Comments on: Media agency MPG takes the blame for using ‘Abo’ search term for Tourism NT

By: 3 Lessons You Should Learn From An Adwords Screw Up | Sixth Sense Marketing

3 Lessons You Should Learn From An Adwords Screw Up | Sixth Sense Marketing — Thu, 20 May 2010 02:07:57 +0000

[...] for the small business owner to expert digital marketing agencies. There has been a recent “incident” that has left the NT Tourism and media agency MPG a little embarrassed, so here are 3 Adword [...]

By: austen tayshus 2

austen tayshus 2 — Fri, 14 May 2010 06:51:05 +0000

HAH! Love it austen tayshus (1)
Really, just how much can we Koalas bear?
Enough already mUmbrella and let the “news-cycle” go…

By: oliver

oliver — Thu, 13 May 2010 02:12:56 +0000

Is Comment 15 trollin or stoopid?

By: Katie

Katie — Thu, 13 May 2010 01:10:36 +0000

I just want to know how many hits they actually had on the blunder!

By: Fionn

Fionn — Thu, 13 May 2010 00:07:43 +0000

Well it’s not like there are that many Fionn’s out there!

And it’s not a giant iPhone, it can’t make calls )

By: gem

gem — Wed, 12 May 2010 23:34:27 +0000

I thought it might be that Fionn!

By: JDO

JDO — Wed, 12 May 2010 23:21:41 +0000

I’d like to hear from more PR professionals on your point of view on this issue. I completely agree with am’s recommendation that NT Tourism must issue an apology. By keeping quiet & letting the agency take the blame is poor PR, as publics (including media) will make a link back to NT Tourism. A statement apologising for the error is important to maintain their reputation & to diffuse the situation. This is crisis management 101.

By: Shane

Shane — Wed, 12 May 2010 23:02:18 +0000

So in summary:

It’s not that big of a deal, it is a minor process issue between client > agency being leveraged by others for personal gain

Number of key words is irrelevant and does not incur the client additional cost – as long as the campaign is being optimised to the right metrics of course

Terms ‘Wog’ versus ‘Abo’ – far too many shades of grey/acceptability to come to a definitive conclusion

Fionn is clever and likes his giant iPhone…..

By: gem

gem — Wed, 12 May 2010 22:50:53 +0000

“Gem, the social connotations of ‘wog’ and ‘abo’ are entirely different. Wog can still be highly offensive if misdirected, abo is always a term of offence:

So if I call someone an f”ing wog or f’ing abo one is more offensive than the other it? Of course this is all about context and personal interpretation.

One thing I find amazing is that every Aussie I know doesn’t think the term “paki” is offensive for example. I think it says a lot.

On the PPC 128k keywords…definately overkill – I would think there are probably 30-40 head terms that drive 90% traffic and I would be amazed if the remaining “long tail” accounted for the other 10% on a consistent basis. The perception that quantity of keywords is a huge factor to look at in a PPC campaign is prehistoric online marketing and if that is what your agency thinks, sack them immediately – My mum knows more about PPC that they do.

By: Micheal

Micheal — Wed, 12 May 2010 22:19:46 +0000

NT Tourism is desperate to show any sort of progress or to
justify their relevance.

The ad agency would have been asked if they would like to continue with their
contract and to take One for the revenue stream…i mean team.

Do TourismNT marketing managers ever get fired?

I bet this issue, woke a lot of people on the fourth floor of Moonta House as well as the
Hon Malarndirri Barbara Anne McCarthy who says about 4 words a year.

By: Fionn

Fionn — Wed, 12 May 2010 10:03:45 +0000

Add to that if you have the exact phrase it is more cost effective than having the broad match then it makes sense to build the whole thing out to all possibilities of phraseology to give the most cost effective result.

By: Fionn

Fionn — Wed, 12 May 2010 09:51:44 +0000

Seriously, 128k keywords is not that much when, as people have mentioned they are actually key phrases with multiple words and often including misspellings and their combination in the phrases.

Just the phrase “tourism in northern territory” could generate 200 misspellings.

If you understood search you would understand.

Also, for those searches with zero impressions, they may have an impression now or in the future and if you are the one with your ad there when others have ignored it then the consumer has a higher propensity to click on your ad as you’re likely the only one who is appearing.

Anyway, 128k is not the issue, in fact it is like the agency is using that as an excuse. It was a cock up, they have seen it and fixed it and admitted to the issue. It goes to show some of the issues of running a search campaign with large volumes of keywords/phrases but also shows the level of quality control that should be in place on both an agency and client side.

By: Shane

Shane — Wed, 12 May 2010 07:41:31 +0000

@Jono ……….
“have seen clients in the past use 600,000+ keywords”

“you must remember theirs the dictionary terms, you mix those up with keywords and then you also add in some miss spellings.”

Obviously in your SEM experience you target people with webbed hands

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 12 May 2010 07:29:49 +0000

true – 128,000 is OTT – what did they do upload a dictionary?

By: Alex Julius

Alex Julius — Wed, 12 May 2010 07:18:50 +0000

You don’t need 128,000 words to trigger reasons to visit the Northern Territory; just one: “Barramundi”. Mind you, you could also throw in the abbreviated version: “Barra”.