Ok, so despite my last post on AdWords, it doesn’t appear that Google truly has their system quite in place. If they think they do have a system in place, it needs to be re-examined.I recently performed a search for a friend of mine. He was looking for menu covers for his restaurant. The phrase I used, based on what he was looking for, was menu cover double pocket. Reasonable enough. After looking through the organics and not quite finding the right match for what he was looking for, we started purusing the paid results looking for a good vendor. This is where AdWords disappointed me. Toward the bottom was a horrible ad (from every standpoint):
Cover Menu
We can help you find anything you
need for Cover Menu
Find.It.Quick.At.TrueLocal.com
I’m still trying to find a good use of dynamic keyword insertion. Clearly, this isn’t it. I have no idea what a cover menu is. If you search for it, the first 12 results are for “menu covers” – in the plural.
Ok, so take points right off the top for bad keyword research. But here’s the page I was taken to.
Now granted, I wasn’t duped into thinking this link was going to take me somewhere useful. Blame me for click-fraud here, if you must. But I clicked the ad out of sheer curiosity as to what was worth paying for such a horribly misconstructed and misplaced ad. Apparently there truly must be a lot of money in trying to fool people into clicking more paid links that will keep spammers and malware creators in business. Maybe it’s the malware authors that are buying the links?
Clearly this is not what Google had in mind when they raised their standards for ads. Weren’t they supposed to get a real human to be reviewing ads, too? That’s what they hinted toward.
But wait, there’s more.
70% Off Menu Cover
Menu Covers Deeply Discounted
Free Overnight Shipping!
Menu-Covers.Center.US.com
This ad was at least worded in such a way that I would be more enticed to click on it. Even the URL seems to indicate that this might be a viable vendor. But, sadly, it isn’t.
To the Google folk: It’s sad enough these types of sites still clog the organic listings. They’re entirely more deceptive looking as a paid ad. Is this the new bar that has been raised? Is this where the future of the paid is is going? Or was the announcement of “raising the bar” just a PR spam to justify raising keyword prices?
I’ve personally heard many Google reps say that the number one priority is the end-user, the searchers. How does this help the end user? Where are the quality results I expect as a searcher? Google is still slipping in it’s mission, and I, for one, am starting to tire of the results.
Thanks , very Good Forever google 🙂