We all know that "free" is used 99 % as a lie.
It does increase the CTR, ok , it's not good for ROI , but still , it takes a place in the adsense against real and honest advertizers, and does increase the price of bids because of it ...

My opinion, is for google to be a bit harder about the use of this word.

Any opinion ?

If I was testing a crackpot theory like this I'd ask myself "would any legitimate use of the word 'free' be penalised?".

There are many 'legitimate' uses of this word, so it makes no sense to treat it any differently.

Originally Posted by gringo

If I was testing a crackpot theory like this I'd ask myself "would any legitimate use of the word 'free' be penalised?".

There are many 'legitimate' uses of this word, so it makes no sense to treat it any differently.

I agree. I don't actually use adwords. But I use 'free' in other ads. and I'm not spamming.

You need to dig down and find long tail keywords