For me this is a business and how i feed my family but I still feel odd turning someone in for an ad that I know violates the rules.
AWA's advice was to be patient. Well, how long does it take? All they have to do is look at the screenshots, check their database, and the answer should be obvious. Meanwhile, they ignore emails asking about it. It's incredibly rude, and the most annoying part is that if I make some kind of mistake or do something contrary to policy (see my post on using an ellipsis in ads), I get shut down right away. But a large merchant, who undoubtedly pays them a lot more than I do, can get away with this indefinitely.
As you said, it's a business with well established rules (Adwords TOS etc.) You have to accept them too, so I wouldn't hesitate doing this if it's damaging my own business or degrading my user experience.
But a large merchant, who undoubtedly pays them a lot more than I do, can get away with this indefinitely.
Adwords has removed ads from many large merchants before based on a large variety of reasons.
Personally, I'm an advocate for my clients. If there's an ad that broke the TOS and I feel it's getting a higher CTR or whatnot because of it, which could be hurting my clients, I have no problem turning it in.
Sometimes ads just slip through editorial, or take a while to be reviewed. It's not about ethics, it's about who you're a proponent for.
Three weeks? I've asked several times, and I get the broken record: they're "investigating" it. And again I ask: How long does it take?
However, on the multiple ads per advertiser: this is now allowed by Google. If not officially, in practice. I wanted to run two ads for the same word and before I did, I sent an e-mail to Google asking if this was OK. While not actually telling me it was ok in writing, they gave me the message that I could go ahead. Been doing it for several months now with no problem.
I suspect Google's intentions are good but their staff numbers and quality are hopelessly inadequate. Adwords is EXPLODING in volume. Great for investors bad for advertisers.
I suspect the ONLY way to speed up turnaround time in general is for stock analysts to start figuring out how it's hurting Google's bottom line. Our pleas will not cause one single new employee to be hired. Not one. But does Wall St. read this Forum. No way.
As DavidPDeprice strongly recommended in the "Adwords Flaw" thread (http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum81/5540.htm) the only way to get action is to somehow go public big time. For the turnaround time issue I can't think of another or better way than for stock analysts to tie it to bottom line results.
The person I have been turning in for about 2 months is now gone. I think it was self monitored as he was gone Monday night. I sent about 10 emails over the weekend detailing everytime he changed the ad. It was exhausting but hopefully Google will use it to close the window these people are crawling through.
