PR...0

One of our competitors issued PR today announcing that their SEM solution "is compliant with Google’s AdWords API terms and conditions."

Allow
me
to
deconstruct.

-In order to be compliant they had to develop support for a minimum number of Google AdWords targeting features (geo-targeting, content bidding, negative keywords and site targeting, etc). Why, oh why, did they wait to build support for these important targeting features until Google told them that their continued use of the API was contingent upon it? [Hint: Google wants firms between it and its clients to actually do something of value.]

-EF built support for those features almost before they were even available via G's API. Why? Because we recognized our advertisers needed them.

Further in said PR, they state that their product "supports Google’s Quality Score by notifying users when keywords are not being served due to a low minimum cost-per-click (CPC)."

Allow
me
to
clarify:

This means that the best the SEM firm in question's platform can do to 'support' Google's Quality Score is tell the advertiser that Google turned their oxygen supply off. Wow, thanks; now all I have to do is FIGURE EVERYTHING OUT MYSELF AS TO HOW TO DEAL WITH IT. [HINT: knuckling under to Google's monetization knob turning is not an option for many advertisers, but multi-metric, cross-keyword portfolio optimization is for some.]

If this is all they do to support Quality Score and they weren't doing it until recently, then what exactly were they doing on their clients' AdWords campaigns before?

Rain dances?
Witch doctors?
Astrology?
'Branding'?