Bitcoin Forum

Binance is paying for advertising from Google, with the word "bitcointalk".

https://i.ibb.co/XJfq9tB/bt-bin.jpg

Usually when you search Google for "bitcointalk" the forum link is the first result. But, today I noticed that it is different, at least in Portugal, the first result is from Binance.

It appears that Binance considers this forum valuable as they are spending money advertising using this word in search.

Unfortunately i cant see google search page ads due to adblocker. But my guess it shows not because it targets bitcointalk users or any related to bitcointalk but the word "bitcoin".

Interesting, just double-checked it with several VPNs and the ad didn't pop up for locations like the US, France, Italy, Austria or Germany. Maybe they are focussing on the Portugese market to onboard some users from your location?


It's either that or they just use a bunch of different Bitcoin-related keywords to push their ads. Wouldn't be so sure that they are directly focussing on Bitcointalk users.

This is most likely the case. Being a multi-billion dollar company, they would have a large team of professionals who are constantly researching and updating the best keywords based on a large amount of factors for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency related keywords. BitcoinTalk would definitely be one of those keywords against the hundreds of others. It may even be an experiment considering that not many others have been able to see the same result in other countries and that they are just seeing the metrics. The two topics (exchange vs bitcointalk) are not really correlated, so I think it being an experiment is quite likely.

You're right because in my region I didn't get any such ads when I search bitcointalk and tried other keywords too but nothing comes up related to binance with adblocker disabled.

These advertising algorithms are not that easy and it doesn't really focus on one keyword but it's probably true that Binance is paying more which is why their ad is shown first when crypto-related keyword are entered.

Agree, it doesn't seem like Binance is trying to specifically target Bitcointalk users with a Search campaign. If that were the case, the ad copy would likely mention Bitcointalk specifically. Also, I think advertising directly on the forum or through a signature campaign would be more effective :D

Google Ads generally suggests using the broad match (https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2407779?hl=en) option for keywords matching, which is also the default setting. If the keyword "Bitcoin" is set to broad match, it will likely show the ads to users who search for "Bitcointalk".

Interestingly, at this time it no longer appears. Was it some momentary test?  :-\



That would make sense if it pops up all the time. Thing that is not happening. As mentioned, at this moment it is no longer showing up for me.

I don't know what prompted you to this conclusion, but can you find any evidence? Google collects information about you, including using it to display its ads, and therefore searching for words such as "Bitcoin, Bitcointalk, Bitcoin talk"  is enough for these algorithms to understand that the person is looking for something related to bitcoin, and therefore the best results based on the information that has been collected from you is Binance advertisement.

Also, these advertisements differ according to the country, cookies, the nature of your search, and the information that was collected from you, and therefore it is not necessary that Binance have paid for this specific word.

Not a momentary test is just that the AdWord ad algorithm differs in so many ways. Maybe your device has been detected for visiting binance or searching for binance on google or even discussing with a friend about binance. For instance, I discovered that after entering my namecheap dashboard I'd see ads relating to namecheap on google or other social media platforms. So, google is working hard to see that they target these ads as accurately as possible, especially for android users. I don't know your Os, but it has been confirmed by some sources that google tapes people's discussions on social media through android phones and they use it to target ads. And to add to the claim the keyword bitcointalk isn't anywhere on the Ad you just shared.

When you place an advert on Google it will ask keywords which you want to target to a specific location. Sometime a keyword like Bitcoin for a specific location can trigger such result. Alternative it is a possibility that a specific country has got a large traffic on Bitcointalk and this may be the reason why they might have targeted this keyword.

It is just an advert and most cryptocurrency investors or enthusiast who have understanding about privacy will use ad blockers or ignore such advert. Those who are not that literate will fall for it.

I literally don't see that as a big deal, because in as much as Bitcointalk has the very keyword "Bitcoin" and Binance is the top crypto exchange in the world, where people come to buy and sell bitcoin at else, if it doesn't use the very keyword "bitcointalk", who do you think should use? Is it Tesla, Amazon, Lamborghini or Apple? Because one thing you need to understand about ads is that there is always a spot for related keywords which has high search volume, and bitcointalk is one keyword that has a very high google monthly search volume of over 2 million, followed by other keywords such as
"Bitcoin news today"
"Bitcoin price"
"How to buy bitcoin" etc

Click the link, that makes them pay for it.

What PX-Z said. Bitcointalk is such a small demographic that I doubt they're specifically targeting Bitcointalk users that it's almost irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Also taking note that Bitcointalk users tend to slightly geared more towards the bitcoin maximalist side, hence is unlikely to be interested in trading shitcoins.

It's not my usual computer, and the search was done via an anonymous browser, which doesn't keep the information day after day. I've done the search several times and several different days, and I've never seen an ad from Binance. At this time, it is no longer appearing again.

It was this combination of factors that caught my attention. And then share, to see if it happened to other users.

Another curious thing is that on all the computers where I researched bitcointalk I never saw a single ad. This was the first time I saw it, and it caught my attention.

If you search for "bitcointalk" do you see any kind of advertisement?

I checked on several browsers and nowhere did the Binance advertisement appears on the Bitcointalk search term.
what is possible is that some Binance users paid for advertising with their affiliate link, so due to the short budget, it is no longer available. that's the closest scenario to me, unfortunately, you didn't check the path of the link.

I have logged in permanently from my device but after it checked from two different devices and the top link was for the forum only and it didn't find any such advertisement from the Binance but agree with others that the results is based on the keywords through google search.

The other one's are just news or articles related to bitcointalk from cointelegraph and other sites but no advertisement even after enabling ads on my google search so it's just for you.

After hustling over 5 minutes with the Google captcha, I finally was able to see a result on my browser (Firefox with TOR connection, Incognito window so safe to say Google had less data about my interest)

https://i.ibb.co/cbny5xW/bct2.png

Google search results is not plain. It depends on many factors. Your browsing history, personal interest, the place you are living, login and logout state in your gmail and many more. What we are seeing for OP is shown only to him or the group who has similar activity and interest. Others don't necessarily need to see the same result.


https://i.ibb.co/z46VprC/bct.png

Some of the suggestions are interesting, aren't they?
Bounty hunters are at the top even before satoshi LOL.
Chipmixer is not doing bad at all, this must be a huge benefit of advertising the product for long period of time 😉
A lot of people indeed search for Satoshi's first post.

I didn't check it unfortunately.
But this can be an excellent possibility, they are users using an affiliate link and must not have put too much budget for the ad.




That would not have been the case, as I did the research in an anonymous browser.
By the way, on the PC where it is normally used to access the forum, the search result is practically the same as yours, with the normal variations of our location.

Wouldn't be suprised if companies have done that in the past. Although, they'd probably get more traffic with other keywords, as there's a lot more people searching up "Bitcoin exchange" than "bitcointalk", that's for sure. I'm sure someone could go into the extra effort, and verify that with Google trends. I tend to stay away from Google wherever possible, so don't have the data to back up my claims.

If a company wants to build a loyal base of customers, they should just advertise here for a long period. Any signature campaign that has been operating for more than two years are usually highly trusted, and recommended even after they've stopped advertising. It sort of builds a trust not only with those visiting Bitcoin, but those advertising. At least, that's the pattern I've seen over the years.

I don't remember seeing it. But did one of these big exchanges ever run a subscription campaign here on the forum?

I am not sure about binance ever running a campaign here on bitcointalk, but one am sure of is mexc exchange, I think kucoin as well, there are several exchanges doing well right now that have one time, had a campaign on this forum, though I can't remember or recall all their names, but like I said earlier, I am not sure if binance has ever run a campaign here.

By the way, I search bitcointalk on Google search, and results appeared normally like it previously used to, that is bitcointalk forum appearing first on the search results, then followed by some other websites that have some bitcointalk mention in them, there is no trace of binance anywhere in the search result I got here.

If they paid for something then they probably paid for ads that included word Bitcoin, not Bitcointalk, but that ad could be posted by anyone.
I am not aware of any active representative of Binance exchange that is registered in forum and I didn't saw them writing or talking anything about this forum.
We should not really care what Binance exchange or anyone else is posting as ads, just use adblocker to hide them all, and this will save you much trouble down the line.
Having real Binance signature campaign would be only real sign showing they are targeting people from this forum.

They will pay for any keywords related to bitcoin. They spend a lot on advertising and they have got millions of traffic every month only by google PPC advertising.

Also, this keyword is not targeted by binance in my region. They target a huge amount of keywords in US google search engine.

Is bybit also considered a big exchange? Well it didn't last that long though.

I think I remember a Kucoin signature campaign too.

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Well out of curiosity I tried too and didn't see any result on Google but did try Microsoft Edge's Bing and this is what I got. A sponsored link to Binance academy as an ad at the top. It's unfortunate I didn't take a screenshot, but I swear to God, I saw it twice. Right now I can not reproduce it. I have tried several times, Coincidence?

If I am part of the marketing of Binance and working on Google ads I will do a lot of variation based on the density of the keyword research, it's not that they value Bitcointalk its just one of the keywords that come out in search queries based on the keyword, Bitcointalk is just a part but an important part of their campaign, and they varied from country to country and on user's experience, there may be a lot more because they have a huge budget being the top player and mover in the industry

I'm not worried, quite the opposite. I thought it was curious, because it had never happened.

Regarding the word, based on the knowledge I have of Google Ad, it was hardly based on the word "bitcoin", because the search was made for another word in the eyes of Google "bitcointalk". If he recognizes bitcoin+talk, he would suggest correcting the search for "bitcoin talk".

Now, I don't rule out that advertising was made by some user, trying to earn something in the affiliate program. Even so, I have some doubts, because Google even has some strict control in this regard, to avoid fraud.

I tried searching for bitcointalk using my local site and using a VPN but got the same result, no binance ads showing:

                        https://talkimg.com/images/2023/05/16/blob355dc4018797cd27.png

Maybe this is only in your country or some other country.

Or it is also possible that Google will use smart programs to know the sites that you visit frequently and send advertisements that suit your interests. This always happens as I see ads from Google that are compatible with the sites I visit permanently.

This was not the case, as I was using an anonymous browser that has no historical records of past browsing.

But it was really an isolated case, because I only saw it happen this time. By chance I managed to take a screenshot, if it wouldn't be hard to believe.

To be honest with you, that doesn't surprise me. After CZ tweeted in 2022 about a post that was made in this forum 13 years ago or so I concluded he has an operational account here. If not, how did CZ remember such a simple post that wasn't even elaborate. Come to think of it, I believe it's a good thing that Binance is doing stuff that cast this forum in good light and pushing it in the faces of people. I love that. I actually stumbled on this forum through Google search too from hitting CMC, getting to Bitcoin through that and then to this forum from there.

No, but I am using two ad blockers and they would get rid of the advertisements even if they existed. I see a link to the official forum, a link to Bitcointalk on bitcoinwiki, a Cointelegraph collection with the tag "bitcointalk", etc. There is also a link to the fake .com version high up in the search results.

I don't remember seeing that tweet. What post did he share? Since it was a post from such a long time ago, he might have seen it elsewhere on the internet in some references about historical bitcoin-related news or something. It wouldn't be that unusual.

It's a pretty common tactic, maybe not so much to undercut in this case (which is usually what they're trying to do), but to steer away similarly minded people to their exchange, because the "likeliness" of that outcome is definitely there.

They probably know something we don't, some kind of data set that would target specific geos/users/behaviors, but it obviously works for them to a certain extent.

Anyone notice in the last few weeks if google works a lot better like the glory days?
I have a feeling that OpenAI partnering with Microsoft sealed all these guys fate with the whole AdWords things.
I remember ~10 years ago google actually worked as long ask your keywording was good.
they slowly changed that to a surf for the answer motto and ruined a great product.
I'm sure everyone at alphabets scrambling right now to fight fire with fire.
GPT also showed how bogus search engines have really gotten.

Maybe he is talking about this one^[1] although the timeline is messed up, but he only retweet it, not tweet it as his own.

So CZ having an account here might not be 100% true, forum posts are public and this forum is known where bitcoin history is written all over the boards.

[1] https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1231638821504200704

OK, I see. To be honest, if that's the tweet in question, it can't connect CZ to the forum in any way. It only connects him to that Nathaniel Whittemore guy, who, btw, looks like a combination of Ricky Martin and Jim Jefferies. If those two hooked up and had a baby, Nathaniel would be the result of that love affair. If CZ follows Nathaniel, that's how he got the "inspiration" behind his tweet.

If Microsoft partners with chatGPT or Microsoft buys it I think they will replace it with bing or they will make it a paid software.
Google's search engine business will be harmed by that but I think not everyone will search on chatGPT or use it. Lets see what will be googles reaction.

maybe in each country it is different, google search in my country is still, if you write bitcointalk, what comes out is this forum site.
the search never changes, maybe your country is entered in a different keyword on binance.
maybe your country is specialized in promotion of binance, so there is a change like that.

Yes, there are two years ago Kucoin run a signature campaign here  [PAUSED] Kucoin Futures Signature Campaign | Full Member+ | Up to 0.005 BTC/week  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5254866.0) and there is another exchange that runs their ICO here although they are not yet a big exchange they could soon be that exchange is  Nominex, during the heydays of ICO based token there are a lot of them launch a bounty and a signature campaign but unfortunately they failed to reach their full potential, it pays to run a signature campaign here but now exchanges prefer to strengthen their affiliate program or Adwords campaign to recruit new members.

 Well they reacted alright!!!

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/google-employees-scramble-for-answers-after-layoffs-hit-long-tenured-and-recently-promoted-employees/ar-AA16B6pQ

It seems they even laid off some of the AI department as well.
I dont see how Microsoft could implement GPT without leaking tons of data through gpt.
but a gpt powered cortana sounds neat integrated in travel/scheduling and marketing and whatnot.
knowing what I know about MLLM I wouldn't trust it enough to throw it this far though.
looks like its probably time to sell alphabet.

No, that's not it. I just hate that I didn't screenshot to save it when I saw it. I've looked for it since your comment but can't find it. It ducks really, knowing you once saw something but can't produce it as an evidence.

Nope, that wasn't the tweet I was referring to. The tweet in question was made way back than the one PX-Z shared. It's absurd I can't trace it again. Hopefully, someone can dig it out.

I am also using ad blockers to get rid of these phissy ads and links but after this post tried it from different devices to see if there's any add popping up even with VPN usage to see from various regions but didn't find any such advertisement from Binance and the only link visibles are the one's you said and I have said in my previous post about Cointelegraph like.

But @OP have you tried searching it again like maybe it was for limited time only that somehow caught your attention? As nobody else have seen the link from Binance but we all know how they always want to gain traffic from such marketing and ads but targetting specifically the forum seems not a good idea to me as you would gain newbies attention not the regular forum members who knows the the true picture of CZ and CEX Binance.

I've only seen it once, on different computers and different locations. I know of a Brazilian user where he also saw the ad two or three times. It was really some momentary or testing campaign, as I didn't see the announcement again until today.

I already thought about the possibility that the ad was from someone with an affiliate link. But, I have some doubts that this was it, because usually Google tries to control it well, to avoid false links.

ChatGPT was never meant to be a free service indefinitely. It's currently free because it's still in development and they are testing and configuring it to produce the best possible results. I think their plan was to keep it in this stage until March.

Google has already reacted by instructing their engineers to focus on the creation of their own AI technology solutions. Considering what a budget this company has, it might become spectacular. More competition also equals to more choices for end-users and more affordable prices for businesses who can benefit from this tech. And with that, I don't mean posting with it on Bitcointalk. ;D 

$42 a month

Google has already reacted by instructing their engineers to focus on the creation of their own AI technology solutions. Considering what a budget this company has, it might become spectacular. More competition also equals to more choices for end-users and more affordable prices for businesses who can benefit from this tech. And with that, I don't mean posting with it on Bitcointalk. ;D 
[/quote]
Too little too late. Googles been winning almost 20 years, looks like they tripped on their own feet at the finish line and GPT has the lead now.

Aha! @Pmalek and PX-Z, I finally found the text I was looking for. Ok, CZ didn't refer to a comment made here. Rather, he made a screenshot of Satoshi's profile to make the tweet (through official Binance) and retweet (through his CZ account). Here it is. I guess the little mistake on my part earlier was me not even remembering that I actually responded in a thread that mentioned something like that. Well, better late than never.

https://i.imgur.com/ChVP4nL.png

Source link: https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1602765573536071681?t=WbQantrob5Npe7xqwUU5Tg&s=19

Average monthly searches for the keyword bitcointalk in Portugal is between 100 and 1000.
https://i.imgur.com/neHb8FZ.png

---

But the average aound the world looks like to be between 10K and 100K.
https://i.imgur.com/xjQ5iJe.png

I can confirm that the advertisement isn't visible in Germany and in Ireland (without VPN).
I think it doesn't worth for them to run advertisement on this keyword but I don't even see any ad on Bitcoin keyword too.

And this is what I do all the time when I see the advertisement of company that I am not grateful of :D

The volume of data that ChatGPT collects right now from the people, is just very valuable. It not only collects the data but also determines little psychology of people by letting people to ask AI any kind of questions.
Remember, when something is free, you are the product.

Although many today want to distance themselves from this forum, there is no way to escape it. It was in this forum that it all started and it was here that the creator of Bitcoin, I interact with the community.

That's why, even though other forms of communication are used today, he continued to think that this forum is the main one, to talk about these topics!



Thanks for the info. Despite that, it's a word with a low cost, so it's not hard to allocate a little money to use that word.

Same with me, I just believe that what happened to OP is the SEO of Binance went high and therefore tends to increase binance ranking that particular region.
Bitcointalk.org is a very strong url which cannot be easily displaced. In Gambling it rules. When you type any thing relating to crypto gambling.

Again I know CZ knows this forum and there's nothing so difficult for him to do. Everything to keep business going is possible to do.

It might appear unethical to members here but it is not illegal. Their advertising team must have coordinated well with the legal team before deciding keywords.

Today I saw the ad again. It's starting to be more regular, even though it only appears very punctually.

https://i.ibb.co/rmFhGpt/bit-gg.jpg

They really have some money invested in this word, and are taking advantage of the low cost of it.

For that low of a cost per click and low keyword difficulty, they probably have some "math" to it on their end for this investment.

There is no such rule restricting the usage of the keywords but you only have to pay for your ads to be shown if you have categorised under that category so whenever some user input the keywords in search bar the ads will be displayed to him if he/she has not enabled ad blockers.But if Binance is trying to attract people with such keywords then it's cheap tactics as they don't have any link up with forum and they are doing it for personal profits only which is unethical.

I don't know why others are not able to see that particular advertisement from Binance in your region or any other one and you are seeing it on regular basis? Have you tried it on any other device and still seeing that particular ad?

I haven't seen it on other devices.
So far I've only seen it on a device that I search for "bitcointalk" in anonymous browser mode, that is, it doesn't even keep browsing history. And what's also strange is that it only appears once. That is, when I repeat the search it does not appear again. :-\

I know that someone has already seen it in Brazil. I'm from Portugal. Perhaps something to do with the language.

Like I said, I kind of expect companies to do this. It's probably a lower competition key word, and the forum still even today gets decent traffic. Not as much as "Bitcoin Reddit" I bet.

I suppose, but the advertising industry hasn't got the best reputation for ethics. Especially, certain industries. Although, I don't think they're doing too much harm. They're just trying to generate more revenue, and Bitcointalk as a keyword will have less competition. Although, I'd have thought they've got enough money to compete on the more popular keywords too.

I haven't used Google's search engine in a very long time now, but don't they sort of cycle through a bunch of adverts, so even if you did refresh it might not be the same advert displayed? That's usually, how adverts work across the board, I just can't remember how Google does it. So, you could just get unlucky, and not see that advert for a while, but they're still paying for it.

Does it get replaced by another advert when it's not there?

When refreshing the ad disappears. As I say, at most I only see this once.

In that place, only this Binance ad appears, when it does not appear, the place has no advertisement.