Archive for the ‘Disapproved Ads’ category

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.

……….

Article by:  +Kim ClinkunbroomerClinks Web Service  a  Google AdWords Partner Company

Subscribe: RSS Feeds  |  Follow me on Twitter

15 comments »

Posted in AdWords Policies, Disapproved Ads

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.

79 comments »

Posted in Affiliates, Disapproved Ads

© 2008 - 2011 AdWords Help Experts.com
AdWords Help Experts is not in any way Affiliated with Google®