Tim Cohn noticed that YouTube search results are displaying AdWords ads. In fact, he noticed that his client, who specifically opted out of the Google content network, had his ads showing for YouTube search results. No, these are not the new YouTube Sponsored Videos feature, they are ads that are part of the Google Search Network, within the Google property.
Honestly, I think I have seen ads on YouTube search results for a while. But there is a more important question that needs to be asked. With Google continuously pushing their ads on more and more of their Google properties, is it time for Google to reform their AdWords targeting options?
What I mean, is should Google give advertisers the option of showing or not showing their AdWords ads on Google Web Search vs. Google News vs. Google Blog Search vs. YouTube and so on? Should Google gives advertisers a way to check off which properties they want their ads to show on. A simple pick list of properties would give advertisers more control in a day and age where Google wants to show more ads in, I dare say it, less relevant spaces.
Let’s be real, someone searching for mobile phones on YouTube might be in a different mindset then someone searching for mobile phones on Google. Some advertisers may want their ads shown to YouTube searchers, while others might not want to.
Google does give many targeting options already, but should they expand those options out by Google property?
Related Topics: Google: AdSense | Google: AdWords | Top News
Premium member since 01/2009
No doubt! We found an ad of ours on Bizrate… My google rep told me it was “initiated by a search” but the relevancy was certainly in question. I’d just like to get a list of what sites are in the Network as a good start. That alone makes me question this tactic.
Yes, they should let us opt out with more clarity.
But – and I really hate to take Google’s side – separately listing these Google-owned properties will confuse the vast majority of users. So there’s probably a lot of development work to (partially) serve the top .5% of users. And the down side for them, of course, is that we’d all opt out of channel X, or they’d expose to the world the fact that channel Y really isn’t getting any volume.
Brook Shepard
MasonInteractive.com