Search & Social Media Marketing Training
Digital marketing course from the University of Salford
Throughout my time on the SSMM course at Salford Business School, a common theme put forward by industry guest speakers such as Simon Wharton of PushON and Mark Johnson of Latitude Group, has been of the immense value of Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising. Any aspiring Internet based business that doesn’t utilise it, can be clearly said to be missing out on a major tool in their advertising armoury.
As useful as it has been to hear this from the experts, it’s also been immensely frustrating as when it comes to my own desire to set up Gambling PPC adverts, where my own interest lies, I have encountered numerous problems.
Regardless of your own views on the subject of gambling – its most definitely here to stay. Old, Young, Male or Female – there is something to get each of us gambling as big business wants a ride on the betting gravy train. You won’t find a football club without its official ‘betting partners’ and as the Independent explains, sports betting will likely be a major beneficiary of the 2012 Olympics.
Yet despite all of this vested interest, it still seems a dirty word when it comes to PPC advertising.
Why Gambling PPC Adverts?
The reason I am so keen to on Gambling PPC adverts is based on my own business, the Secret Betting Club, for which I am the Editor of the regular newsletters we produce to help people with their own betting. First established in 2006, we have forged a clear niche in our area of expertise and have built it based on word of mouth, a strong email marketing set-up and more recently a burgeoning Twitter and Facebook presence.
If you want to bet professionally and make a profit, then you would come to us for help. A more helpful and arguably ethical service I would venture than that of a bookmaker or casino who have just one goal – to attract losing punters.
Don’t Bank On Gambling PPC Adverts
Despite our well established business, when it comes to PPC advertising it seems the odds are truly stacked against us.
Just last week, I tried to create a new Facebook PPC campaign via a simple advert which invited people to like our Secret Betting Club Facebook page to receive free football tips from us every Friday.
I was targeting people with the interest ‘Football Betting Tips’ in the UK and Ireland between 25 and 45 who are male. My advert is below:
The result?
My advert was disapproved after being reviewed with Facebook’s reasoning as follows: “The content promoted in your advert or Sponsored Story violates Facebook’s Advertising Guidelines. Please visit our Help Centre for additional information and examples compliant with our Advertising Guidelines.”
A quick look at the aforementioned guidelines reveals the following relevant section devoted to Gambling:
Gambling and lotteries
- Adverts that promote or facilitate online gambling, games of skill or lotteries, including online casinos, sports books, bingo or poker, are only allowed in specific countries with prior authorisation from Facebook.
- Lottery commissions licensed or sponsored by government entities may advertise on Facebook provided that adverts are targeted in accordance with the applicable laws in the jurisdiction in which the adverts will be served and may only target users in the jurisdiction in which the lottery is available.
- Adverts that promote offline gambling establishments, such as offline casinos, in accordance with applicable laws and regulations are generally permitted, provided that adverts are appropriately targeted.
I’m no legal expert but presumably we meet the criteria of 1) as betting is legal in the UK and Ireland and we are not a lottery so 2) does not apply. Neither does 3) as we are not an offline gambling establishment and therefore it’s very difficult to understand the reasoning for our disapproval.
I dug deeper into the Facebook advertising help centre, but once again there appeared no clear reasoning or guidelines, which would indicate exactly where I am going wrong.
I’m all for having rules and regulations, but for a small betting business like ours, how do we gauge exactly what we have to do to have our adverts approved?
Gambling PPC Double Standards?
This may all seem fair enough to some of you. Betting isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and I completely respect that. Facebook might consider allowing betting adverts as more trouble than it’s worth or have an anti-gambling advertising policy.
That however, doesn’t seem to be the case as when I log into my Facebook account, can you guess what kind of adverts I see beaming back at me?
Yep you guessed it – adverts for betting!
At the top of the pile we have Michael Vaughan’s Betfair Cricket tips and a bit further down an advert inviting me to play Roulette at Betfair’s casino (let’s not even get onto the debate about a 60 second credit card application advert!).
The Michael Vaughan advert in-particular seems remarkably similar to my own in the fact its offering free betting tips to those that like the Betfair page.
Of course, Betfair is a well-established betting brand and business, but how exactly can I compete with them on a Gambling PPC basis, if at all?
Gambling PPC Adverts – Not A Level Playing Field
My Facebook PPC example is not a one-off because I have had a similar response from Google and other advertisers when it comes to PPC advertising.
Similar targeted adverts have been struck off Google for relevant search terms in the past, yet the big betting companies with gambling PPC campaigns – the likes of Betfair, Ladbrokes, William Hill & Bet365 constantly appear. Mixed amongst these big companies, I do find smaller betting firms like mine who somehow squeeze through the T and C’s – so presumably it can be done. Exactly how as yet is still a mystery to me.
Therefore my quest as part of the course, is to emulate them and actually establish the Secret Betting Club its very own PPC presence.
Response from experts so far as regards this dilemma has been of a very grey area that exists within PPC for betting, and the ‘black hat’ SEO tactics that some experts use.
Perhaps it’s the sales letter we employ (which admittedly needs work and is in the hands of a copywriter as we speak), our Facebook page, the wording of my adverts or the fact we are a very small fish in a big pond.
It could be of course that I will just never get a successful long-term gambling PPC campaign going!
I certainly hope not and perhaps through this article I can even help a few other betting related businesses with their own PPC campaigns.
I will endeavour to find out but in the meantime I welcome any expert tips you may have as to where I am going wrong. Please use the comments section below or contact me – here are my details:
7 thoughts on “Are The Odds Stacked Against My Gambling PPC Adverts?”
Comments are closed.
Interesting post, Peter. Dealing more in SEO than PPC personally, I didn’t realise gambling ads were allowed on AdWords until I checked a moment ago (I probably had the industry confused with something else).
As for the FB debacle, perhaps you just had the wrong person on the wrong day at FB checking you ads? Seems to me that you didn’t break the guidelines, either, so maybe you just had a member of staff who didn’t do their job properly when he/she checked it over? Is there a chance to appeal or anyone to get in touch with about it?
Hi Steve, thanks for your feedback.
I have tried to advertise a few times with Facebook, using slightly different approaches with zero success so it appears to be a blanket policy, rather than an individual mistake. Your suggestion was my original thought – alas if only that was the case!
It appears to be the same with the likes of Google as all my potential adverts with them have been disapproved so far.
Very hard to know what to try next….A successful PPC campaign for us would make a huge difference!
Hi Peter,
Its a budget thing, you need to be spending $10,000 a month (I think last time i checked) or facebook aren’t interested in gambling ads.
Phil
Hi Peter,
I’ve run PPC gambling ads for large betting clients. These companies have to provide a gambling license to Google in order to get their ads approved. This can take about a week to clear on the specific adwords account then new ads should be automatically approved.
I’d give Google adwords support a call and see if they can help
I believe its 30K on facebook…my ad just got denied.
Question, why am I seeing affiliate PPC through google now?
Regarding Facebook PPC, you have to get an approval by facebook to be allowed to advertise gambling on facebook. Getting your ad approved in the self serve center does not count.
“are only allowed in specific countries with prior authorisation from Facebook.”
It does say in the terms for Facebook that you need prior authorisation but I can’t seem to find the link to gain this permission. I got banned by Adwords and it’s really galling to see sites that are spammier, or have less info than mine, still accepted by them. At least Bing still accept ads..