My client, is rated #1 out of 2 million results and #1 in ad placement for their most important keyword. It took a lot of work to get them there. He has a much larger national competitor, which bids against itself using two domains it owns, for my client's most important keyword. There's only three top slots as you know, and two of them are being taken by an out-of-state competitor. As far as I can tell, the only purpose of this double serving campaign--which they lose money on--is to bid up keywords and to hurt a small, local business. Each time I complain to Google, they stop for a week or two, and then come back and start doing it again. I feel like I'm dealing with a huge unregulated plutocracy, where huge national advertisers with dedicated reps can get away with whatever they want and the rest of us have to leave our petitions with the watchman at the castle gate. Whatever happened to "don't be evil"?
It's not Google being evil, it's the competitor. Believe me, Google takes this very seriously. Problem is, they have at least half a million, maybe even closer to a million advertisers. Some are trying to circumvent the rules. If only 1% try, that's at least 5,000 advertisers. Not always easy to catch the thief, especially when there are so many.
I disagree. Google quietly loosened their double serving policy early in 2009, placing the burden of proof on complainants. Read the current policy, particularly the section on "pricing difference" or read a detailed discussion by searching "adwords quietly changes double-serving policy welcome affiliates we need your money". Bear in mind that, in addition to this deliberately murky policy, it's often very difficult to discern ownership of unscrupulous competitors' domains without subpoena power. Mapping tools can be very helpul in proving that sites share an common address, or, int the case of some retailers, no address at all. All adwords advertisers need to be very vigilant about double serving. Google has no incentive to police advertisers who are bidding up keywords and adding revenue. The fact that I just complained about the same advertisers using the same tactics they used two weeks ago shows me that there are no sanctions for this anti-competitive behaviour. If you're advertising "google adwords management", you may want to read up on this isssue.
I have noticed that Google has started advertising more recently online. They are giving lots of $75 coupons for people to start adwords. This might be a stretch, but maybe they are hurting for cash in this economy, or planning something big. Why would they want to police this issue? It means more money for them in the long run. So they can pretend to be on your side, but know they are on the side of the dollar.