Time to Clean Up!
Ive been meaning to write about this for a couple weeks but have been a tad busy with various pressing matters so here goes. The announcement in question from Google can be read here.
Basically this means that the actual display url used in adwords PPC adverts will have to match EXACTLY the landing page domain. So what does this mean for paid search affiliates?
The Redirect
Most large sites have registered several domain names to cover themselves, usually the .com, .co.uk or .net. Now because it is not wise or sensible in Google’s eyes to have domains with mirrored content most merchants will redirect (301) to the main domain where the majority of the content lies. Usually the .com or .co.uk.
Clever affiliates can take advantage of this by using one of the limited slots available on the SERPS to get their ad shown even if another affiliate (or the merchant) is using the dominant domain url for their own campaign.
Lets say a merchant is using cheapholidays.com for their own PPC campaign, both brand and generics. They also own the domain cheapholidays.co.uk. The .co.uk domain redirects to the main domain cheapholidays.com. Therefore the affiliate can use the .co.uk domain in their own PPC campaign and the merchants has twice the coverage in any given SERPS for a targeted keyword. Add in other domain extensions and you can see where this goes…
The same happens with display urls missing the protocol prefix. For example http://www.adomain.com and http://adomain.com are presently considered unique domain urls in the adwords system.
Of course this makes a mockery of the ‘one domain per result’ rule that is put forward by Google and hence this crackdown has come into play – long overdue in my opinion.
Grubby
Im sure a fair few affiliates use this method and just quickly I have found this example for Pitchwell TV on AW. At the time of writing this I can see both a protocol ad and a domain redirect ad in place there. So the merchant (or affiliate on the dominant url) is competing with 3 other bidders who should not be there according to the adwords clampdown.
It would be good to get some merchants opinions on this as some will stand to lose out with less coverage in the SERPS from affiliates bidding via their redirecting URLs.
March 20th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Good spot! This was always frowned upon by Google, it was 50/50 if you got away with it depending on the Google rep moderating your ad or if you got spidered.
This will affect the more creative affiliates out there as you say, but then if your business was built around trying to break the rules or bend them in this instance then perhaps its their own short sightedness.
Long overdue IMO too as it gives AM a bad name.