Home > Investigations > Google Adwords Fraudulent Advertising Practices, possible
Google's Adwords - Advertising Practices
April 24 2006
Advertisers pay billions of dollars per year to place their ads on Google's mega network, Adwords, and this online advertising makes up 99% of Google's $6 billion dollar annual revenue.
Lately, advertisers are paying more money on Adwords but noticing less return on their advertising dollars. Advertisers complain about click fraud, Google artificially inflating bid prices, and other allegedly fraudulent advertising practices to cheat small and large businesses.
Click Fraud is the fraudulent practice of intentionally increasing advertiser fees by manually or electronically clicking on advertiser's links. One recent lawsuit against Google was settled for $90 million as advertisers complained that Google's system was susceptible to Click Fraud costing advertisers millions of dollars.
Google has also been accused of artificially inflating bid prices by participating in the bid process and by not displaying sponsored ads thus causing advertisers to bid higher and pay more.
Other advertisers have complained that Google approves keyword phrases and ads but does not display these ads for all searches. Advertisers feel they are being cheated from traffic and visibility on Google's large network.
Google Adwords Articles
Google Adwords: WordScam
Marc McKinney and his sunglass company bought into Google's adwords when it was fairly new, back in July of 2005. "We only had a small budgetâ€"we stuck our big toe in," says McKinney. "We had success for about three weeks, then something unusual happened..."
Google Overcharging Adwords
"Google's Adwords are overcharging and it infuriates me that they are so greedy," says Google customer Gary Kerr. "Their pricing policies are quite Byzantine regarding how they charge for clicks in the bidding process."
Google AdWords: Caught in the 'Mousetrap'
In the complex world of Google AdWords and AdWords advertising, a growing trend involving click fraud shows no signs of abating, in spite of claims by Google that not only does it have a handle on the problem, the internet juggernaut suggests the issue is not as big as some claim.
Google Adwords Lawsuits in the News
OCT-22-07: According to recent research findings, online companies such as Google are not doing their part in putting a stop to click fraud. A report found that click fraud is actually on the rise on the major search engine networks. [COMPUTER WORLD: ADSENSE FRAUD]
APR-20-06: $90 million lawsuit settlement against Google on behalf of advertisers who complained about being overcharged for online ads. The settlement will be paid in advertising credits to online retailers and other advertisers. [MSNBC]
Register your Google Adwords Complaint
If you or your company has suffered monetary losses from advertising on Google's Adwords network, you may qualify for damages or remedies that may be awarded in a possible class action lawsuit. Please fill in our form on the right to submit your complaint to a lawyer for a free evaluation.
Google AdWords Class Action Settled for $20 Million
Reader Comments
Posted by Brik Warren
on
Every negative thing you read about Google is more than likely true,more than likely. millions of people usually don't complain about the same thing over and over.none of these " allegations " are new Google is in court back and forth,in fact they have a permanent resident there with pending cases.
My charge and Truth is this :
Google bands hundreds of thousands of Google ads pay per click accounts for no reason at sheer will with total immunity.despite this Google still makes 13 billion a month (and rising ) from adwords alone.these accounts are the bread and butter of these businesses. No ppc account ! No business. The economy isn't bad enough,they have to add to it and destroy countless more lives putting thousands out of business.I wrote to various civil rights agencies, all the big ones and small to no avail.So I write to you, Et tu ??
Posted by Richard G
on
We have determined that the Google CPC, cost per click, is very difficult or impossible to audit, verify, and substantiate. Google information indicates that a variable formula was used that includes items such as: auction-time ad quality, expected clickthrough rate, ad relevance, landing page experience, max. CPC bid, Ad Rank thresholds, search context, and the expected impact of extensions and other ad formats etc. It appears that there may be intent, on the part of Google, to complicate the CPC computation thus making validation and verification by customers unlikely and also serving as their defense against CPC fraud claims.
Posted by New York
on
We feel there was an error in the daily limit we had set. We believe we set the limit at 5.00 and it was set at 50.00. By the time we noticed the error, we had amassed 2800 in charges. Google offered us a 450 credit when we complained. We saw no increase in subscribers to our newsletter or other customer contacts during this period.
Posted by Florida
on
80% of our bill comes from the Content Network. Google put us on this without our knowledge or consent. We complained, they told us how to un-subscribe. Every time we try to cancel it, we are mysteriously re-subscribed. We told them this is fraudulent. We requested a refund and a supervisor discussion. They have ignored us.
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