Text Link Ads Messaging FAIL

This is my user-experience story with Text Link Ads, relayed here not to bash the company, but to provide insight into an important aspect of company messaging. It would be fun if the Text Link Ads people showed up, and even better if they took steps to fix the problems I’m highlighting. But this isn’t a post to inspire a customer service crisis, or to demand better service.

The story starts with my redesign of this blog a couple months ago. I thought the blog looked better afterward, I thought it was presenting a better image, and I saw it was attracting better traffic. I figured, too, that it was time to put some ads up and take advantage of some of that traffic. I had heard of Text Link Ads before, and had heard good things. They’re supposedly strong in the startup community, and are doing cool new things with a tired old medium. That was important to me, so I checked them out.

When I got to the site, a lot of my excitement over the product seemed to be confirmed. There was a promotional video featuring influential bloggers I respect, telling viewers they recommend the product. The website was well-designed, with many of the backend features I expected. The messaging was good too, encouraging me to take a few simple steps to start making money on my blog, without cheapening the look or selling my soul. I had seen enough, so I signed up, started the process, and prepared myself for a positive user experience.

You can then probably imagine my disappointment a couple days later, when I received an email telling me I had been rejected for the service. The letter read:

Unfortunately, at this time we feel that your site http://www.brianlburns.com, does not meet our internal requirements to be accepted into the InLinks publishing program. We recommend that you continue marketing your website and generate a significant more amount of traffic to your site.

By itself, there’s nothing wrong with the message here. It’s perfectly reasonable for them to display their ads only on the sites they want, dependent on traffic, design, influence, or whatever else. What’s wrong here, was that this was the first time I was aware that my website was being judged for its eligibility. Nowhere in their original messaging does it indicate that a site has to meet certain requirements, and nowhere does it mention their criteria for rejection or acceptance. In other words, I didn’t know I was taking a test until I failed it. They set me up for rejection from high expectations, without giving me ample notice or time to prepare.

To me, this is a messaging FAIL. It indicates an overemphasis on the sale, where their copy promises whatever it takes to get you to the next step in the process. Their process, though, cannot uphold the promises of their copy, and thus, the process inevitably leads to a disappointing deadend at some point. When it does, neither side is well served - Text Link Ads has to spend time rejecting me when I could have otherwise self selected myself out of the process, and I go away from the interaction with a negative experience.

I believe Text Link Ads would be much better served to construct a more candid and realistic message about their selection process. I think they should promise less, and deliver more. Even if their numbers would seem to dip at first, their brand would grow better, and their longterm numbers would grow along with it.

The same goes for any such company committing the same messaging FAIL. I suggest you give up a little now to be honest, and gain a lot later from your honesty. Build your community now, and reap the rewards later.

Takeaway Question: Is your messaging accurately representing your company, or are you setting you and your customers up for inevitable disappointment? Also, are you doing everything possible to ensure your copy not only improves sales, but improves customer relationships and builds your community?