Archive for the ‘AdWords Policies’ category

New Round of AdWords Suspensions for Landing Page & Site Quality Guidelines

February 18th, 2010

Looks like Google has begun another round of suspensions on advertisers who violate Landing Page & Site Quality Guidelines.

I received frantic calls and emails from 4 different advertisers yesterday (2/17/10) who all received a final warning from Google stating their accounts were to be suspended if their landing page quality score issues were not fixed immediately.

Here is an Excerpt from a Google Email:

Landing Page Quality Violations

Advertisers Receiving Emails from Google

These emails need to be taken seriously because advertisers who do not act immediately do run the risk of suspension from Google AdWords.

This issue is extremely difficult for advertisers because Google shares very little info about *why* these advertisers are in violation of site quality guidelines.  Google shares a small list of the possible reasons a landing page can be of poor quality but there are many other reasons for low landing page quality.  Many advertisers have no idea what they are doing wrong and Google will not give advertisers much direction when it comes to exactly what the issue is and how they can fix it.

If you are facing a possible suspension for Landing Page & Site Quality Guidelines and do not know what is wrong with your website there are services such as the AdWordsPI who can help you identify your issue.

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Kim Clinkunbroomer, GAP

Posted by: Kim Clinkunbroomer, GAP

Owner of Clinks Web Service & AdWordsPI in Chicago, Illinois

Twitter: Kim Clink on Twitter – AWHE on Twitter

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Posted in AdWords Policies, News, Suspended Accounts

AdWords: Policy Adjustments for Display URLs on Shared Domains

January 18th, 2010

Recent changes to display URL policy for sites that sit on shared or hosted domains may have some advertisers finding their ads disapproved.

Google used blog URL’s as a great example in a recent Inside AdWords post.

Google’s Example:

“Let’s say I wanted to create an ad linking to this blog: http://adwords.blogspot.com. In the past, blogspot.com would have been an acceptable display URL. Because there are so many independent blogs hosted on http://blogspot.com however, we now require the display URL to reflect the specific blog reached upon clicking the ad– in this case: adwords.blogspot.com.”

For advertisers that have found their ads disabled minor changes need to be made to correct the URL.

Example of an incorrect URL setup:

destination URL:  http://www.yourblog.blogspot.com

display URL:  blogspot.com (incorrect)

….

Example of a correct URL setup:

destination URL:  http://www.yourblog.blogspot.com

display URL:  yourblog.blogspot.com (correct)

Google states that:

“Going forward, ads that don’t include this additional information in their display URLs will be disapproved. A suggested display URL will be provided in the disapproval email notification, but we encourage you to proactively adjust any ads that you think might be affected by this change.”

I am unsure if this policy change will effect existing advertisers or only new advertisers.  Googles wording indicates it effects new advertisers only.  If I find info indicating it effects current advertisers I will post an update.

Posted by: Kim Clinkunbroomer, GAP, AdWords Top Contributor

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Posted in AdWords Policies, News

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No More Exceptions on Display URLs that exceed 35 characters

November 20th, 2009

Today I corresponded with a member of the AdWords help forum where I work as a Top Contributor.  The member informed us that he was not able to file for an exception to the display URL 35 character limit.  He received a response from Google to his exception request stating the following:

“Initially for URLs exceeding character limit we used to give exception on a case-by-case basis. However, please note we’ve revised our guideline on short display URL exception and sorry to inform you that we no longer provide exceptions to the display URL policy for domains that exceed the character space, which is limited to 35 characters for text ads and 20 characters for mobile ads.”

Not allowing exceptions is going to require advertisers to take out a new domain name.

How will this effect advertisers who have already been provided an exception?  When they enter a new campaign or ad group will they be stopped and required to obtain a new URL under the 35 character limit?

Tip for advertisers who encounter this problem.  Try dropping the www from your URL name and see if you can get under the 35 character limit.

UPDATE:

After speaking with Google customer support I have learned that this new policy taking effect today 11/20/09 will effect all advertisers who have been given an exception in the past.  In other words they will now receive notification of disapproved at text in relation to all their display URL’s.

I asked the Google Rep to tell me what Google’s suggestion was for these advertisers and she told me the only option was to get a new domain.  Google is enforcing this policy in the best interests of user experience so that potential visitors are given more transparency about the domains they will be visiting.

This could have a negative impact on many advertisers who will now have to take a second domain and create a mirrored site.  Many people have too much vested in their now disapproved URL to let it go.

……….

Kim Clinkunbroomer, GAP

Posted by: Kim Clinkunbroomer, GAP

Owner of Clinks Web Service & AdWordsPI in Chicago, Illinois

Twitter: Kim Clink on Twitter – AWHE on Twitter

Subscribe to Kim Clink on YouTube

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Posted in AdWords Policies, Disapproved Ads

Disabled for Low Landing Page Quality Score

November 17th, 2009

Google Takes on Poor Landing Pages in an effort to improve user experience.

A new round of AdWords bans were brought to advertisers attention by Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Land November 16, 2009.

Barry Schwartz writes…”Google will begin to notify advertisers that they have been permanently banned. They will receive an email with details of this ban and the email will explain how to appeal the ban. I am told that banned advertisers can reply to the email to start the “appeals process.” Every reply should get a response from a dedicated Google representative.”

A Sample of the messaging that advertisers see:

“We are writing to let you know that your Google AdWords account has been disabled due to one or more serious violations of our advertising policies related to Landing Page and Site Quality.  As a result, your ads will no longer run through the Google AdWords system and we are unable to accept advertising from you in the future.  Please note that future accounts you open will also be disabled.

As part of our commitment to making the AdWords experience safe and effective for our users and our advertisers, we routinely review the landing pages that our advertisers promote through our search and content networks.  If we find that an advertiser has submitted a landing page that egregiously violates our policies, we reserve the right to take immediate account-level action.

Landing pages advertised via AdWords must have relevant, original content, and must be transparent about the nature of the business being promoted. Further, advertising certain types of sites will lead to immediate account disabling.  These types of sites include, but are not limited to:

* Sites that charge users or collect personal information in exchange for a product that is never delivered
* Sites that charge for “free” software
* Sites that trick users into paying for fake or poor-quality content
* Sites that charge users for information that makes unrealistic promises of financial or personal gain
* Sites that install malware software on a visitor’s computer”

Good on Google’s part to provide messaging and also a relief to see advertisers have the ability to appeal the ban.  This is a new way of handing bans by Google and I am glad to see them go in this direction.

Update: AWP (AdWordsPro) in the adwords forum stated when replying in a help thread today:

“For those advertisers who have received this email, the one way to ask further questions and/or dispute the decision is to reply directly to the email. Doing so will send your reply directly to the right team – whereas contacting AdWords support in any other way will not.”

Posted by: Kim Clinkunbroomer, GAP

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Posted in AdWords Policies, Disabled Accounts, Suspended Accounts, Uncategorized

Display URL for Affiliates

March 12th, 2009

Since an increasing percentage of the users of the AdWords Forum are new affiliates, this article is meant to cover a common misunderstading leading to problems with the Display URL. Basically when you are creating an ad you have to complete 2 URL fields: the Display URL field and the Destination URL field.  It is the Display URL field that is shown to a Google Search user, on the search results page, while it is the Destination URL that determines where the user will be taken on clicking on your sponsored link which is another name for an advert.

Figure

* The figure shows the moment a new advert is being created. What is surprising you in the above configuration relative to the 2 URLs?
.
After a few days of study, most new affiliates seem to be knowledgeable about the requirement that the Display URL should match the Destination URL. What does the word *match* mean in this context? It means that the domain names associated with the 2 URLs should be identical. The usual problem for affiliates is generally associated with the fact that most of them are registered with one of the major affiliate networks, sush as ClickBank, Commission Junction (CJ) or ShareASale. As a rule, these networks provide their affiliates with affiliate links (or HopLink at ClickBank) that don’t match the website URL of the online merchant. In fact, these affiliate links are tracking URLs, serving statistical and reporting purposes, that redirect to the particular webpage of the online merchant.
 
And that’s the root of the problem. When your Destination URL is a tracking URL the known rule is simply not true. The Display URL is not supposed to match the Destination URL when it’s a tracking URL. In such cases, the Display URL has to match the URL of your Landing Page which is the webpage the user will be taken to on clicking on your advert displayed on the user’s search result page. Of course, the Landing Page is, in most cases, a page of the website of the online merchant.
 
  
ShareASale is one of the popular affiliate networks and the above URLs are the details of an old experimental advert, not in use any more. HomeLivingStyle used to be an online merchant participating in the network. The Destination URL was the affiliate link provided by the network. In fact, it was a tracking URL so that the network was able to keep records of clicks the online merchant received from the affiliate link via the network. It redirected to a product page of the website of the online merchant, namely to a page selling some sorts of electric fireplaces on the HomeLivingStyle website.
 
The striking thing in the above URL configuration is that the Display URL does not match the Destination URL - because it shouldn’t. When a user clicked on the advert he was taken to:
 
 
which was a workable page of the online merchant in those days. It was what we call the Landing Page. Remember, that in fact, the Display URL is supposed to match the Landing Page URL when your affiliate link is a tracking URL. In such cases, the Destination URL is different from the Landing Page. The former only serves tracking purposes while the latter is an actual page on the merchants website.

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Posted in Affiliates, Disapproved Ads