So are there alternatives to Google adwords?

If you've read my previous post, you'll know about my friend Peter who was 'suspended' (ie banned) from using Google adwords.  After the shock had died down, he decided he needed to find out if there were any alternative ways of promoting his current website and the information products he intended to write.  Could Google really end his career on the internet at one fell swoop, or were adwords just one way among many of driving traffic to his site?

After a short search he discovered the website of Ryan Healy.  Ryan is a freelance direct response copywriter, who has worked for some of the top names in internet marketing, and is co-author of the book    Million-Dollar Marketing Secrets.  In September 2010, he was suspended by Google adwords.  In a post on his blog, he says "I still don’t know exactly why I was suspended.  I know it had to do with something on this domain. From what I was able to figure out, my site was classified as a “make money” site, probably because I’m a freelance copywriter who helps clients make money.
In Google’s eyes, it’s apparently an “unforgivable sin” to talk about making money or help others to make money."

Like Peter, Ryan found Google less than helpful.  He writes "I would gladly fix my site if Google were willing to tell me what I did wrong. Isn’t that how a business relationship works?  Communication has to flow both ways. The merchant and customer need to work together for a fruitful relationship. But Google doesn’t seem to want good business relationships.  It doesn’t matter whether you’re spending $500 a month or $30,000 a month — they’ll cut you off without notice if you so much as blink the wrong way.  I spent exactly $9,825.74 on AdWords before my account was suspended. A client of mine was spending $30,000 a month up until two weeks ago when he, too, was suspended without warning.  Who the hell snubs a customer who’s spending $30K a month and then won’t even give the customer the courtesy of an explanation?"

Peter read through the post, in one way reassured that he was not alone but increasingly depressed and angry about Google's high handed attitude.  However, his spirits lifted when he got to the final subheading and read "Google Is Not the Only Game in Town!"

Ryan lists a number of alternatives: 

• Bing Ads: At the moment, Bing is probably as close as you’ll get to a paid search experience with capabilities that are similar to AdWords.

• Facebook Ads: Advertising on Facebook is fun because you get to combine images with ad copy. Advertising on Facebook lets you target groups of people by interests and demographics.

• Amazon Pay-Per-Click: If you sell physical products, then you may want to advertise on Amazon. Right now, you can start advertising for as little as $0.10 a click.

• LinkedIn Ads: If you are in the B2B market, then consider advertising on LinkedIn. You may actually spend less to acquire sales and leads on LinkedIn given your ability to target exactly who you want to reach.

• Business.com PPC Ads: Another avenue for PPC advertising in the B2B market is Business.com.

• Infolinks In-Text Advertising: This company lets you place text links on a network of publishers’ web sites. When a reader rolls over your link, an ad pops up. This medium is similar to Google’s Content Network — but you get more than just text to get readers to click.

He concludes by saying "I’ve only scratched the surface here. The more I investigate, the more I begin to see how many alternatives to AdWords are available.  Whether your AdWords account has been suspended or not… I strongly suggest you explore other advertising options and begin to divert a portion of your ad spend away from Google.  Because the way things are going at Google, it’s only a matter of time before your AdWords account is “permanently suspended.”

A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma - part 2

So what is it about Google policies that makes them so hard to follow . . . or to understand?  At first glance they seem straightforward and eminently sensible.  If you go to the relevant web page you will see that advertising should provide a positive experience to users, should be accurate and truthful, should comply with laws and regulations, should be safe for all users, shouldn't violate users' trust or privacy and should be compatible with Google's brand decisions.  Surely there's nothing there that an 'honest tradesman' could argue with.

If you dig down a little deeper, you'll find it gets a bit more detailed.  The 'positive experience' means that the link text must accurately describe what users will see if they click the link - in other words, users need to know that if they click a link saying "cheap hotels" (for example) they're not going to be taken to a porn site . . . or even to a site with only expensive hotels.  And under the 'safety' heading we find that if a website collects sensitive personal information, it must be hosted on a secure server that uses SSL (https).  We're also told that billing terms and conditions must be clear and conspicuous to users and that the domain of the display URL must match the domain of the ultimate landing page URL.

So far, so good.  As consumers we can all feel safe clicking on Google adword links.  What's more, the safety of our computers is protected by a ban on infected websites, on websites that distribute harmful or disruptive software and on websites that are misleading or deceptive about the nature of distributed downloads.

In addition, we find that websites that collect personal information (such as email addresses) must have a clearly visible link to the site's privacy policy.  I wonder, though, whether anyone ever reads a privacy policy and whether anyone would actually notice if the policy said "we give no guarantee that we won't share your information".  It seems to happen so much these days - spam appearing on an email address that we gave to a completely different person or organisation - and we're all used to just clicking 'delete' on messages in our inboxes, but we continue to give our email addresses on sites where we're offered something interesting or useful in return.

Somewhat worrying, however, is Google's statement that it doesn't allow the promotion of sites that collect personally identifiable information with the promise of a free item or prize.   This covers every squeeze/optin page on the internet - "give us your email address and we'll send you two free ebooks". I've not heard of anyone being banned . . . sorry, suspended . . . by Google for directing users to an optin page . . . yet.  But if you're thinking of running an adwords campaign and you have an optin page, perhaps you should contact the adwords help desk for advice before embarking on it.

So the question arises again . . . how have so many people been suspended from Google adwords when the policies seem to be so sensible and protective of the consumer?  The answer, I believe, lies in Google's interpretations of its own policies, particularly those covered by the heading "User deception".

To be continued . . .