Google purports to be building their business around the theme that every user receives a “quality experience”. To Google, that means that when a person uses their search engine to find something that the search results don’t come back with a lot of spam sites – sites that are built for the sole purpose of generating Google Adsense income or just redirecting folks to some irrelevant site.
That’s a good goal for them when it comes to the search results that THEY produce. Unfortunately they have tried to take it one step further and are trying to define what quality content means when it comes to how OTHERS do their advertising!
Advertising with Adwords used to be analogous to advertising in the newspaper. In the newspaper, advertisers will routinely use the sports section to target a message for male audiences. Many times the ad has absolutely nothing to do with sports but may be selling automobiles, building supplies, etc. Unfortunately Google has decided that if your ad is not 100% correlated to the search request, then you’re obviously spamming the person who clicked on your ad because they are interested in your offering.
Many years ago Coca-Cola attempted to dictate what their customers wanted. With limited market research, if any, they changed the formula of Coca-Cola to more closely be like Pepsi. Their customers didn’t like it and revolted. The result: Coca-Cola Classic.
Many Adwords advertisers have seen huge jumps in their advertising costs. Their prices have gone from ten cents a click to ten dollars a click overnight. It’s obvious that 99% of businesses can’t make money with those kinds of rate increases. What is happening is that many advertisers have closed their doors to Google and are spending their advertising budget with Microsoft through MSN. Some are even trying out Yahoo Search advertising even though their interface is antiquated and their pricing is way out of line. Many advertisers need to spend pennies a click, not dimes or more, in order to make a profit.
Let’s hope that, even though Google is an immature company, they can see their blunder and return to an Adwords that satisfy their users and not just look for more multi-billion dollar quarterly profits for their investors.