Double Serving on adCenter

Back in May I wrote about issues I was facing with AdWords and other advertisers who were double serving. Still having the same issues with the same advertisers today...despite the numerous reports I've made to Google on the issue. Usually about a week after I report the violations Google takes action and all the offending ads are gone...for about a week and then they are all back again. My hunch is the offending party spends enough with Google that Google will never flat out ban their accounts or offending urls.

This post though is about double serving in adCenter. Of course the group I referenced above is double serving in adCenter as well. I spent some time (admittedly not a lot) looking around for an adCenter double serving policy but haven't been able to locate one. I conducted a few searches today in some "hot" markets and man, looks to me like adCenter has some serious double serving issues.

Regardless of the PPC engine double serving is a huge issue facing advertisers. Weak enforcement of double serving policies (or lack of a policy all together), in my opinion, presents the PPC marketing channel in a poor light. If you're in PPC and don't think double serving is an issue wait until;

1. A double (or more) serving competitor locks up 2 - 6 ad spots in one or more of your sweet spots.

2. Your client contacts you when they notice a double served ad and can't understand why you won't do the same for them or you can't get the offending ads turned off.

Seeing this shit day in and day out really makes me think about the old saying, "if you can't beat them, join them." Hopefully the PPC programs will step up and enforce the policy so it won't have to get to that point. If not....