This report is anecdotal, but it’s based on observation of many of the Google Adsense ads I see running these days. A number of the offers that appear on wide ranging sites seem to be shady. Google is an online marketing company that might be bigger than others, but clearly they’re having the same issues others are during the long, global recession.
Advertisers have been cutting ad budgets around the world.
Advertisers are cutting their ad budgets, especially the companies who are losing money. This means less big money ad campaigns are running than were in the past. Certainly online ads offer some real advantages over their offline counterparts. They’re easy to track, and highly targetable. Even given these advantages, it’s reasonable to assume that low sales are forcing companies to cut back on spending, offline and on.
The presence of shady offers indicates that Advertiser quality is at a low point. Many current Google Ads don’t lead directly to an advertiser landing page, but instead to a third party. Make sure to read the terms carefully, because a large number of these ads will end up with you incurring recurring credit card charges. Not exactly the type of product most people want to be in a recession.
Of course Google isn’t alone in selling these types of ads. They’re running through multiple networks. A new rash of “$12,000 Obama Stimulus Check” ads can be seen across all of the web’s most prestigious websites.
Adsense targeting ain’t what it used to be
Either Adsense targeting has gone downhill, or the dearth of good ads is just becoming painfully obvious. Either way, you can expect to see some pretty off-kilter ads these days. In the past, Google seemed to value relevancy above all else. Now they appear happy to get whatever cash they can for ads.
The really scammy ads are perplexing, though, from a business standpoint. If people are continuously present ads that lead to scam landing pages, eventually they’ll come to associate all “Ads by Google” with being of low value. When this happens in earnest, banner blindness becomes the norm. Google would seemingly be better served running tight controls over the types of offers in their system, but editorial control doesn’t appear to be a strong suit.
Google has been one of the best performing companies in business since they went public, but like anyone else, they’ll need to continue to upgrade their business model and current practices in order to expand their ad program and make more money.
Hopefully the quality of advertisers will improve in the next few months. That way website owners and visitors will enjoy a better experience than the one they’re currently getting.
