I just did the search, and the MeetingBurner name does NOT appear in GoToMeeting's ad copy anymore.
Why is GoToMeeting being a scumbag?
11–20 of 28 posts
Re: Why is GoToMeeting being a scumbag?
#12Here is my point of view as a Search Engine Marketer:
- Go to meeting is probably using Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI) in their ads. This dynamically inserts a user's search query into the ad copy. From looking at the blog post, this seems to be true for the second screenshot. For the 1st screenshot, it seems that they are indeed building copy with "Meeting Burner" on it.
Whether this was suggested by they in-house Adwords person, an agency or anyone else, this is plain wrong. Not sure if you have any relationship with anyone from the Google Adwords team, but if you do, it would be good to get in touch with them.
Also, here is more info regarding this: https://www.en.adwords-community.com/t5/Ad-Approvals-and-Adv...
Here is the Google Adwords Trademark Complaint Form: https://services.google.com/inquiry/aw_tmcomplaint
If you guys need some help with your Adwords campaigns feel free to shoot me an email (HN_user_name@gmail.com). I'd be more than happy to volunteer couple hours to optimize your account or help you with sitelinks or retargetting.
Re: Why is GoToMeeting being a scumbag?
#13I just did the search, and the MeetingBurner name does NOT appear in GoToMeeting's ad copy anymore.
Maybe I am just being too cynical, but is there any way to prove that this actually happened, rather than being a viral marketing stunt by MeetingBurner?
Re: Why is GoToMeeting being a scumbag?
#14When I see an ad like this I always click through to make sure the offending company has to pay.
Re: Why is GoToMeeting being a scumbag?
#15we faced this we were running dimdim. even now this is what the ads GTM runs for keyword "dimdim" looks like : http://static.inky.ws/image/2152/image.jpg
Just ignore it and build a better product.
Re: Why is GoToMeeting being a scumbag?
#16I just did the search, and the MeetingBurner name does NOT appear in GoToMeeting's ad copy anymore.
Maybe I am just being too cynical, but is there any way to prove that this actually happened, rather than being a viral marketing stunt by MeetingBurner?
Yeah. I took the top screenshot.
Re: Why is GoToMeeting being a scumbag?
#17free for 15 people meeting, that's like 95% of the market, and I wonder if they can sustain the business model? when we use this kind of online conference tools, any concern on internal IP(say, it's recorded without your knowledge)? I would like to buy similar software to host my own conferences instead, though I don't think anyone is doing that.
A fair question.
Without giving too much away, the uptake rate to Pro & Premium has turned MB into a solid, profitable business less than a year after launch.
If tweaks occur to the "Free" account down the road, the MB team has historically "grandfathered" all account levels retroactively if changes are made moving forward.
Re: Why is GoToMeeting being a scumbag?
#18Here is my point of view as a Search Engine Marketer: - Go to meeting is probably using Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI) in their ads. This dynamically inserts a user's search query into the ad copy. From looking at the blog post, this seems to be true for the second screenshot. For the 1st screenshot, it seems that they are indeed building copy with "Meeting Burner" on it. Whether this was suggested by they in-house…
As someone who does SEM, I played around with some queries, and...
-GTM is using the dynamic keyword insertion for the title of some their ads. This is not uncommon. And for the right queries, it does work.
-GTM is buying keywords for some competitors, for example, search fuzebox. On the other hand, they haven't found join.me just yet.
As an advertiser, unless there is a trademark block, you can bid on competitor keywords. What you can't do is use competitor keywords in the title or copy of your ad, dynamic insertion and/or copy. That second screenshot is most troubling, as the title does not match the query (i.e. that copy was built.)
GTM needs to remove their dynamic insertion ad from their competitor ad group and from any built copy. They should not be using competitor keywords in the title/copy of their ads at all, so for any budding SEMs here that's really what the issue is.
Re: Why is GoToMeeting being a scumbag?
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe I am just being too cynical, but is there any way to prove that this actually happened, rather than being a viral marketing stunt by MeetingBurner?
Yeah. I took the top screenshot.
Your blog really gives no direct info about who you are (I now see that things would have been clarified if I had clicked through to your twitter account), making it hard to tell whether you are truly independent or a marketing person for MeetingBurner. Credibility really wasn't helped by your blog post being submitted by a MeetingBurner founder (according to his/her HN profile).
Anyway, I've verified the screen shot for this post: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4096538 showing somewhat similar behavior by GoToMeeting toward Dim Dim, so it does seem that this story is legit.
Re: Why is GoToMeeting being a scumbag?
#20Probably because they use an automated tool for generating ads, saw this was a "related keyword" and stuffed the search query into the opening line of the ad so it would appear more relevant. "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." - Hanlon's Razor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlons_razor
There was a pretty good explanation of how this process works: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4086887 It seems they would have had to purposely put "MeetingBurner" as one of the keywords to be stuffed into the ad. If they truly are just that stupid then it speaks as much about them than if they were being malicious. o_0 It sure does look shady to me.
Not necessarily. You can do wildcards in text ads where the matching term gets inserted. Not saying that's what they did, but it definitely doesn't have to be done by hand.