Sensis Search Advertising Scandal
I missed the show, but was told about an interesting scandal reported on The 7.30 Report TV show last week about Telstra subsidiary Sensis and their alleged misleading and deceptive conduct on Google.
Apparently, some bright spark at Sensis had set up a Google AdWords campaign for one of their websites (in this case, the online classifieds site The Trading Post) that resulted in Sensis ads appearing for searches on their competitor's brand names. Some of these competitors, notably Kloster Ford, Stickybeek and Jesmond Light Commercials, were convinced that Sensis were deliberately targeting their brand names in a deceptive way in order to steal business that was rightfully theirs.
Ok, a few comments here:
a) first of all, it's clear from the transcribed interview that neither the complainents or the TV reporter understood the difference between paid ads and organic search engine results.
b) it's also clear that no-one understood the way Google matches search queries with relevant AdWords ads based on keyword matching. It's quite possible that the Sensis AdWords campaign was using Broad Match (definition) as their default keyword matching option. If this was the case, their ads could have been triggered by non-specific keywords that were similar to the brand names in question, for example "stickybeak" or "light commercial vehicles".
The ads in question have been pulled now, or at least the search examples discussed in the show have been. Meanwhile, Sensis and their owners Telstra have been referred to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Let's hope for their sake that somebody at the ACCC understands how search engine marketing works.
Apparently, some bright spark at Sensis had set up a Google AdWords campaign for one of their websites (in this case, the online classifieds site The Trading Post) that resulted in Sensis ads appearing for searches on their competitor's brand names. Some of these competitors, notably Kloster Ford, Stickybeek and Jesmond Light Commercials, were convinced that Sensis were deliberately targeting their brand names in a deceptive way in order to steal business that was rightfully theirs.
Ok, a few comments here:
a) first of all, it's clear from the transcribed interview that neither the complainents or the TV reporter understood the difference between paid ads and organic search engine results.
b) it's also clear that no-one understood the way Google matches search queries with relevant AdWords ads based on keyword matching. It's quite possible that the Sensis AdWords campaign was using Broad Match (definition) as their default keyword matching option. If this was the case, their ads could have been triggered by non-specific keywords that were similar to the brand names in question, for example "stickybeak" or "light commercial vehicles".
The ads in question have been pulled now, or at least the search examples discussed in the show have been. Meanwhile, Sensis and their owners Telstra have been referred to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Let's hope for their sake that somebody at the ACCC understands how search engine marketing works.
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