Hiya... As we all know the display url plays a part in ad placement on Google. For instance, an amazon affiliate might have a displayed url like www.amazon.com/uk instead of wwww.amazon.co.uk. He might also want to make reference to his product eg. www.amazon.co.uk/brandx My question is, is it OK to construct a display url that looks like this: www.[B]brandx.[/B]amazon.co.uk ? Ta
I don't think so. You can add subtopic, you can change the ending (like co.uk, .com), but I don't think that you can change that actual domain name or add anything before or after it.
Yep - you're dead right. I have just (literally 30 seconds ago) finished chatting with a representative from Google. Adding words within a domain (to, in effect create a sub-domain) is not allowed. But extra words on the end are fine. Cheers.
You are misinformed. The only part that needs to match is the domain (domain.com). Something such as "magazines.domain.com" is perfectly fine, even if magazines.domain.com doesn't actually exist. See https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=guidelines.cs&topic=9271&subtopic=9280 - it says should match the domain of your landing page, and in my 2 years of experience & large spends, it's 100% allowed.
I use these fake subdomains all the time in my work and have never encountered any problems with them, you'll be fine to use them too i think.
this works? I remember from readon on AdW help that its the domain they're looking at...so according to what i read it doesnt matter whether you make "somefakedomain.domain.com"..it is still considered "... . domain.com" and if some competitor uses this URL you cant use this?!?!?!?
Have just got home and I have had a reply from Google (see above) regarding the creation of what might be termed subdomains for displayed url's. An exerpt: This of course contradicts what the G chap said in chat last night. Cool.
The thing about the google "chaps" is they're know jack about how the system really works. They only know what they're trained and that is to be as vague and useless as possible. Even the "account reps" for the big spenders know jack. It's not their fault, it's just the way google wants it.
I don't get it, are they suggesting you can have a fake display url? I'm pretty confused about what google says they allow, and what actually gets through. I've seen plenty of ads that have a certain display url only to come up as a blocked url. Meaning. I am not blocking somerandomdisplayurl.com BUT I am more than likely blocking the real url that I'm being sent to. Google says you can't redirect, but if you goto cj.com and pick up a keyword link, isn't that effectively a redirected link?
The displayed url and the full actual url of the ad must both point to the same domain. However, you can play with the display url a bit, just as long as the domain remains unchanged. ie you can add /brandx on the end of it, or insert brandx to create a subdomain. Just as long as the main domain eg amazon.co.uk remains intact. Comes in handy when other advertisers are using the same or similar display url as yourself. Its not really a 'fake' url - more like you are stretching the truth with it, just a little
You have to play with display url, because Google doesn't display two ads with exactly same urls. So you have to make your one unique.
Adding a subdomain will not make a unique display URL. All that Google looks for - whether for the "no two ads with the same display URL" rule or for the "visible URL must match destination URL" rule - is the actual domain part (the part right before the .com, .co.uk, etc...). For example, if two advertisers are using adwords.google.com and adsense.google.com URLs on the same keyword, only one of the two ads will show.
funny how I just found this out a couple hours ago. But it is still showing, plus I have nice little google checkout symbol on my ad.
If the shoe fits wear it, use subdomain, /keyword in the display and direct link to merchant etc but donot use the restrictions posted by the merchant