I have entered a contest at www.bitrebels.com which is being sponsered by www.pagelime.com.

I hope I win

Google are currently testing a beta offering that would allow a PPC ad in the top position to contain a contact lead form. This looks like a cool idea. There is a downfall that I don’t like.  According to PPC Hero Google will keep the contact data. I can see this stopping a few companies from wanting to do this.

I would definitely like to test it on my clients.

Are you currently using this? Would you feel comfortable with Google keeping some of the data?

I don’t know to be honest with you, I am not a social scientist, I do however, know that this ad, as can be seen on the side of a London Double Decker bus, is going to get a reaction. Which is exactly what the UK’s Outdoor Advertising Association is trying to get.

This ad is one of several involved as part of a national advertising campaign designed to show that Outdoor Advertising does work and can elicit a response. I think that this is a bold move by the aforementioned association, first of all, they are spending over a million Great British Pounds on this campaign, which may just generate bad feeling. Part of me thinks this is cool, but then I also think it is a bit sad that in order to prove something works, they have to resort to using this type of phrase. I would much prefer a creative ad, that is clever or unexpected rather than one that is merely controversial in order to provoke an angered response.

What do you think? Is this a good idea? A waste of money? Does outdoor advertising work?