Ask banking on French zombies and Google traffic
Some of my weekend was dedicated to battling zombies. I'm sure you understand it's a critical part of my job. This battle required some coordination over Gmail. What caught my eye was the AdWord from Ask France.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi13x4SbFzzUPwOKf7TS8pQdKhgigLSo0uqjL9msvSYdFH_fAVPXaxsthUCDK9KR6kRWOtRcD5bKTlC33F9ziDzR58CG-XdqYm7oawvzcEGpvPAU0MiewDTQH-K8-FTzQiPwWwRDg/s400/l4d.png)
This is a geo-targeting error. An oddly bad one at that. It doesn't even reflect well on Google as there's a chance these UK visits to Ask France will click on the French Google ads on Ask.
I did notice the sub-domain for 'Left4Dead'. Ask really is targeting this computer (it has had a very high search frequency due to the sequel) . This is just a displayurl sub-domain, though, the actual ad clicks through to http://fr.ask.com/web?q=left+4+dead&qsrc=999&siteid=2087&l=dis&qenc=ISO-8859-1&ifr=1 as the destinatinon URL.
I'm not sure of the logic here at all. Yes; it's a search term/content term that generates traffic but does Ask really think people will interrupt a Google search to get more information on a game. Ask aren't selling the game.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi13x4SbFzzUPwOKf7TS8pQdKhgigLSo0uqjL9msvSYdFH_fAVPXaxsthUCDK9KR6kRWOtRcD5bKTlC33F9ziDzR58CG-XdqYm7oawvzcEGpvPAU0MiewDTQH-K8-FTzQiPwWwRDg/s400/l4d.png)
This is a geo-targeting error. An oddly bad one at that. It doesn't even reflect well on Google as there's a chance these UK visits to Ask France will click on the French Google ads on Ask.
I did notice the sub-domain for 'Left4Dead'. Ask really is targeting this computer (it has had a very high search frequency due to the sequel) . This is just a displayurl sub-domain, though, the actual ad clicks through to http://fr.ask.com/web?q=left+4+dead&qsrc=999&siteid=2087&l=dis&qenc=ISO-8859-1&ifr=1 as the destinatinon URL.
I'm not sure of the logic here at all. Yes; it's a search term/content term that generates traffic but does Ask really think people will interrupt a Google search to get more information on a game. Ask aren't selling the game.