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Google and Online Gambling
As of 17th October 2008 Google started serving gambling advertising on its Adwords platform (also known as sponsored links or PPC). This follows a four year period in which it had banned gambling advertising on its site globally since 2004. The UK market will now effectively become a ‘guinea pig’ with Google evaluating its performance over the coming months.
The re-introduction of gambling ads poses two interesting questions, what will this mean for search engine optimisation (SEO) agencies? And what are the morals of serving such ads, especially during a period of financial crisis and (dare I say it) recession?
For search engine marketers especially for an SEO agency which specialises in natural search, little will change. Clients will still expect their SEO agency to perform and to deliver top organic rankings for competitive keywords, as obviously this is where a high percentage of targeted traffic and thus revenue can be obtained. Full search specialist agencies offering integrated SEO and PPC solutions however are now presented with a massive opportunity to increase traffic, increase market share and to deliver improved ROI to their clients.
For smaller or less well established online gaming companies there is now an opportunity to tap into the traffic available from Google without the significant time and resource investment which has been needed to date to achieve organic search engine results. Many search marketing agencies will now be working to ensure less established companies can use this opportunity to significantly increase market share in the UK.
So what about the morals of this activity? Former Labour minister Peter Kilfoyle said “It’s the height of stupidity. It seems probably the worst of times to be encouraging gambling……after we have been facing a financial crisis built on reckless gambling in the markets”. Google insists that UK based advertisers will have to be licensed by the British Gambling Commission but this seems to lack teeth and is unlikely to affect the numbers of consumers gambling.
Numerous religious organisations such as the Salvation Army and the Church of England have also led attacks on Google following its re-introduction of gambling advertising, but is there any substance in the theory that this will lead to an increase in gambling? As we have already seen, organic search results already provide consumers with links into gambling sites and there are numerous other opportunities for people to find gambling sites online. Clearly if individuals are already searching on line for gambling opportunities then serving targeted ads merely allows consumers to find what they are looking for more easily rather than increasing the size of the market.
There is obviously going to be debate around these issues for a while to come but in the short term at least search engine marketing companies weather they are SEO agencies who can provide integrated search campaigns or PPC specialist agencies are provided with an opportunity to make hay while the sun shines. What will Google’s next move on gambling be?
Alex Wares
Mediarun Search 29th October 2008
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