I Missed the Boat

When did it become OK to enter fake URLs into the display URL of adwords advertisements?

 

Do you mean they dont work? not sure what you mean by fake?

 

I've recently noticed several websites advertising URLs that do not exist on their domain. It's obvious it's just for eye catching

 

Well, a trick for sure. I am not sure it is against Google TOS, but for sure it's not a nice thing to do. If I say Great OS and I show microsoft.com and then link to my site which provides OS for some other devices for ex, it is not right.

The question is how well these ads convert, cause people may leave the site once they realize they've been scammed.

 

Since your display URL can only be 35 characters, there's no way that Google could force you to display the complete URL, so their guidelines say that the display URL must give users a clear idea of where the advert will take them.

https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=6314

 

You cant just make up a display URL to make your Ad stand out - once big G finds out they will just make your campaign inactive until you rectify it.

Pretty pointless really

 

AS long as the domain is correct, there are no problems. It is VERY common practice to have the display URL YourDomain.com/Keyword-Combination

Even if the directory /Keyword-Combination does not exist. As long as it is not misleading, then it's fine.

 

Yes, you can.

If your website name is more than 35 characters, you've got no choice!

As long as the website is right (you can't pretend to be somebody you aren't) Google have no problems with it, since you aren't misleading people - in fact, a display URL is generally more useful than the true URL would be...

 

Is it possible to put dynamic text in this field?

 

No, you cant enter dynamic text in the the display url. The only place you can add dynamic text on adwords is within the title tag - as in {Keyword: Default title}.
See my post on this

 

Not true - you can insert text on any of the top three lines - I've never tried it on the Display URL line, so I can't comment on that.

 

I don't find this to be the case. I find advertisements that lead the user to believe the website possibly has a dedicated section when it may not.

There is no legitimate reason google should be allowing people to put in fake URLs into the display URL.

If a webmaster choses a domain &/or path structure that's too long, that's their problem. It should not be the users problem, nor un-fair to those who chose unique/short domains &/or actual dedicated paths.

This is clearly misleading to users regarding trust & authenticity of the advertisement.

 

Jimbob. You are incorrect. You can dynamically insert keywords into ANY part of your ad, not just the title.

 

Yes, that is one thing you CAN do with the dispaly URL.

Using fake directories that are simply the common keyword in your ad group is a great way to draw attention to your ad since it will be bolded.

 

Well you learn something new every day <grin> I wasn't aware you could use the {Keyword: Default title} on any of the description lines.
However, it would make for some weird descriptions were you to use this in practice.

 

Yea, you have to be careful how you word things and what pick the right (exact) matching options.

 

Reading is fundamental.....

 

How do you put it in the display URL? I tried and failed

 

It's allowed and can really improve ctr.

 

Yeah but what will happens when I will have my 31 letters domain?

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