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Apple Blocking 3rd Party Advertisers Google Adwords

Been a while since I’ve posted on this forum, and I am fully aware that this is not the right place to post this, but I wanted to put this forward in front of other repairers in possibly the same situation and create visibility for this issue.

In the past week, we have noticed no adverts are appearing on Google for any Apple repair related terms in the UK (MacBook repairs, iPhone repairs, iMac repairs, etc), for us, or for any other companies. Initially, the slowdown was put down to the Christmas period, but upon checking adverts, the majority of search terms are coming up with the status “This candidate is not permitted to show ads in your targeted location”.

It appears Apple have contacted Google and blocked search terms involving their product followed by “repair” or similar keywords in another attempt to block out 3rd party repairers.

Can any other repairers comment on this? Have noticed a few recent Reddit posts and an article talking about this, but no solid info as to why this is happening. We get the majority of business through Adwords, since a customer typically searches “MacBook repairs” when they have broken their Mac.

We don’t understand how this could possibly be legal, considering the fact that Apple is pushing out the majority of 3rd party repairers by doing this (since most get business through Adwords) and this is giving them an unfair competitive advantage over competition which is offering a cheaper repair alternative.

Apologies again this is posted in the wrong location, but no major news outlets have mentioned this at all; we are just trying to make this visible since this is obviously a major hit to the livelihood of 3rd party repairers across the world

Answer this question I have this problem too

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This question was migrated from https://www.ifixit.com/Answers.

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What makes you think Apple is behind this exactly? Appears much more broad, affecting repair operations of all kinds. Your first link explains the situation pretty well—Google seems to be wiping the slate clean and starting over with some kind of verification process that has yet to be implemented. Seems like a case of good intentions, very bad execution.

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Hopefully that's the case, but this mainly seems to be applying to Apple products currently (for example; TV repairs and fridge repairs are showing adverts now, but before they were blocked), so something is happening related to Apple products mainly. Contacted Google by live chat earlier, they don't seem to know what is going on and quote the "counterfeit" policy as the reason why ads are not showing, will need to speak to an account manager.

Will have to wait and see I guess; glad it's happening around Christmas at least, opportunity to get a few things sorted. Lack of communication from Google is unsettling though, considering most repairers use Adwords as their main form of advertising, since it works very well

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I found out this

https://www.thedrum.com/news/2018/06/05/...

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This is related to 3rd party tracking; not Mac/iPhone repairers advertising on Google. Any Google adverts involving an Apple product followed by "repair" are not showing up; whereas they would usually show ~3 results at the top and bottom of the page on Google

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@reecee - I would have posted this in the IFIXIT Pro Talk area

As far as on the other side of the pond ;-} This is what I get here in Boston:

Block Image

for Mac Repairs

Block Image

For iPhone repairs

I think Google is just pulling fly by night outfits which post ads to scam people. While some legitimate repair outfits might have gotten hit, I’m sure if you pressed you could get your self re-listed.

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Sorry, jumped the gun a bit! Did end up finding a post about this there, but there isn't a lot of activity https://talk.ifixit.com/t/google-suspend...

Your screenshots show Google Places results (local, not effected by this for the moment). Google adverts appear at both the top and bottom of a Google search page usually, and no adverts are appearing for these search terms for the past week or so. The last two images on this article show the difference between how it used to show adverts, and how it doesn't show them now http://www.digitalbrainlabs.com/2018/12/...

Seems Apple are trying to push out independent repairers; from what I have gathered, they have managed to prevent any ads showing at the moment by claiming to Google that any iPhone/Mac repair advert is "counterfeit", which is a breach of Google's policy (which is why no ads for anyone are currently showing)...

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Ad's only possible if you pay for them! Thats been the SOP for years. You need to join the Google business services for that.

Lets pull this Q @reecee

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Sorry @danj , I don't think you understand; Google have banned ALL adverts on their platform including search terms like "Mac repairs", "MacBook repairs", "iPhone repairs",etc. This is not just our adverts on Google, but apparently, all adverts for these keywords globally are not displaying, for any company paying Google for adverts.

We are with Google Business (and have a Google Places page); Google Ads/Adwords are different to this and allow advertising nationally. This is useful for businesses like mine, where the majority of customers courier devices across to us.

We have paid a lot of money every month to Google for the past 3 years with no issues; yet in the past week, if you type in the aforementioned terms, no Google ads will appear at all, from any company advertising.

Feel free to pull the question if you wish; just trying to create traction for this on a repair forum, since this will put thousands of repairers out of business worldwide who use Adwords as a main source of business

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@reecee - Have you spoken to your business contact in Google? Have they reached out to you with a notice or explanation?

I don't want to loose your dialog its just not the proper place for it. I'm moving this to Meta as I know the IFIXIT crew might have some insight on whats happening.

I do think you need to reach out to Google too! I would ask for a rebate and maybe even think about dropping it unless you have other reasons for using them.

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Thanks @danj. No notice or explanation; everyone I have contacted in this business who advertise on Google haven't either, everyone has been left in the dark. Tried reaching out to Google; they seem as clueless as we are since customer services have not been told why this is happening yet. I will dig out account manager details and try to get an answer.

Will have to advertise elsewhere if this continues or find a workaround; just Adwords is by far the best way to get a lot of business with wide reach, which is why we have used it over the past 3yrs compared to Bing, Facebook ads, etc

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Reece will be eternally grateful.