Maybe here is an reason why some of your PPC revenue is down.
According to Adage.com, drug companies, “have virtually abandoned search ad marketing in the wake of the FDA’s online ad crackdown earlier this year.”
The Adage.com article cites a study from ComScore, which showed that “paid search ads by pharmaceutical companies dropped 84% between March 26 of this year and the end of June.”
Apparently March 26 was the date the FDA’s sent warning letters to 14 drug makers saying that its PPC ads were misleading, “due to the exclusion of risk information associated with the use of the drug, even though the regulatory agency’s guidelines are for print and broadcast, not online or social media.”
You know the deal if you watch TV. First the drug company spends 30 seconds telling you want their latest wonder drug can do for you then the next 30 seconds telling you all the bad things that can happen to you if you take the drug.
Or in a Magazine Ad usually the drug company has to take out one page to sell the product and another whole page to disclose all the possible side effects of the drug.
So the FDA in usual government wisdom warned the drug companies you can’t place an ad for paid search unless you disclose all of the risks along with the ad) in that little 1/2″ space you get).
Since the risks and warnings are usually longer than the ad itself, PPC ads are out for now.
The FDA is holding public hearings in November to begin the process of establishing Internet advertising guidelines for drug products, according to Adage.com:
“comment letters will still be accepted through February 2010, after which it will take up to a year to publish draft guidelines, accept more comments from the public, and then publish final guidelines. That means marketers and agencies are likely looking at 2011 before having FDA Internet and social media rules in place.””
Until then don’t expect a lot of your health related domains to be sponsored by pharmaceutical companies nor should you expect the high clicks these terms generate, or I guess I should say, used to generate.
My suspicion is that if this accounts for a sustantial enough amount of revenue to G & Y that they will implement a solution that fixes the problem before the govmnt decides what to do. For example, with adult search results you have to turn safe search off.
JP
Well as of yet G & Y have not come up with a solution and if our government insists on a page full of disclaimers as you will see in a print ad, there is no getting around it the rules are going to have to change.
Made me think of radio ads that spit out 1000 words at the end that no one could understand…the laws are of no use and wasting peeps time and $$$
This really should not apply to the initial 3 line AdSense ad but the target URL that gives the pitch… just my opinion, but I think this view will be the end result.
The Pharmaceutical Industry is #1 in network TV ad spend. They surpass the beer & car companies, which is kind of amazing when you think about it. There is no way that G&Y will tolerate having those kinds of marketing budgets on the sidelines for long.