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Not applicable to affiliates though, only operators (yet, anyway). You have to submit your licence to Google when you apply.
This is going to really screw over those of us who target a UK market. Many of us have spent years optimising sites and pages for google UK and now they are allowing only lisenced companies to appear along side regular listings and are continuing the ban on affiliates bidding on adwords.
Hopefully in the future they will allow affiliates on adwords, I can only hope
Not neccessarily – when you look at how many impressions are required to get 1 click on PPC, it’s a very low percentage usually, meaning 9[x]% of people don’t click the PPC ads anyway. It’s still a good way of getting traffic IMO, but I think it’s become a little like banner ads in the fact that you see sponsored links so often you tend to ignore all those that don’t exactly match what you want.
I also think that a lot of people wouldn’t (for example) search for “best online casinos” and then go to a sponsored result from a casino. They’d probably be looking for sites that reviewed/compare them and give an opinion before deciding. The same probably applies to a lot of people searching for “online casinos” and stuff too. What they really mean is “whats the best one…”.
That maybe true but I still think it’s going to have a big impact on the click thru rate of natural listings. There as some users that still can’t tell the difference between natural and sponsored links.
But I do hope your right
@deanimus 181255 wrote:
That maybe true but I still think it’s going to have a big impact on the click thru rate of natural listings. There as some users that still can’t tell the difference between natural and sponsored links.
But I do hope your right
Well it’s true that I am an optimist, but only because the world could end tomorrow and I want to enjoy my last day.
@deanimus 181246 wrote:
Hopefully in the future they will allow affiliates on adwords, I can only hope
Why? Do you have a huge advertising budget? I think it was a God-send to small time affiliates when Google banned PPC.
If PPC was allowed, sites like mine wouldn’t get a look in. It would be dominated by the established sites. At least at present we can get rewarded for SEO efforts which in my case is the only option available.
As far as the UK is concerned, allowing the casinos themselves to advertise on Google is only the same as seeing the ads on TV. As Simmo said, there’s enough brand awareness out there.
As it stands, it won’t have much effect on us. If someone’s searching for a long-tail phrase (ie the only ones small sites can rank well for) they’re not going to be too interested in a generic ad for 888 or whatever.
So no worries. Yet…
I would imagine that the next step would be to allow affiliates and portals to do the same but only those that are promoting the approved gaming companies.
Not a huge budget, but have done well in the past by targeting the right keyphrases, obviously I have no chance competing against the companies bidding on ‘online casino’ etc.
I don’t think it’s the same as allowing companies to advertise on TV, as personally I haven’t seen any casinos advertise on TV (apart from party casino sponsoring a poker show) the majority of gambling ads have been bingo.
And any extra ads that the user can click on when searching for a gambling related term is obviously going to result in less users clicking on your natural result.
Either way I see no positive outcome from an affiliate point of view in allowing casinos themselves to advertise on adwords.@Fortune Palace 181364 wrote:
Why? Do you have a huge advertising budget? I think it was a God-send to small time affiliates when Google banned PPC.
If PPC was allowed, sites like mine wouldn’t get a look in. It would be dominated by the established sites. At least at present we can get rewarded for SEO efforts which in my case is the only option available.
As far as the UK is concerned, allowing the casinos themselves to advertise on Google is only the same as seeing the ads on TV. As Simmo said, there’s enough brand awareness out there.
As it stands, it won’t have much effect on us. If someone’s searching for a long-tail phrase (ie the only ones small sites can rank well for) they’re not going to be too interested in a generic ad for 888 or whatever.
So no worries. Yet…
For what it’s worth I’ve spoken to someone at Google and they have asked for my portal URL so they can have a look, although no committal and nothing forthcoming as yet. It’s clear that even if aff portals do get the green light eventually, they will need to ensure that they are only representing white-listed operations. Additionally PPC campaigns for gambling can only target the UK, no other country at all and they have to be in a new stand-alone PPC account seperate to anything else.
I’ll report back when (if!) I hear more.
Its seems that things have come ‘full circle’ I remember the day when ads on gambling related keywords were allowed back in 2003/2004 and it was a little annoying seeing PPC ads at the top when you work very hard with SEO.
Then it was banned for a few years and now PPC is back again.
I’ve been in touch with google also and they have said that they will deal with each application in a ‘case by case’ fashion, although they will instantly dismiss applications which do not have a valid gaming operator license issued by the UK Gambling Commission.
@Simmo! 181419 wrote:
For what it’s worth I’ve spoken to someone at Google and they have asked for my portal URL so they can have a look…
I’ll report back when (if!) I hear more.
I heard more…I sent in an application accompanied by an email from the UK Gambling Commission confirming they had reviewed my affiliate website and that it was OK and didn’t need a licence. Got this back from Google:
Hello,
Thank you for your email. I understand that you applied to advertise
gambling online with us.I am sorry to let you know that we were unable to approve your application
to show online gambling ads in Great Britain.When determining an advertiser’s eligibility to advertise online gambling
services with Google AdWords, our team considers various criteria,
including the details of the application and the content of the website.
Having reviewed the situation, I can confirm that the following sections
of your application did not pass the verification process required to
advertise gambling websites:You must provide a gambling commission license number to us if you want
to advertise with Google AdWords.As stated in our Terms and Conditions*, Google may refuse any ads or
terminate any ad campaigns at any time, for any reason. Unfortunately, we
cannot disclose any further details about your application at this time.This decision only concerns our advertising and in no way affects the
search results we deliver. Google offers broad access to content across
the web without censoring results.Please feel free to visit
http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=guidelines.cs&answer=47220
for further details about the requirements and to re-submit your
application at a later date.* Terms and Conditions: https://adwords.google.com/select/tsandcsfinder
If you have additional questions, please visit AdWords Support at
https://adwords.google.co.uk/support, where you will find answers to many
frequently asked questions.We look forward to providing you with the most effective advertising
available.Sincerely,
Zarina
The Google AdWords UK and Ireland teamUnless you happen to know a dodgy Google employee who’s authorise it for you.
so to advertise with them you have to have a license which is the same as being a casino unless I am misunderstanding.
@bb1webs 182040 wrote:
so to advertise with them you have to have a license which is the same as being a casino unless I am misunderstanding.
That is correct. As things stand at least.
Again, google support and think only about big companies, they don’t think about small businesses. That is sad.
