Google to Change Adwords Display URL Policy
Posted on February 11th, 2008 in PPC Search
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Word on the street is, Google is changing the display URL policy for Adwords on April 1st. This is most likely in response to the recent gaming of adsense by a few individuals who are able to completely dominate the entire page of adwords ads with nearly identical ads.
The supposed changes are as follows:
- You can no longer use fake display urls. The domain in your display url must match the url of the final destination exactly. No more using nickycocks.com as your display url in an effort to show up on the same page as an ad going to nickycakes.com, even if you own nickycocks.com and it redirects to nickycakes.com. This essentially means that no 2 people can show up on the same page and be advertising the same website. How to circumvent: Let’s just say, prepare for i-framed landing pages ad nauseam.
- You can still use a redirect, but the final landing page that the user sees MUST match the display url exactly. You can use a tracking link if you want still, but the final destination url must match your display url. How to circumvent: See previous “how to circumvent.”
So yeah, this will really only affect you if you are currently doing direct-to-offer stuff on adwords, and not using an intermediate landing page. Get ready to start putting all your offers in i-frames on your own domain.
Also of note, and probably the most important. This means on April 1st, tons of peoples ads are going to likely get disabled. Only one person is going to be able to show up on a page with the same display url, so look for a lot of people scrambling to get a high QS from scratch to compete for that one spot.
February 11th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Ha…good thing I never redirect with adwords. Now if MSN or Yahoo did this I would have a lot of work to do…
February 11th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Having done straight to merchant, I can say it’s pretty shitty. Not to mention the merchant won’t install your tracking on the thankyou page (or make a custom one for you, unless you’re a super-aff, but if you are super, you’re not doing straight to merchant ppc). This is going to affect newbies mostly.
That said, it’ll be interesting to see if it’s at the page level too. Can you still advertise nickycakes.com/viagra if you have no such page (it’s really /buy-the-damn-pills-now.php)? Could mean a loooot of artificial pages and redirects going on.
On a related note, check out mikkel demib’s blackhat ppc, and the followup on ppcblog or something. You may also like my ppc to cpm arbitrage stuff and my interview with mikkel (2 parts; 1 at seomoz, the other’s on my site).
February 11th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Some networks, like neverblue (http://www.nickycakes.com/links/neverblue) let you install tracking pixels without even asking the merchant.
I also know plenty of “super affiliates” who do tons of direct to offer ppc.
February 11th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
A 301 is always good approach for landing and analytics then redirecting so your URLs match
February 12th, 2008 at 4:22 am
What is it with google doing stuff on April the 1st. Is that a sneaky way of getting something through without much hoo ha.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/04/01/google-really-takes-april-1-seriousy/
I do have a recollection of them doing a real product on that day also.
February 13th, 2008 at 10:32 am
Search affiliates are the worst. Know your role. Theres no f’n way Id pay commisions to any aff. search program. The price to set up and run your own program is a fraction of over paying some search aff. that just abuses the rules to surpass corp. marketing efforts.
February 13th, 2008 at 10:39 am
mike: As a merchant, you have the option of either risking your own money on marketing, or letting experienced affiliate marketers risk their own money to advertise for you. I’m not exactly sure what the drawback is for running an affiliate program in this case.
February 14th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
I already can’t use B.S display URL’s in adwords. every time i try i get dissaproved, citing “Display URL does not match landing page content” happens to all my bs display urls after a few hours…
February 24th, 2008 at 10:54 am
I also faced a similar situation, when I happened to own a “black listed” site, having an extra round-abouts and asked for Adwords inclusion. Still figurinbg out a way to get in.