No Room for the Truth
When Circuit City recently went out of business they had liquidation sales to unload their inventory. Sign spinners on the street held signs that read 70% off the entire store. And in the small writing on the sign, blurred by the spinning, there was a notation "limited exceptions apply". I go into the store and everything is 10% off retail and a couple ink cartridges for 70% off. Basically the same as any other technogadget retailer. But at the entrance of the store stationary signs have a clear disclaimer that not everything in the store is 70%* off.
Consumers know damn well that when a business advertises a "entire store is 10%-70% off sale", that the majority of stuff is 10% off, and that a few items will be 70% off. Legally, if nothing is 70% off, that would be False advertising. If everything is 10% off and only a couple items 70% off that would be deceptive advertising; the average is way below the 70% claim in the ad. If they did not have a disclaimer, or put the disclaimer at the back of the store where nobody would see it, that could be misleading advertising.
In direct marketing, TV, Radio or within a physical store marketers have the ability to clearly state their pitch and frame it right in their ad so that it is not misleading or deceptive. Online, marketers have a measly 95 characters to do the same.
Due to this Online Marketers have to be very precise about their wording, words do matter, and to be ethical and honest they must fully disclose anything about the 95 character text ad which they feel MIGHT lead a consumer to the wrong conclusion. Where should the disclaimer be? Clearly noted in standard size font on the landing page of course.
Turning a Blind Eye To Profit
It is only logical that Search Engines such as Google only want to display ads that get clicked on the most. The more relevant the ad is to the search, and the more enticing the ad's offer, the more frequently that ad will be clicked on and the more money Google makes and in theory the advertiser makes to. So Google, Yahoo and MSN all use a ranking formula to determine which ads and advertisers have the best performing ads (ads that get clicked on a lot).
The technical specification for Google's formula looks like this:
Ad Rank = $Cost Per Click bid × Quality Score
The Quality Score for Ad Rank on Google and the search network is determined by:
• The historical Click Through Rate (CTR) of the keyword and the matched ad on Google; if the ad is appearing on a search network page, its CTR on that search network partner is also considered
• Your account history, which is measured by the CTR of all the ads and keywords in your account
• The historical CTR of the display URLs in the ad group
• The relevance of the keyword to the ads in its ad group
• The relevance of the keyword and the matched ad to the search query
• Your account's performance in the geographical region where the ad will be shown
Bottom line: If you have a high CTR then the Cost Per Click that Google charges you goes DOWN and the RANK your ad gets goes UP. More sales at a lower cost. That is a huge reward for advertisers and a powerful incentive to create advertisements that get clicked on. Google claims that this model promotes healthy competition, more relevant ads to the visitors search better serves the visitor, thus is makes sense to reward the advertiser. This does make sense and is the primary reason Pay Per Click has grown so large.
But there is one failing; What if the Advertisers start lying?
• If an advertiser ranks below the first page for their most profitable keywords what will they do?
• If an ad agency is losing clients because of poor performance what measures will they take?
• If truly sinister people see that they can make huge profits simply by lying in a small text ad what do you think they will do?
Lie, Lie and Lie some more.
But wait, if they lie and get caught by Google then they will certainly have their account turned off, or face some type of repercussion correct?
Wrong. Google has virtually no policy or team in place to identify, remove or punish companies using false and deceptive advertisements. Generally they refer plaintiffs to submit a generic complaint form to "the support team"
How do I report poor service by an AdWords advertiser?
http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en-uk&answer=61214
Bottom line: There is little to no consequence from Google, Yahoo nor MSN to running grossly exaggerated ads. Search and view ads for any of the following:
Free Government Grants, Google Cash Kit, Teeth Whitening
What Honest Marketing Companies are Faced With:
A highly competive term is "Debt Consolidation" for which we have an ad.
Our ads are not showing because there are a limited number of ad positions. Even though we have a solid Keyword quality score, other ads perform better. Why? Because they are making false, deceptive and misleading claims. 
Let's take a look at what the FTC has to say about Debt Settlement and consolidation advertising:
FTC: "In March 2007, the FTC filed a complaint against Debt-Set, an affiliated company, and their principals who marketed debt reduction services online and in television and radio ads with claims such as “Reduce Debt Now” and “Stop Harassing Calls.” The FTC alleged that first,14 these defendants falsely promised to obtain lump-sum settlements, such as “fifty cents on the dollar” or “50 to 60 percent” of consumers’ total unsecured debt. This was false and deceptive advertising. "
So claiming 50-60% can be false advertising. Since then over 30 companies have been sued and or shut down by either the FTC or a State AG for this very reason.
• 70% Claims are absolutely deceptive or false.
• Free Non-profit Debt Counselors - Absolutely misleading or false.
• 12 month debt settlement? = Misleading at best.
Now take a look at the competition's ads which is keeping our ads from running
We review hundreds of ads and websites. Virtually none of them have a disclaimer, nor justify any of the claims made in their ads. For over two years we have submitted complaints to Google regarding the false and deceptive advertising we are up against. We have seen absolutely no change.
To make matters worse, take a look at the text ads on the right column. Two ads are from the same company. FreedomDebtRelief.com and FreedomFinancialNetwork.com are the same company. Again, we have reported this for nearly 2 years. NO Response from Google. This so easy to verify, you can even go to their main website where they list their multiple companies: http://www.freedomfinancialnetwork.com/
Google, Yahoo and MSN are making a great deal of money by turning a blind eye to false and misleading advertising run on their networks.
Companies who are putting forth false, deceptive and misleading advertising are being rewarded by the PPC quality score ranking model combined with the lack of oversight and ad enforcement by Search Engines.
Companies who are trying to tell the truth in their marketing are being punished for doing so and are forced to make the decision between honesty and in some cases survival.
Does the PPC fall down if false and deceptive ads are allowed to be run?
Is it the responsibility of an ad network to monitor and remove False and Deceptive ads?
Is it fair for Ad networks to point the finger at the FTC and say they are the ones to monitor and stop such advertising practices?
Should Google, Yahoo and MSN be held accountable for knowingly running False and Deceptive ads? Labels: Deceptive, False Advertising, PPC, The Faud Motive
