Adwords 404 landing page

[ymk101]

Has anyone had the following or can anyone help regarding our Legal Rights....

Last 2 months we noticed a dramatic slump in sales, to the tune of around 60%. Upon investigation we noticed that when clicking on our Google Ads instead of re-directing to our webpage it came up as 404 Error Page.

We immediately contacted Google who have stated that once the initial checks on the destination URL are done they do not check it again. As we had undergone web updates and made new Google Ads we feel that Google should have made new checks: i.e new ads, new URL, new checks, but they have shirked away from any responsibility.

From mid December 2009 until mid February 2010 aside from lost revenue we paid approximately £5,000 in worthless advertising.

Has anyone had a similar occurrence or can anyone advise us regarding our Rights. All advise and help appreciated.

[zigojacko]

I'm confused...

Your PPC ads contained old/dead links? Have I got that right?

If I have, then it is your responsibility to ensure your ads are up to date... Do you think Google should be running your PPC campaign for you then and pausing any ads that have incorrect destination URL's?

I may have misunderstood you (and apologies if I have)... But if I haven't, then you have no rights!

[Mister B]

TBH I think that you're on a sticky wicket. You choose the landing page and as such are responsible for the content on that page.

Were you not checking your analytics and looking at the bounce rate off those particular ads?

Mister B

[sjr4x4]

Ouch, expensive mistake, but unfortunately your mistake :(

Taking a positive from a negative, at least you know how much your adwords campaign is contributing to your sales!

[Kev Jaques]

Blimey 60%, I would have noticed around 5-10% (and sooner than 2 months) looked at why. Do you not have emails set up for revenue etc?
It's your campaigns at the end of the day, you have a duty of care/testing with changing things. Testing should have been in the project plan to test/double check it was working before throwing money at it.
Hard lesson learned I agree but it will make you realise there is a reason for planning and testing. (ok that last bit might not earn me any brownie points but you cannot expect Google to bail you out of something that was your own doing).

[matt.chatterley]

Ouch. Very expensive mistake - do agree with Kev re: monitoring, though - this is also why we get email alerts from our 404 page! If we end up with a bad link somewhere, we find out pretty fast.

Sadly I think other posters are right and you probably won't be able to recoup any of the cost from Google - as they will tell you it was your responsibility to update adwords when you made changes to your site..

[ymk101]

Sorry I wasn't clear but what I am trying to say is as follows:

Our website underwent a new design and we went live end Dec 09 with new ads and new URL destination to the new website.

When I checked in the Google Advert Campaign ads preview everything was fine. However, by mid Feb I realised, when I checked, due to the massive slump in sales that the live ad in Google search went to an error 404 page, on all ads with landing pages not the homepage.

It was not possible for me to know of this problem unless I clicked in the live ad which would cost our company money per click.

Google state that they will not approve a New Ad if the Destination URL does not link to a working website. Once we created a new website, ad and URL then Google had an obligation to check for new approval.


I spoke to Google and they said it is not their responsibility and we need to check our own website. But how can I check other than what I did?

[fisicx]

Agree with all the above. It's your advert and your landing page. If you make any changes to either that's your responsibility not Google's.

It's like changing your telephone number and then complaining that the magazine didn't check the details on your advert.

And I'm amazed you didn't notice the 404 errors on day one. As soon as the analytics report anyone landing on a 404 page I'm busy investigating.

[ymk101]

And I'm amazed you didn't notice the 404 errors on day one. As soon as the analytics report anyone landing on a 404 page I'm busy investigating.
How do you get this report?

[ymk101]

This is from Google

Here are some of the guidelines included in our link policy (http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/static.py?hl=en_GB&page=guidelines.cs):
Destination URL : The Destination URL is the web address of the landing page to which an ad will actually link. The guidelines surrounding the destination are designed to ensure that users clicking AdWords ads will find what they are looking for easily and quickly. Your ad will not be approved if your Destination URL does not meet all three of the following rules:


It must link to a working website. If a user clicks your ad but your site isn't working, you are charged for a click, but you have no chance to convert this user into a customer.
It must not link to a site that is under construction or broken. The site must have content. Otherwise, users will not find what they are looking for.
It must not require a programme other than the browser to view the landing page. In other words, the Destination URL must be an HTML page. Some unacceptable formats of destination pages include Adobe Acrobat and MS Word. If your site requires another programme to be loaded, not all users will be able to view your site without loading additional software. This detracts from the user experience.

Google has approved my ads even it did not comply with this guidelines

[fisicx]

Google has approved my ads even it did not comply with this guidelines
Not true. When google approved your ad the page existed. If you then chose to move the page there is no way Google would ever know. It doesn't validate the link every time someone clicks on the advert, it just sends then to the page you set up originally.

If you have a custom 404 page which lets the visitor know something has gone awry then it will appear as one of the visited pages in the analytics report. I'm assuming you have some sort of CMS, most of these have a built in 404 error page and as matt suggests you can get email alerts if anyone ends up there.

[ymk101]

Not true. When google approved your ad the page existed. If you then chose to move the page there is no way Google would ever know. It doesn't validate the link every time someone clicks on the advert, it just sends then to the page you set up originally.

Sorry, but i still think you don’t understand me, I change the website in Dec 2009, on Jan 2010 I change all destination URL to the new website. So in effect its like a new website advertising on Adword

[fisicx]

Do you mean you went and updated each of the adverts to point to the new pages? Did google validate and check that the pages existed?

[ymk101]

Yes, I updated each ad with the new URL and Google aproved all the ads. I relised only in mid Fab (from analytics) 1000's of clicks but no Visits on this ads.

[fisicx]

Are you 100% sure that the URL you added to the adverts was a live page and that the URL hasn't changed in the meantime?

[ymk101]

Yes, positive

[zigojacko]

And are you also 100% sure that there were no keyword destination URL's over-riding your PPC ad destination URL's that you may have overlooked when updating your account...

[david8765]

So what you are saying is that google is taking people to a 404 rather than the URLs you specified in January?

[ymk101]

I hardly use keyword destination URL's

[ymk101]

So what you are saying is that when you set up the new adverts for the new website you made a mistake on those adverts which ment they took people to a 404?
Google made the mistake by approving ads that lead to a 404 page. I made a mistake (big one) by not checking sooner to see that clicks and visits don't match

[directmarketingadvice]

Has anyone had the following or can anyone help regarding our Legal Rights....

Last 2 months we noticed a dramatic slump in sales, to the tune of around 60%. Upon investigation we noticed that when clicking on our Google Ads instead of re-directing to our webpage it came up as 404 Error Page.

We immediately contacted Google who have stated that once the initial checks on the destination URL are done they do not check it again. As we had undergone web updates and made new Google Ads we feel that Google should have made new checks: i.e new ads, new URL, new checks, but they have shirked away from any responsibility.

So, let's be 100% clear about this:

Q1: you created brand new ads in January and, at the time you created the ads, all the ads you created were going to non-existent pages?

i.e. genuine 404 errors, not redirects to a 404 page on your site.

Is this correct?

Q2: these non-existent landing pages. Were they (a) urls that had had working google ads going to them but then they became non-existent? Or were they (b) urls that had never had adwords ads going to them and had never existed?

Steve

[fisicx]

If these was a custom 404 page with lots of useful keywords, navigation and so on the it could look like a legitimate landing page which is why google approved the advert. If as steve suggest the pages were non-existant then I can't see how each of the adverts were approved.

[directmarketingadvice]

If these was a custom 404 page with lots of useful keywords, navigation and so on the it could look like a legitimate landing page which is why google approved the advert.

If it's any customer 404 page on the same domain, then it's a legitimate page.

The only question is "should google flag up pages that have a url along the lines of '404.html'"?

Steve

PS I had a client who recently changed a couple of urls without telling me. The ads ran for a few days going to their 404.html page.

Google didn't flag it up. Why should they? The ad landing pages worked and that was that. They just didn't work the way we wanted them to.

(All the client's fault, not Google's.)

[OldWelshGuy]

I have just sent a Pm to the OP with regard their header return on their 404 page. I see that this has now been raised.

many servers return a 200 header response on 404 pages, that being the case Google have done nothing wrong.

[ymk101]

So, let's be 100% clear about this:

Q1: you created brand new ads in January and, at the time you created the ads, all the ads you created were going to non-existent pages?

i.e. genuine 404 errors, not redirects to a 404 page on your site.

Is this correct?

Old ads just changed to Brand new url. And all ads with destination url other than the home page went to 404 page. Ads with dest url to home page was fine.

[OldWelshGuy]

It was old ads and just changed to Brand new url. and all ads with desination url other than the home page went to 404 page. Ads with dest url to home page was fine.


I take it that as you have chosen not to reply to my Private message, that you are Ok in all this and dont want me to take a look? I can't do anything without the information I asked for in that Pm :(

Cheers

[directmarketingadvice]

It was old ads and just changed to Brand new url. and all ads with desination url other than the home page went to 404 page.

So they ended up on a page on your domain that works? (the 404 page)

It would be nice if Google took action - either suspended ads or sent an email to the advertiser - if the ad seemed to be going to a 404 page on the advertisers site.

However, it wouldn't surprise me if they've thought of that and decided it was a legal minefield.

Steve