11 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}
11 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}

Google is stalking me and spending your adwords money!

by dwatrous
9 replies
  • SEO
    • |
The other day I noticed that Google was following me around from site to site filling in adsense blocks with the same ad, regardless of context or relevance. It was actually so blatant that it gave me the creeps. And I still have the jitters from when Paul Meyers made a big fuss about the sidewiki deal.

Anyway, I did a lot of research (and a little remembering back to last year when Google announced interest based advertising), and recorded all my findings. Some things that are very interesting are the implications this has on Adwords advertisers. I really wonder if PRWeb knew how Google was advertising to me, would they agree?

Here's what I came up with:
Creepy Google Stalker - interest based advertising | Daniel Watrous

I put screenshots of the sites that showed me the same ad and found a bunch of different sites to look at, from online dating to guinea pigs.

A few conclusions that I think I can draw (please leave your ideas) is that I might need to get a little distance from the big G and not put all my eggs in their basket (email, search, advertising, monetization, etc.). I also have to rethink how i treat adwords campaigns that run in the content network, since relevance and context go out the window with the new approach.

I also explain how to stop getting targeted with interest based ads (basically clear your cookies).
#adsense #adwords #google #money #spending #stalking
  • Profile picture of the author ArticlePlayground
    Banned
    [DELETED]
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1677754].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Sevin
      Originally Posted by ArticlePlayground View Post

      That sounds so hillarious! Stalking you...lol
      I had a nightmare about google once. The o's in the google logo were eyes and there was a cheshire-cat type mouth below them. It followed me everywhere I ran.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1677766].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author Lucid
        Originally Posted by Sevin View Post

        I had a nightmare about google once. The o's in the google logo were eyes and there was a cheshire-cat type mouth below them. It followed me everywhere I ran.
        I've had the same nightmare!

        This may not be interest-based advertising. PRWeb is probably bidding on all sorts of keywords that appear almost everywhere. They may have lots of money to spend on ads but if that's what they are doing, they need to learn a thing or two about using their resources more efficiently.

        As for Intrepreneur, that sounds more like interest-based advertising. I agree if you are on a technical site, you'd expect technical ads, not golf. But maybe there is not enough inventory so they dig into ads that match your interests.

        This is all very interesting. I'll have to test both as a user and an advertiser.
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1679178].message }}
        • Profile picture of the author dwatrous
          Originally Posted by Lucid View Post

          This may not be interest-based advertising. PRWeb is probably bidding on all sorts of keywords that appear almost everywhere. They may have lots of money to spend on ads but if that's what they are doing, they need to learn a thing or two about using their resources more efficiently.
          After clearing my cookies I never saw another PRWeb ad on any of those sites (I mentioned that near the end of my post). Even in the content network I doubt an advertiser could afford such a broad range of keywords, including "guinea pigs", "riding lawn mowers" and "mommy discount coupon blog".
          {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1679204].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author dwatrous
      Originally Posted by ArticlePlayground View Post

      That sounds so hillarious! Stalking you...lol
      haha. I guess that could sound like I think very highly of myself and fancy that
      Google gives a hoot about me . Not really the case, but still sort of creepy that they've automated a way to track what you do on certain entry websites to change what's shown to you on subsequent websites !
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1677832].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author securians
    Banned
    [DELETED]
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1677831].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author dwatrous
      Originally Posted by securians View Post

      adwords is not spending if you spend it properly. adwords is under your manipulation.
      Just so long as you know how Google deals with your details. The question I asked is whether or not PRWeb knew that Google was showing me their ad on a site for Riding Lawn Mower Reviews. Especially considering that I was already a paying customer.

      It might be a good thing, it might not. Sure you're in control, but subtle details like this make it much more complex than it used to be to test and tweak campaigns and stay on top of them.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1677840].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author fred67
    It's like trying to assess your own website rankings with Google.
    Shows your own websites ranking well - until you search on another computer :-(

    That's why you can't trust marketers screenshots of how 'wonderful' their SEO tactics work.

    (Are we all being lulled into a false sense of security, waiting to be 'trapped' by the 'BIG G' ? :-)
    Signature
    Free E-book Library/Business Promotion Resources
    http://fred67.com/library
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1678214].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Intrepreneur
      I've noticed this become more of an issue as of late so it must be pretty much heavily in use by the Google advertising system. Going from a golf site to a technical niche site still gave me golf ad's on the tech niche.

      I think general internet users browsing the web are going to feel cheated and start to give up on looking at Google ad's at all. Well that's the feeling it gave me, that I felt cheated by their advertising because I feel I should be served technical ad's on the tech site even if I'm not interested in them.

      Then again it helps with cross promotion but going from one site serving a golf ad to another serving the same golf ad, to the next with the same is kind of off putting and started to give me a very bad opinion of the advertising strategy in use.

      What you think?
      Signature
      SEO, copywriting and backlinks service UK
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1678738].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author dwatrous
        Originally Posted by Intrepreneur View Post

        I think general internet users browsing the web are going to feel cheated and start to give up on looking at Google ad's at all. Well that's the feeling it gave me, that I felt cheated by their advertising because I feel I should be served technical ad's on the tech site even if I'm not interested in them.
        It's hard to say how the "average" consumer will feel, but I bet we humans are better at pattern recognition than the average Google computer. That's why I was surprised that Google would show me the exact same ads across more than a dozen websites.

        From the consumer perspective, they may not know that Google is responsible for the ads. I'm not sure what they'll think, but I think it probably needs to be thought out a little better than how they're doing it now.
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1679190].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author JamesM
    An explanation on the official Adsense blog:
    Inside AdSense: Better contextual matching

    Looks like this is going to become more prevalent from now on, so some Adsense publishers might not be too happy at the losing some of the work they've put in targetting specific keywords.
    Signature

    If this post has been helpful please click the "thanks" button ;-)

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1758247].message }}

Trending Topics