Google AdWords Bans E-cigs

[enico]

I don't think the FDA has anything to do with google's decision. They just have a no tobacco or tobacco-like product policy.

I had a pretty in-depth conversation with one of the Adwords people and basically "e-cigarettes" with or without nicotine are not allowed. It's probably just about wording, but they monitor the keywords as well as ads and sites.

If you cross them they will ban your account and all future accounts. So it's best to be careful no matter how you do it.

Basically I'm repeating what insert_namehere said.

SEO is great and very good for free traffic, but you can't beat the instant satisfaction of pay per click.

 

[ICP-Fan]

This is why I suggest SEO:

a) I tried Googling "e-cigarette sales phoenix" and got a bunch of non-related garbage.

b) I then tried "e-cigarette phoenix" and got results that were almost just as bad

c) I also tried "e cigarettes" and got a bunch of hits, but nothing in Phoenix, AZ

I found out later that at least 3 suppliers are located in the Phoenix area!

In my experience (about 7 years worth) most people will not go to the second page of search engine results. They also won't click on paid ads! I already know you are going to argue this, but think about how many times YOU have actually clicked the paid ads when doing a Google search. Probably skipped over them like the rest of us!

This is why I suggest better SEO. You will get more hits/sales from people in your area.

If you learn to do it yourself, it will save you a lot of money. Like I stated before, there are a TON of excellent free tutorials.

 

[Sar]

Since Google is sensitive to cigarette, smoking, nicotine ads and content can we just move away from that completely? Why not advertise "personal vaporizers"? Don't even talk about smoking or cigarettes. In the long run it is much better position building public perception around PVs instead of cigarettes of any kind.

 

[KevinG]

Since Google is sensitive to cigarette, smoking, nicotine ads and content can we just move away from that completely? Why not advertise "personal vaporizers"? Don't even talk about smoking or cigarettes. In the long run it is much better position building public perception around PVs instead of cigarettes of any kind.

While you may be correct that the PV term may work, your SEO and PPC marketing will still contain the word cigarette, the Google policy "crackdown" comes from that word. Bottom line is that while we may call them PVs everyone new to vaping will call them an electric/electronic cigarette when first looking for them.

 

[Sar]

While you may be correct that the PV term may work, your SEO and PPC marketing will still contain the word cigarette, the Google policy "crackdown" comes from that word. Bottom line is that while we may call them PVs everyone new to vaping will call them an electric/electronic cigarette when first looking for them.

I understand, but by using the term electronic cigarette you are actually reinforcing that label. If all or at least majority of vendors start labeling these things as personal vaporizer it will get some chance to establish in the buyer or searcher vocabulary. Don't mean to be vulgar, but prostitutes were successful in creating a new label: escort. Prostitution is illegal, escort is not.

You can probably also have two sites, two domains. One to use specifically with google that deals only with personal vaporizers and the word cigarette is nowhere to be found including SEO and marketing.

Even this site we are posting on should be renamed from "e-cigarette-forum.com" to something like "e-vaporizer-forum.com".

 

[KevinG]

I understand, but by using the term electronic cigarette you are actually reinforcing that label. If all or at least majority of vendors start labeling these things as personal vaporizer it will get some chance to establish in the buyer or searcher vocabulary. Don't mean to be vulgar, but prostitutes were successful in creating a new label: escort. Prostitution is illegal, escort is not.

You can probably also have two sites, two domains. One to use specifically with google that deals only with personal vaporizers and the word cigarette is nowhere to be found including SEO and marketing.

Even this site we are posting on should be renamed from "e-cigarette-forum.com" to something like "e-vaporizer-forum.com".

Point taken. Would probably be easier for us to use the term PV in traditional marketing (radio/magazine/etc) instead. During the creative portion of our next traditional marketing campaign I will discuss the idea with others.

Example:

Instead of "The XYZ electronic cigarette is like smoking a real cigarette" it could be stated as "The XYZ personal vaporizer provides the satisfaction a similar sensation to a cigarette". This would allow the consumer (listener or reader) to determine what it is without actually calling the device itself an electric/electronic cigarette.

While it would be real easy to do with the traditional marketing, it would be hard to do with the online PPC campaigns (as people are searching for electric/electronic cigarette) as well as with the product branding as many suppliers have considerable money invested in their existing branding (packaging, website, product names, etc).

 

[Sar]

Point taken. Would probably be easier for us to use the term PV in traditional marketing (radio/magazine/etc) instead. During the creative portion of our next traditional marketing campaign I will discuss the idea with others.

Example:

Instead of "The XYZ electronic cigarette is like smoking a real cigarette" it could be stated as "The XYZ personal vaporizer provides the satisfaction a similar sensation to a cigarette". This would allow the consumer (listener or reader) to determine what it is without actually calling the device itself an electric/electronic cigarette.

While it would be real easy to do with the traditional marketing, it would be hard to do with the online PPC campaigns (as people are searching for electric/electronic cigarette) as well as with the product branding as many suppliers have considerable money invested in their existing branding (packaging, website, product names, etc).

Yes, that is the key. At the beginning it may be more challenge to reposition your product -- but the more you use the term "personal vaporizer" as in your example above, the more it will seep into the smoker or searcher's vocabulary. I know there is lots of money invested in "e-cig" branding, but with the current hostile environment (Google, potentially FDA, etc) that existing branding is working against you. Does it really matter how much money was spent on it if it is jeopardizing your business longevity? At certain point the search engines will bring up e-cig results when someone searches for vaporizer and vice versa.

Take another repositioning example: there were several new notebook computers some time ago that were underpowered or limited in some way to keep the cost down. Although the price was incredibly good, the specs were not. Thus, with some changes, a netbook was born. A netbook is not a notebook, so the specs are now a plus.

 

[Hex]

The more aware the public gets about what e-cigs are all about the more accepting they will become. I just finished doing an interview on "The Filipino Channel", hopefully I did our community justice and continue to spread the word about these e-cigs and the positive affects it has compared to traditional cigarettes.

 

[freedomendured]

Political pressure perhaps?

 

[sidder]

Not only is goggle banning theses ad thought adwords but ezine is also banning articles on electronic cigarettes .What I think it all boils down to is the tobaco co. is paying off people like goggle and ezine not to allow such advertising they are losing millions of dollars a week to electronic cigarettes.

 

[Vocalek]

The tobacco companies can't advertise on Google Ads, which leads me to believe that Google doesn't like big tobacco. So why would Google ban e-cig ads at the behest of tobacco companies? It doesn't make sense.

 

[Vocalek]

Here is a sample of Google ads coming up on my blog (just now):

The Top Rated Vapor kits
Free shipping, sent within 24 hours VapeAnywhere from as low as 12.99
Volcanomagma.com
Starter Kit - Free Trial
Carcinogen Free Great Taste and a Free Trial Offer
ElectronicCiqarette.com
Eluma is Carcinogen Free
Vapor! Feels like the real thing. Now Only $29.99 with Free Shipping
ElumaEcigs.org

The 4th ad is for "Become an Ex" which is sponsored by one of the Alphabet Soup Gang whose name was mentioned within the post (and they keywords) under which that organization's appears.

My blog is: http://nicotinetruth.blogspot.com/

 

[kristin]

The "electronic cigarette" vs. "personal vaporizer" horse left the barn some time ago.

Even if every U.S. vendor started advertising "personal vaporizers" that wouldn't stop the foreign companies, who would be unlikely to want to change the term. If thousands of U.S. companies start using PV, that would only give more exposure on Google to the companies that don't, since the majority of consumers will be searching for electronic cigarettes.

Search and learn about anchor text, meta tags (title, keywords, description), fresh content, cross linking, blogging, site maps, alt image tags, search engine submission and relevant text on the home page.

Google frowns upon keyword stuffing, shadow sites, multiple domains pointing to one site, cloaking, invisible text, lack of relevant content, same-server crosslinks (link farms) and article spinning. Those things increase your risk of getting removed (banned) from the index.

You are much better off being in the natural results vs. side ads, so that should be the ultimate goal. Most experienced web surfers ignore most of the paid ads. It's a lot more work to do proper SEO, but it's also a lot less expensive.

 

[jayvap33]

It's time AdWords change their policy on PVs.
E-cigarettes SAVE LIVES!

 

[BigJimW]

I get served PV ads all the time in my videos. The inline video ads on YouTube always display an ad or two for PV companies. Once in awhile it rotates to something other than a PV, but I find that if I add "electronic cigarette" and "personal vaporizer" in my YouTube tags for my videos, they almost always show up.

Google doesn't really want to "ban" these type of ads. There is way too much money to be potentially made from them. They just had to make it "look" good.