Google has made a living off of an algorithm–it’s page ranking. It’s done the company very well. A lot of people have searched and dreamed of similar algorithms to run their businesses around. It’s hard. In fact, Google is demonstrating the problem with being so algorithm-centric with its AdWords. And it’s doing a disservice to itself.
Here’s what’s happening:
Essentially people can start with 10 cent (or similar reasonably low) bids on specific search terms in which they want their ads to appear on the right side of search results pages. All seems fine–at first. Then slowly a Google “algorithm” comes by and declares your ad irrelevant. The result is they block your ad. Google gives you a way to remedy the situation though. You can pay more for the ad. Google will re-instate the ad, for maybe 20 cents per click. Maybe it’s hard to swallow, but you go ahead and commit to the higher rate. Then guess what? The Google “algorithm” may visit again and declare your ad irrelevant once again and ask for even more money. Some people are claiming the rate goes up as high as $5.00 a click.
What’s so interesting is that from what I see many of the keywords are highly relevant. It’s the algorithm that’s wrong. Yes wrong–to a human.
It’s quite unfortunate. I’m a strong advocate of Google’s, but this is embarrassing–at least it would be if a human were to come up with some of what I’ve seen that the “algorithm” does. All this illustrates how how elusive “Common Sense” is to achieve in a digital box.
To Google’s credit they are dealing with a challenging problem–supporting ads in a spam filled world. However, from what I’m seeing Google is making some fundamental errors in thinking about how the algorithm should work. Yes, fundamental.