When Google Ads FAIL
Monday, June 20th, 2011
Gouldn’t help notice this little gem. For those not in the know, Google Ads are ‘smart’ enough to read the pages content and then serve up a relevant ad that has the same sorts of categories. In this case, a tech blog full of gaming hardware… cool, hit me with an Xbox ad. Shat’s not to like. Only the post was about epic fails and the ad, in prime spot at the top, was the first thing you read. Oops.
And it’s a gaff that keeps on giving, what with the call to action having a typo an all. Unless one really has to “Sing up” to Xbox Live with is mildly plausible I guess.
Of course, it was a complete fluke and not something that you could really guard against so I’m only mentioning it for a giggle or two at Google’s algorithm’s expense, or more specifically, the ad buyer. Again, for those not in the know, adding relevant “Negative Keywords” is part of the media buy setup for AdWords. One would argue, and I love the irony, that ‘fail’ should be added to the next batch.
For what it’s worth, the original Mashable article is here. Wonder what poor sod will be there now?






