Competitors Using Multiple Domains Options

[ttw]

My client's main competitor is running Google AdWords under 3 unique domain names (www.mycompany.com - which is the main company site, www.mycompanystore.com and www.mycompanysoftware.com).

The result is that we have seen the competitor's ads appear for the same keyword phrase for all 3 domains. So it appears to be working for this competitor and my client is considering setting up a separate domain so we can do the same thing.

The "look and feel" of all 3 sites is very similar including the logo - plus it's the same product. It's hard to tied the information in a Whois lookup back to the main company so I can't see that Google would get involved if we complained.

Obviously a click on one of their ads has a negative CTR impact on the other 2 ads but it must equal more leads or they wouldn't be doing it.

Has anyone done this before and how did that affect leads?

Thanks.

Rosemary

[Jill]

I'm pretty sure that's against the Google adwords terms of service. You may want to check and if so, keep that in mind if you decide to do it anyway.

[nethy]

Yes it is against their rules.

But like everything else Google, the rules are loosely worded. They talk more about multiple ads from the same account (as opposed to company).

It is fairly common practice though, especially in areas where ROI is less of an issue then volume.

[MakeMeTop]

I've known several companies do this. Often it is done to gear the advertisement to different demographics - so the phrasing of the advert will be slightly different - as will the landing page/site name. As such, it can be quite successful. However, more often, the adverts are not displayed simultaneously but (using day parting) are shown at specific times of the day/week/month to attract the demographic profile of searchers at that time.

Is it against T&Cs? Yes.

However, I've not seen the adverts taken down in my experience - unless the adverts/site names are identical.

[ttwblb]

I just read Google AdWords T&Cs at https://adwords.google.com/select/tsandcsfinder and I cannot find anything that prohibits the tactic being discussed here.

Could someone please quote the relevant text from the T&Cs? Maybe I'm missing it in all the legal mumbo jumbo.

Barry

I've known several companies do this. Often it is done to gear the advertisement to different demographics - so the phrasing of the advert will be slightly different - as will the landing page/site name. As such, it can be quite successful. However, more often, the adverts are not displayed simultaneously but (using day parting) are shown at specific times of the day/week/month to attract the demographic profile of searchers at that time.

Is it against T&Cs? Yes.

However, I've not seen the adverts taken down in my experience - unless the adverts/site names are identical.

[MaKa]

To protect the value and diversity of the ads running on Google, we don't generally permit advertisers to manage multiple accounts featuring the same business or keywords.

The following criteria are generally not considered for exceptions:

* Different target audiences such as B2B, B2C, and gender
* Different pricing for similar products. The exact same product cannot be advertised simultaneously on two sites based solely on price difference
* Different branding of websites. Websites advertising similar products with different branding will be reviewed against user experience criteria above
* Business structure - e.g., different divisions within the same company or group
* Accounts being handled by various 3rd parties such as agencies and SEOs (search engine optimizers)

See http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/stat...licy_lang=en_US

[BlueSky]

You can quote AdWords "policy" all you like, but I have had actual experiences where Google clearly ignored their own policy with respect to "double serving", as they call it.

[Dave Collins]

You can quote AdWords "policy" all you like, but I have had actual experiences where Google clearly ignored their own policy with respect to "double serving", as they call it.

Yes, I've seen this too. And you can't really blame them either.

The bottom line is that there isn't much you can do when a competitor does this. Google won't discuss other people's accounts with you.

[MaKa]

Google can do with their AdWords as they want, they own it. Has anyone ever had success with reporting double served ads and had their competitors actually removed?

[BlueSky]

Google can do with their AdWords as they want, they own it. Has anyone ever had success with reporting double served ads and had their competitors actually removed?

I have had success in getting some double serve's removed, and some not. I've quoted their policy to them and they came up with some other vague reason why the ads continued to be approved...