My Competitor is Violating Policies By Serving Multiple Ads at Once – What Should I Do?

The question in today’s blog comes from a long way away! A podcast listener from Sydney, Australia, named Michael submitted the following:

Hey, Kyle, hope you’re well, and I appreciate being allowed admittance into your group (Google Ads Strategy Group on Facebook). My name is Michael and I’m from Sydney, Australia. I was going to flick you a subject. Maybe you could answer me personally or use it as a subject for a podcast, possibly.

I just beg that it remains anonymous. So if it got back to the competitor I’m using an example of, they might get nasty. I’ll add an attachment that shows it all in one image.

[The attachment Michael sent was a screenshot of Google Ads results showing the same company using two slightly different URLs.]

And sometimes they have three in the mix. All of which take you to the same business performing out of the same venue and all clearly advertising the same phone number. I feel kind of hard done by, as Google has confirmed in an email that they are violating rules. I also feel it’s kind of silly on the company’s end. Also, I couldn’t imagine three clicks from a very thorough customer and finally snagging that customer after they click on every ad. 

Anyhow, forgive me if it’s a silly subject, it just really pisses me off and would love an expert’s opinion on the matter. 

Love your work,

Michael

=================================================

Interesting question! Thanks for sending that in.

So basically, one company is violating Google’s policy by advertising the same business in multiple accounts and using multiple different websites and domains. 

Google has a policy against double serving ads. It sounds like Michael has already written to Google to point this out. They’ve confirmed that the rules are being violated but still have not done anything about it. And that’s where the frustration comes in. 

And of course, it’s frustrating, to begin with. You’re trying to get just one ad out there in front of people while another company is running three ads for the SAME company. 

So first off, I’ll share my personal opinion on this matter – I would not report this company to Google or even write an email in the first place. It’s just not my style, I guess. 

But I look at it like – there are two ways to have the tallest building in the city.

You can tear down every building in the city that’s taller than yours.

OR

You can go and build the tallest building in the city!

Maybe the current tallest building violated a bunch of building codes and should be torn down. If you go and complain to the city, they might tear that building down for you, leaving you with the tallest building in the end.

BUT I would much prefer to just go build that tallest building and rub it in the face of the person who violated the rules. If you do it this way, you are on the up and up, and now your building is still taller. “So take that!”. 

That’s my first thought on the matter, anyway.

Now, aside from that, what to do about this? How do we go up against someone who is running three different ads against our one ad? 

Often, people click on multiple ads. So, if this company is running three ads and people are just clicking on all three of their ads and only becoming a customer once (or not at all), they’ve just paid for all three clicks for only one customer (or for no customers).

This tells me that these customers are most likely high value. Or, this company has a good website, a good offer, and they’re able to convert enough of these customers. So even if they’re paying double or triple for the traffic, it is still profitable for them. 

The next question is then, how can you match that? How can you get just as many customers or more customers?

Basically, this is a question of conversion rate. How can you make sure your conversion rate is as good or better than theirs? 

If it is better, then you should be able to outbid them. You should be able to bid more per click putting your ad at the top of the page where there’s a good chance you will end up getting more customers than the second and third position combined. 

So if that’s truly the case that they’re able to pay double or triple for these clicks while still bidding aggressively and staying profitable, then you should be able to come in with only one website and avoid diluting your budget. Focus on that one website, get into the top position, and come out dominant while getting the most traffic with only one ad to their three. 

So that’s my take on how to beat someone out with multiple ads! I really appreciate questions like this. If you have a question you’d like me to answer, please submit it here.