Hi, I've dabbled with adwords, and its always cost me, rather than made me money - but thats another story......... I run a site for someone (lets call them Dave Smith) recently the adsense adverts are coming up with various links with the words 'Dave Smith' yet the content of these pages has no relation to Dave, our site or anything in our niche. So my questions are 1. why would anyone bother doing this - surely people will click, see its not relevant then leave without buying anything 2. Should I be concerned? are they stopping relevant ads by bidding on non-relevant keywords. Will this affect my adsense payout? It certainly affects the credibility of our sites links, and possibly 'Dave Smith' himself I am posting this in adwords rather than adsense, because I am interested in their rationale behind doing this Seems odd and pointless to me. Can someone explain? Thanks DPers
If 'Dave Smith' is somehow an authority in the business he is involved in and people search for 'Dave Smith' when they are looking for whatever he sells, then it makes perfect sense that competitors would bid on Dave's name. If you are unhappy with the clients that are advertising through adsense on your clients site ... then you should exclude them using the competitive filter.
Yes he is an authority - but would you be able to explain why it makes perfect sense. The sites the links go to have no relevance whatsoever. Am I missing something basic here? Thanks for your answer
If a competitor thinks that someone searching for 'Dave Smith' may be looking for what they sell/offer then that's why they are bidding on the term. For example, if you do a search for 'the rich jerk' there are lots of other 'guru's' bidding on his name with a view to selling something. If as you say the sites are totally irrelevant, then they are clearly wasting their money.
Those people may be making money through PPC arbitrage. It will be good if you can let us know the keyword.