Many of you have at least heard about how Google has tightened the reigns on internet advertising. Well for some they’ve come down hard, “big time” since the end of August 09 with little warning or explanation. The background is pretty interesting regarding what motivated this change and how it came about. If you’ve been affected then understanding why and how to react accordingly definitely will help your business marketing effectiveness.Google was backed into a corner and the changes were made as a direct result of pressure put on by the FTC. Pressure specifically brought to bear by David C. Vladeck who was appointed by Barack Obama to head up the Bureau of Consumer Protection within the FTC.One thing to remember is that the FTC approved Google’s acquisition of Double-Click last year which many argued was a clear tossing aside of anti-trust laws in vertical market mergers. It has appeared that they are far more aware of ramifications born from that controversial decision seemingly recognizing that it essentially created a big advertising gorilla that didn’t effectively police itself. So, much like when baseball enjoyed so many HGH induced home runs while MLB turned a blind eye; the government felt they needed to flex their lawmaking muscle a bit. With that being the case and with a new sheriff Vladeck in town, the stage was set for some major changes to be made.The concern stems from the far-reaching freedom of any company or individual to make any claims based on their product or service they wanted to as long as they had a disclaimer at the bottom of their site. Such disclaimers would routinely begin with such verbiage as “The claims made on this site do not guarantee that you will experience the same results. Individual results will vary greatly and in accordance to….”. The truth is that this does not protect the potential customer and actually allows the advertiser to essentially have a green light to use unverifiable claims – especially when used in business or business opportunity advertising.In his first 90 days Vladeck had gone on record as saying that the industry’s attempts to police itself were not good enough and met with industry execs to talk about the issue. In fact in his first six weeks on the job, he asked Congress for a bigger budget and for a streamlined way to create regulations. He also stated that he would hire technologists to help analyze online marketers’ tracking.The end result was the FTC brandishing their big “whooping stick” to put pressure on Google to reign in their biggest moneymaker. Given the fact that approximately 95% of Google’s revenue comes from advertising, it says a lot about the leverage they feel they have (ie we made you a Goliath by approving the merger and we can take you out).So what does that mean to all of us in the advertising community? Well, if you are advertising a business opportunity that uses large or (what appears to be) unsubstantiated compensation claims, a website template hosted by such a business opportunity without original content you are getting flagged, slapped or suspended all together (aka The Google Slap). The problem is that there are legitimate companies that are being drastically affected because they are being misidentified as being the same business opportunity animal. I know of several affiliate marketers that were spending over $100,000 a month on Google AdWords advertising whose accounts are presently suspended altogether. Ouch!From what I hear, if it happens to you you’ll find the quality score of your keywords will immediately drop from good or excellent (7+/10) to poor (1/10) due solely to being determined to have low website/landing page quality. Your ads will then rarely be shown if at all.Personally, I think Google is taking a hard swing to show they are taking the FTC bullying seriously and then as dad has his back turned, focusing on other troubled children in the business playground, they will then slowly ease off. But make no mistake, I believe these restrictions are here to stay they just wont be as militant about it. The famed Google Algorithms will balance out and find a happy medium but still keep out those that might give internet marketing a bad reputation.The bottom line is that even though I abhor government intrusion, the original motivation was to keep much of those in our industry who muddy the waters and which my friends, is actually a good thing. The problem is that it has been poorly executed creating collateral damage.Those that have been “‘flagged or slapped” need to retool their marketing strategy. If you’ve been drastically affected then you don’t need anyone to tell you that you’ve put too many eggs in the Google AdWords basket. You have to diversify your marketing methods! They must also closely examine their site content, where the site forwards too, who hosts it (ie web templates provided by their business opportunity). This will force many to rethink their business relationships and chosen business opportunities, especially if it is MLM or Network Marketing in nature.Change ALWAYS presents opportunity. If you can retool, regroup and adapt you will be positioned properly to capitalize on that opportunity because unfortunately most become discouraged, lose heart and do not. For ideas on diversifying your advertising strategies, review my article “Hit Your Target When Advertising Your Business Online”. There you’ll find 11 options available for you to take advantage of that will allow you to better diversify your marketing strategy.
Tag Archives: services
What Are The Greatest Changes In Shopping In Your Lifetime
What are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime? So asked my 9 year old grandson.
As I thought of the question the local Green Grocer came to mind. Because that is what the greatest change in shopping in my lifetime is.
That was the first place to start with the question of what are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime.
Our local green grocer was the most important change in shopping in my lifetime. Beside him was our butcher, a hairdresser and a chemist.
Looking back, we were well catered for as we had quite a few in our suburb. And yes, the greatest changes in shopping in my lifetime were with the small family owned businesses.
Entertainment While Shopping Has Changed
Buying butter was an entertainment in itself.
My sister and I often had to go to a favourite family grocer close by. We were always polite as we asked for a pound or two of butter and other small items.
Out came a big block of wet butter wrapped in grease-proof paper. Brought from the back of the shop, placed on a huge counter top and included two grooved pates.
That was a big change in our shopping in my lifetime… you don’t come across butter bashing nowadays.
Our old friendly Mr. Mahon with the moustache, would cut a square of butter. Lift it to another piece of greaseproof paper with his pates. On it went to the weighing scales, a bit sliced off or added here and there.
Our old grocer would then bash it with gusto, turning it over and over. Upside down and sideways it went, so that it had grooves from the pates, splashes going everywhere, including our faces.
My sister and I thought this was great fun and it always cracked us up. We loved it, as we loved Mahon’s, on the corner, our very favourite grocery shop.
Grocery Shopping
Further afield, we often had to go to another of my mother’s favourite, not so local, green grocer’s. Mr. McKessie, ( spelt phonetically) would take our list, gather the groceries and put them all in a big cardboard box.
And because we were good customers he always delivered them to our house free of charge. But he wasn’t nearly as much fun as old Mr. Mahon. Even so, he was a nice man.
All Things Fresh
So there were very many common services such as home deliveries like:
• Farm eggs
• Fresh vegetables
• Cow’s milk
• Freshly baked bread
• Coal for our open fires
Delivery Services
A man used to come to our house a couple of times a week with farm fresh eggs.
Another used to come every day with fresh vegetables, although my father loved growing his own.
Our milk, topped with beautiful cream, was delivered to our doorstep every single morning.
Unbelievably, come think of it now, our bread came to us in a huge van driven by our “bread-man” named Jerry who became a family friend.
My parents always invited Jerry and his wife to their parties, and there were many during the summer months. Kids and adults all thoroughly enjoyed these times. Alcohol was never included, my parents were teetotallers. Lemonade was a treat, with home made sandwiches and cakes.
The coal-man was another who delivered bags of coal for our open fires. I can still see his sooty face under his tweed cap but I can’t remember his name. We knew them all by name but most of them escape me now.
Mr. Higgins, a service man from the Hoover Company always came to our house to replace our old vacuum cleaner with an updated model.
Our insurance company even sent a man to collect the weekly premium.
People then only paid for their shopping with cash. This in itself has been a huge change in shopping in my lifetime.
In some department stores there was a system whereby the money from the cash registers was transported in a small cylinder on a moving wire track to the central office.
Some Of The Bigger Changes
Some of the bigger changes in shopping were the opening of supermarkets.
• Supermarkets replaced many individual smaller grocery shops. Cash and bank cheques have given way to credit and key cards.
• Internet shopping… the latest trend, but in many minds, doing more harm, to book shops.
• Not many written shopping lists, because mobile phones have taken over.
On a more optimistic note, I hear that book shops are popular again after a decline.
Personal Service Has Most Definitely Changed
So, no one really has to leave home, to purchase almost anything, technology makes it so easy to do online.
And we have a much bigger range of products now, to choose from, and credit cards have given us the greatest ease of payment.
We have longer shopping hours, and weekend shopping. But we have lost the personal service that we oldies had taken for granted and also appreciated.
Because of their frenetic lifestyles, I have heard people say they find shopping very stressful, that is grocery shopping. I’m sure it is when you have to dash home and cook dinner after a days work. I often think there has to be a better, less stressful way.
My mother had the best of both worlds, in the services she had at her disposal. With a full time job looking after 9 people, 7 children plus her and my dad, she was very lucky. Lucky too that she did not have 2 jobs.