Following on from our previous post on horrifying display ad placements, I've been looking for examples of when Google Ads go wrong.
So here's a list of 15 Google Ads (PPC and AdSense) which are either badly written, completely irrelevant, poorly placed, or just plain funny...
Worst PPC ad ever?
(via bbcarter)
Want to become a police officer?
(thanks to searchenginepeople)
Ford clearly forgot to check this ad
World of Warcraft
Flights to hell
Mating with animals
Leg amputees
Certificate in terrorism?
(via elistmania)
Corpses
eBay
(via eBads)
Thanks to a scattergun approach to PPC in the past, there are plenty of examples of eBay bidding on bizarre and inappropriate terms.
Skin cancer
Used toilet paper
Kick in the balls
Nuclear weapon
Crack baby
Great deals on fascists...
Reader comments (17)
Director at Browser Media
3:09PM on 3rd December 2010
Ebay ads have always amused us.
Have seen quite a few babies for sale on there, but never gone searching for crack babies...
9:19AM on 6th December 2010
Just want to say thanks for giving me something to laugh at on this cold Monday morning :-)
10:13AM on 6th December 2010
Some people are just having fun - and there is a Google ad-checking bot that needs its code checking. Or there are some Google employees that are not oogling at Ads enough before okaying them.
Founding Partner at The ATO Co Ltd
10:58AM on 6th December 2010
Whilst amusing, as more and more of these poor ads appear they deliver a result to the user which will only serve to frustrate them, and potentially these users will become disenchanted with the medium. The advertisers who are taking the time and effort to produce professional-standard PPC copywriting suffer too.
1:45PM on 6th December 2010
A search page is like an arena in ancient Rome. The PPC ads are the gladiators, pitched in against one another in a deperate fight to the death. The last man standing is the one that gets the click. And the only weapons they have to fight with are words, so their prowess at using them is what they live or die by. Or in other words, copy in PPC ads matters.
3:13PM on 6th December 2010
Thanks for posting this. Someday the bots will know better, but, until then, I get to cry laughing at my desk.
I especially love the World of Warcraft one. A real person had to set that one in motion. I can see that person in my mind right now, rushing online too their doom after attending a PPC webinar, something like, "23 under-targeted PPC niches. Target them TODAY and profit!"
1:32PM on 7th December 2010
Thanks for the belly laugh, these are excellent! I particularly like the certificate in terrorism. I wonder what sorts of jobs require that qualification?
3:01PM on 7th December 2010
The World of Warcraft one is deliberate, I bet it has the best CTR as well.
Editor in Chief at Econsultancy
8:58PM on 7th December 2010
Yes, I think the WOW ad doesn't really deserve the lame label, but it is funny...
6:03PM on 9th December 2010
These are indeed some pretty random ads, but I guess that is what you get when your operate off of keywords.
Digital Strategist at WebPropaganda Ltd
9:08AM on 13th December 2010
{keyword}
+ no brains
10:04AM on 13th December 2010
Some companies definitely need to hire better online marketing people..as per ebay...do they care? no...
{use your brains}
9:34AM on 16th December 2010
used toilet paper??? seriously??
2:16PM on 20th December 2010
I'm loving ebay's approach to PPC. Who knew the range of products available on there......!
2:22PM on 20th December 2010
The World of Warcraft one is clever marketing.. the remainders are lazy algorithms
Online Marketing Specialist at Mike Groves | Online Marketing
4:47PM on 22nd December 2010
I'm sure there are loads more of these! I'd love to know which were client errors and which were agency mistakes - and expect automation gets the blame in each case. Makes you think there must be another way...
Mike Groves
Business Development Manager at Jellyfish Online Marketing
4:01PM on 3rd January 2014
I still get these kind of ads all the time by Amazon on my Windows Phone (using Bing). Please see this tweet for examples:
https://twitter.com/Aleksandarmoran/status/419135602148130816/photo/1
This is really the tip of the iceberg though, it happens on pretty much every search!
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