls, why do you not see them shelling out millions on google?
