Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:17/04/2023

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Hello, I paid for 150,000 direct ad impressions from the *********** ******* Advertising package through Glacier Media Group. The total amount paid was $1,540.00 plus GST, and ran from October 1-14th, 2022 during our last municipal election in Burnaby, B.C. However, I did not see a single ad of mine, despite being told that even keyword searches associated with the election would garner results. I have also spoken to 2 other candidates, *** M***** Kendall and *** R**** Dong, who also ran in the election and paid for the same type of advertising. I personally only saw 1 ad for *** R**** Dong between the 3 candidates during the 14 days. We have also asked friends and voters if they have seen any of our ads and nobody was able to find our ads. However, I only saw non stop advertising for all of the candidates for the Burnaby Citizens Association (BCA) party, a political party that also ran candidates for the same municipal election.

  Business Response

  Date: 19/05/2023

  The results of **. **** digital campaign for the election were extremely favourable as you can see from the results below and attached.  With his investment, 422 residents in ******* of voting age actually clicked to on his ad to learn more.  These are fantastic results and pulled directly from ******.  The industry average click through rate is .10% so you can see at .28% is a phenomenal result for his small investment.  
  
   
  
  The population of ******* is ******* and while our campaign resulted at above average results, only 422 people saw his ad.  So it is not surprising that he and some of his friends did not.  We can't guarantee that an advertiser will see their own ad on their device, so we rely on ****** to provide us with the data showing impressions served, which ads performed well and which device generated the best click through rate.  We also have included a screen shot of **. **** ad as it appeared on *** website which was one of the domains used. 
  
   
  
  
  
   
  
   
  
  Please let me know if you have any questions and it's unfortunate ********** was not successful in winning his seat in the ******* election.  He did receive ***** votes or ****% overall and the advertising report does show that 422 people were interested to read more about his platform due to his advertising investment with **. 
  
  Thank you,
  
  *********************, Regional Publisher, Burnaby Now, New West Record and *************

  Customer Answer

  Date: 25/05/2023

  As per my original complaint email. I paid $1,540.00 + GST for ******* direct ad impressions from the Programmatic Digital Advertising. As you can see the editor for Glacier Media, ******************** response stated that I had 422 actual clicks on this ad and as a result only 422 people saw this ad.
  
  This is well below the ******* ad hits that I was promised when I was sold this advertising vehicle. In fact the agent told me that I will even exceed the ******* hits to my ad. I was told that during the 2 weeks of this type of advertising that anybody can search words such as my name (******* ***), election, *************** election, ******* candidate, vote, councillor and etc that my ad would show up. I had numerous citizens, supporters that I knew as well as my volunteers searching for my ads through this advertising but could not find a single ad with images of me or of my campaign.
  
  I contacted Glacier Media during the 2 weeks of the advertising campaign telling them that I was not able to see my ad campaign and was told that my ads randomly would show up and that I *** never see my own ad. This is false advertising as I was told that I can see my ad by just entering anything related to the "election".
  
  I am seeking a full refund of $1,540.00 + $77.00 GST = $1,617.00 to have this case resolved.
  
  Please let me know if you need any copies of the invoice from Glacier Media or anything else that *** help you resolve this matter quickly.
  
  Sincerely,
  ******* ***

  Business Response

  Date: 25/05/2023

  Hi there,

  You are getting a bit confused with the terminology so let me explain.

  We did deliver ******* ad impressions which means your ad appeared ******* times without that user taking action or clicking on the ad.  422 people clicked on the ad to learn more - which is where the amazing click through rate of ****% came from where the average is .10%.

  You bought programmatic advertising which is based on user intent delivering ads to them after they are on a chosen site and left, searching for the keywords chosen on a search engine (NOT ******* and reading about content we have chosen to target on any site plus geographic location.  So it serves your ad to people who are on various sites reading about the keywords we chose.  If you type those keywords into ******* the ad would not appear and yes.

  And yes, it would pick the exact parameters so you would see your ad - this was explained fully to you by our account manager.  This is also why we provided you with the very detailed report showing exactly where the ads were delivered, which ad units worked best and the number of people who clicked on your ad which was higher than industry standard as well as a screen shot of your ad on a site.

  Again, I am sorry you did not win the election, but based on the results of this campaign, we delivered more than above average results with a very small budget.