Beware of Google ad placement

April 23, 7:52 PMDetroit Small Business ExaminerJohn Hall

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Google rules. People don't search for anything anymore -- they Google it. Google to web browsing is what Kleenex is to tissue, Xerox is to photocopying, and Freon is to refrigerant. It has become part of American culture to refer to searching as Google-ing.

It is no wonder that businesses trip over themselves to sign up for Google ads. Why not? Google ads are everywhere and with the help of browser cookies, the ads reach just the right audiences at the right time.

Or do they?

Here is an example of a Google ad gone astray: A YouTube video features a young punk (for lack of a more descriptive adjective) who blasts modern air conditioning technology, unloading a few 'F' bombs along the way along with other expletives that seem to be the only way young punks can express themselves today. This kid ripped the air conditioning trade.

And wouldn't you know it? All of the ads that appeared along the bottom of the video were for heating and cooling contractors, thus giving the impression that these advertisers endorsed the Tomfoolery. That is not what you would call the best use of advertising dollars.

The lesson learned? Watch where your ads -- and your advertising money goes when you sign on with Google ads. You may be paying for negative advertising.  

NOTE:

I got this great response to a post on this topic I made at the Service Roundtable (www.serviceroundtable.com):

The situation described, Google Ads appearing next to undesirable content, does happen occasionally when the default automatic setting is used. However, there are several AdWords settings that will prevent this. Before listing the control settings, I will point out that this post and discussion is about Google Content (a.k.a. Contextual) ads,  not search mode. Within the HVAC service category, we generally only use the content mode when search volume is maxed out for the advertiser in their geographic territory. This is not very often. There are exceptions, but that is a good starting point.