Forum Moderators: martinibuster
The ad copy promotes some service in my niche, nicely written, then it presents a URL that goes to, let's say, www.widget-service-find.tld
I looked at the target URL, and it was NOT www.widget-service-find.tld, but an affiliate program with a unique identifier to track the click. Ho-hum. I never liked these, but have recently accepted these guys.
Two or three ads down in the Preview Tool, I saw the exact same ad copy, different URL, like, www.widgetabcd-guide.ws - Again, the URL is the very same affiliate program with the very same (!) unique ID.
What the heck is going on? I was under the impression that URLs mentioned in ads need to be "the real target URLs" not some re-direct. Also, why is the tool presenting the same ads from the same advertiser on the same page? Something is definitely wrong here.
BTW, I have been seeing again a massive drop in CTR to levels unknown before. So far, I am still waiting for the positive effects of QS to the content network.
Spot-on, I'm in travel sector. :-)
Looks like Google has still a mile and a half to go before their ad quality really goes up again.
So the real question is why don't they enforce their ToS on the advertisers and leave us stuck with the advertisers that break the ToS? [us being both the publishers and the general public]
...We also monitor and don't allow the following:
* Redirect URLs: Ads that contain Display URLs that automatically redirect to the parent company.
* Bridge Pages: Ads for webpages that act as an intermediary, whose sole purpose is to link or redirect traffic to the parent company.
* Framing: Ads for webpages that replicate the look and feel of a parent site.
I figured it was permitted to use affiliate redirect URLs, so long as the URL that you're redirected to is the one that shows in the ad copy.
If this isn't allowed, then someone had better tell the hundred-odd affiliates on cj.com that actually encourage affiliates to create AdWords ads that redirect with their tracking code. (So long as those affiliates don't tread on the parent company's toes by bidding on trademarked keywords, etc.)
Cabo
Looks like Google has still a mile and a half to go before their ad quality really goes up again.
i am on the other side of the barricade.
waiting for google to take care of poor publishers so that i can advertise on your site :P
Widgets
Seek Widgets?
Find it on eBay.be!
www.eBay.be
[Translation is mine, was local language]
with a link (preview tool) not to ebay, but to: http: //www.example.com/redirectscript?url=http://www.ebay.be/long-string
They are a pain to block with the filter. As you need to find them in all geo locations to start with, and they move domains all too often.
Personally:
[edited by: martinibuster at 4:40 pm (utc) on Nov. 12, 2006]
[edit reason] Removed religious reference. See [url=http://www.webmasterworld.com/help.cgi?cat=tos] [/edit]
