Ask.com doing PPC arbitrage

[meannn]

Let me show one of many many examples. Search Google and you will see this ad from Ask.com:

Now click through and you are taken to this page:






Most of it is search ads, then some organic ads (both powered by Google I believe) and then some licenses content about the condition within the mix.


Google's policy on this states:

Google AdWords doesn't allow the promotion of websites that are designed for the sole or primary purpose of showing ads. One example of this kind of prohibited behavior is called arbitrage, where advertisers drive traffic to their websites at low cost and pay for that traffic by earning money from the ads placed on those websites. We've created this policy to help ensure that users see useful, unique, and original content without excessive advertising.​

Ask.com's CEO told this:

We get traffic to Ask.com from many sources -- online and off -- and Google is just one part of our strategy. We are consistently collecting feedback from users who come to Ask via search advertising on Google, and the data shows that our experience is good compared to other advertisers on the page. For example, our advertisements on Google generate 200% higher retention, 33% higher time on site, and excellent customer satisfaction scores as compared against our competitors. You don't get those results by just sending people to pages with ads - we get them by making good on the promise of delivering answers. We don't do everything perfectly however, and I'm definitely all ears in terms of how we can continue to do things better.​

Google told that Ask.com is not getting special treatment here.

The topic also discussed at search egine land
http://searchengineland.com/is-ask-com-continuing-to-play-the-google-arbitrage-game-137278

Thoughts ?

 

[oozyluce]

Well, Ask's purpose is not SOLELY to show ads. If you look at it, it does explain what hyperlipidemia is directly on the page, as well as offer relevant links on the subject. I don't see why having sponsored links on top of the page makes it arbitrage?

 

[meannn]

Well, Ask's purpose is not SOLELY to show ads. If you look at it, it does explain what hyperlipidemia is directly on the page, as well as offer relevant links on the subject. I don't see why having sponsored links on top of the page makes it arbitrage?

You missed the point. That was just an example keyword. They use lots of keywords, including hotels, etc. That's not allowed on adsense policies.

Users search google and click ad, Google earns money, they go thru the ask site after click, and click on the ads in there too, and Google earns money again. They do whatever makes money most. This clearly shows that Google is unfair.

 

[dinkish]

This double standard isn't surprising

Ask isn't trying to compete against Google persay, so if Google can make revenue off it, I don't see why they wouldn't make that kind of statement.

 

[riekal]

yeah, Ask.com has been doing this for ages, and G has said or done nothing about it. The rules, apparently, only apply to the 'small fish'

 

[scottlies]

Yes ASK is doing this for many years. Also, other big sites do this kind of thing. This is the reason why filtering/blocking them from your Adsense Ads dashboard (if you got adsense) is a good thing to do to increase earnings. Ask doesn't just advertise at Google SERP, they also advertise or bid for placement at websites and blogs.

 

[the_demon]

Dude, this is YEARS old news... It's already widely documented.

 

[Ricky Roma]

Yeah, for the right amount of money you can even run steroid ads: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/05/google-pharma-whitaker-sting/all/
brb getting rich so i could run email submits for keyword iphone

 

[meannn]

Dude, this is YEARS old news... It's already widely documented.

I didn't mention it as news.
I just posted this to see people's thoughts, not for "this is old news" comments.

 

[oozyluce]

I missed the point?

I clearly did. How is this unethical? Is any Adwords user promoting one of his website that has adsense on it considered to be doing "arbitrage" ?
And if so, isn't everybody doing it anyway?

 

[nerow]

SE always favor high ad payer, in other side, higher ad payer provide competitive offers against those low payers.

 

[InvoiceLABs]

Ask has been doing for SO MANY YEARS now... but Google doesn't do anything about it. I guess Ask must be one of their top 10 Adwords buyers.

 

[Stufferizer]

Very nice information here.

Gives us a very explicit example of BH by the big guys and how G is "acting" towards it.

It is really funny: Users produce the content of "What is ***" and aks.com just uses this information to make a classic arbitrage.

This is, imho, the main "idea" of the last 10 or so years: get people working for you without knowing it. Facebook is a classic example just as ask.com.

Love threads like these even some say that it is old, long known etc.

 

[mainceaft]

That's Money Of stupid Advertisers.. Personally When I start Adwords campaign I select Showing Ads Only On Google Search result not with their greedy Search partners .
Even I have black list for contents network because google put your ads in highly traffic site no matter if they relevant to your ads or not .

 

[ZZZnick]

yeah this is classic arbitrage but ask.com is huge player so i dont think something will happen to them

 

[poorboi]

Maybe they provide good leads to the advertisers so nobody is irked up. Its all about how many customers or the ROI in the end isnt it?

 

[GriffonVult]

Even on smaller search engines, like 7search, they do the same. And like everyone has said, this is old news.

 

[meannn]

Dude, this is YEARS old news... It's already widely documented.

I didnt post it in News section, and I didnt even mentioned it "new".
Stop going off topic, if you don't have a value, please don't post.

 

[prlinkssale]

asks ads are not remotely the most annoying ads but I have to say that every time I'm looking for something specific and ask pops out its really annoying to not find what you are looking for. Google COULD fix the problem considering they have banned a lot of smaller fish for the same thing but asks is literally dropping millions in google adwords.

 

[kingoptimizer]

When searching on a search engine - why would you want to get redirected to another seach engine advertising on that search engine maaaaan!

I saw those ads and actually clicked them at one point, but never really clicked anything after than on ask.com.

Google is probably using ask.com as a testing platform "as somewhat explained in the article" to check how users react/landing page testing/engagment/heat maps/,etc.. and GOOGLE IS STILL GETTING PAID BY THE CLICK