<paraphrase>You're ads are part of the contextual network, and your competitor is part of the content publishing network</paraphrase>
That is not what I said to them and we are NOT on content networks. My reply was: I don't think I explained the situation clearly. They are working as an Adwords competitor, advertising on the same term that we are -- on Google. Their ad appears about 2 ads above ours ON GOOGLE, not on content networks. We ARE NOT on content network for any of our campaigns. So in effect, you could search on www.google.com and click our ad and go to our site, or you could click their ad, and then see our Adwords ad on their landing page (with the title changed), click our ad and go to our site. There is no way I believe that Google would approve of this. It would mean Google was getting paid twice for one search. Please call me ... and I will be happy to explain and demonstrate what is going on... this is EXTREMELY important to us. I searched on some of our other terms and the quality of ads appearing now on Google just exacerbates me.
If you view the source of the landing page for this fraudulent [www.ripoffsite] the actual URL that the site is generated from is [www.canplaygoogle.com].
Please address the seriousness of this matter.
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I cannot believe their reply or how nonchalantly they addressed this matter. What does this say about the quality of ads now...
Unbelievable!
[edited by: eWhisper at 12:54 pm (utc) on May 11, 2006]
[edit reason] Please don't post emails. See TOS. [/edit]
Maybe I'm just not getting it. What exactly is the problem?
Me, I'd probably set up some kind of a test ad with something specific that I could track exactly what is happening, and then, if in fact I find that it's costing me more or affecting my campaign, hit Google up with log files and a (virtual) paper trail.
I think you are right, I will have to talk to them a few times before they realize and actually listen to what the problem is, instead of sending me a generic automated type reply to typical problems they must encounter.
And I'll have to get the paperwork you mentioned as well to document it in black.
I've followed and understand what you are experiencing. Long story, but I've been ill and only up for short bouts so I didn't reply earlier.
On a lark in the past, I've searched the SERPs for parts of my ad text and found that I've been indexed on a number of these generic shopping sites. These must be Search Partners (since I'm not part of Content) who also happen to advertise on Adwords.
Except for the odd fact that your ad title was changed, I don't think this poses much of a problem for you. The way I see it, for me, I get two potential showings for one search though I didn't ask for it.
They see my ad or they click the shopping site (who is also a Search Partner) and also can see my ad. May be a slight advantage there. Yeah, Google is getting paid twice, but only once by me - for that single click on the shopping site cum search partner should it happen.
Bit of a stretch, but perhaps it even gives my ad a little more credibility to be associated with these immense shopping sites.
JMHO, I've seen this happening for a long time on-line and in my logs.
Google is simply wrong telling you it came from the Content Network. Admittedly, your description of where you found your ad sounds more like a "Made for Adwords" (not Adsense) site than the shopping networks where I traditionally find myself, but perhaps my ad was beneath yours on the site you found for all I know!
Israel
Does the ad block say "Ads by Goooogle" or whatever or does it appear as though it a Search Result of some sort? That should settle whether your ads somehow are in fact erroneously appearing on Content.
Israel
Nonetheless, if they are messing with your title, they are no doubt violating Google TOS. If you provide Google with a screenshot and URL and have no ad with that title, maybe just maybe, they'll get dumped from Google Search.
Israel
adwords to overture feed arbitrage is pretty common.
Hovering over the link I get:
[www.fakesite.com]/redirect.php? b=E9rQURdwYeg%3D&term=retail+packaging &nterms=cmV0YWlsIHBhY2thZ2luZw%3D%3D &position=2&odomain=example.com&source=1 &to=aHR0cDovL3d3dzYxLm92ZXJ0dXJlLmNvbS9kL3 ... continue long string of junk
No mention of Google or Yahoo in the destination link....
Still Google has not contacted me. I have done further research and had already noticed this term had its clicks doubled from our average. Our webmaster is supposed to be getting me the logs for the last few months and then maybe we can do something about this.
Thank you all for the replies. I get frustrated with it sometimes!:-0
[edited by: jatar_k at 9:25 pm (utc) on May 11, 2006]
[edit reason] fixed sidescroll [/edit]
they bid on a term like "widget" at $5.00 CPC and then take the user to their site which displays ads that net them (if they are good at it) > $5.00 CPC.
there is zero value to the user since this secondary search site is only showing high CPC ads that are less contextually relevent than what google would should for the original search term that was entered by the user.
So, why does Google let this happen. GREED. Google gets paid $5.00 for the first click and then a rev share pct on all subsequent clicks. In essence Google is capaitlizing on the GREED of their search network partners. The more clicks a user has to do in order to finally get to a legitimate destination, the better it is for Google. Since they in essence are like a series of doors collecting a fee each time a user walks through one - the beauty of this ponzi scheme is that the user is not paying for the clicks.
What a brilliant way to make money for Google - unfortunately it is not sustainable. Google's challenge is to find a way to replace/offset this revenue. Until they find a way you will continue to see these click "arbitragers" putting more doors in front of users to go through.
However, I was trying to figure out how they were pulling my ad into their irrelevant landing page and discovered not only do you have to have Content Match Advertising off (on Yahoo), but you also have to have Advanced Match Type off. Yahoo says: "The Advanced match type drives additional targeted leads to your business from our high-quality partner network of sites." To me, this seems like the same thing as Content. So I turned that off as well. I looked today and we are finally off that site's listings on their landing page.
This still doesn't solve the fact that the ad mentioned is irrelevant as is the landing page. And still no communication from Google since my reply. IMHO I cannot see how Google would want ads from some "domainpark" junk site listed on Google search, whose landing page displays Yahoo ads.
If it starts with "Sponsored Results..", etc. I think we can say with reasonable certainty that they are a Search Partner, albeit a poor one. If you "Copy Shortcut" or hover over the link you should see mention of Google as the part of the destination link.
You'd think so. I've been checking out some of the MFA fake directory type sites, and I'm finding a lot of very odd things going on. Not to say they are violations, but for example, some sites have sponsored results but do NOT show any google url, no way, no how.
What they DO show is a redirect of some sort, which presumably goes TO or through google. I don't know.
So, it's really hard to tell what some of these sites are doing, and whether they are legit or not.
On reviewing our click audit reports 10% of clicks in the last month were from people who clicked our ad 3 or more times. I assume that our competitors have the same problem and that each searcher clicks on more than one ad.
If you do the math(s) an arbitrage site that only runs PPC results would on average get a minimum of 110% return if only one link was clicked and my results apply to their site. But that is not going to happen as each visitor will click on 2 or 3 different ads as well as some of them clicking the same ad 2 or 3 times. And this assumes normal and totally honest use with no click fraud.
It looks like a no brainer, I wonder why Adwords doesn't stop it.
Sid
The reply goes on to tell me to check out the Learning Center in the meantime. Wow, thanks I have already done that when it was released and manage a huge account and get great results no one could get from our account before. And I have been for 3 years. We increased our spending from $3,000 a month to $13,000 a month. It would seem like they would look at our account before sending such a reply (both the first and second reply). I realize there are people who spend much more than this monthly, but don't we deserve a little respect?
There just aren't many options left except to reduce spending in the ppc area and wait for improvement I guess. Am I cynical? You bet.
