Search engine marketing isn’t just about selling products; paid adverts can be used to raise the visibility of any web-page, raising it to the top of the results page. Whilst other groups have also made use of AdWords to give their message greater visibility on Google , the company itself appears to hold the tactic in high regard.
Last week David Drummond, senior vice president and chief legal officer at Google, posted an update on the company’s “New Approach to China”. In the post, Drummon reiterates the company’s position on their issues in the Chinese marketplace and explains what changes users in China will see in the coming weeks.
The WALL STREET JOURNAL reports that to get this message across to a wider audience, Google has launched a supporting AdWords campaign. Test queries run on Google.com last week with phrases such as “Google leaves China” or “Google vs Baidu” deliver a sponsored link to the post. The copy of the ad invites users to “Read our public response to recent security issues on the Google Blog”.
In the post, Drummon reiterates the company’s grievances – online attacks, censorship, human rights concerns – and explains that Google has, two months after its dramatic announcement, “stopped censoring our search services on Google.cn”.
“Users visiting Google.cn are now being redirected to Google.com.hk, where we are offering uncensored search in simplified Chinese, specifically designed for our uses in mainland China and delivered via our servers in Hong Kong.”
Drummond says that this redirect is an “entirely legal” means of meeting the Chinese governments requirements for self-censorship, whilst maintaining their service in the region. He announced that the company has created a new page allowing the public to monitor “Mainland China Service ability” - providing a snapshot of which services are accessible in China. Currently Youtube, blogger and Google Sites are inaccessible from mainland China.
Other groups, such as the UK political parties, have taken out PPC ads in the past on phrases that inquiring users are likely to enter (e.g.”Alastair Darling budget”) to promote a public statement rather than a brand or product. Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Land notes that Google itself has used AdWords to promote its explanation if PageRank in regards to why anti-Semitic results were ranked in results for the keyword “Jew”, or for why an insulting image of Michelle Obama was highly ranked on Google images. However this is the first time such a controversial corporate issue has been the focus of an Adwords campaign.
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