Hi guys, I just wanted some clarification on this topic. I read on Google's adwords policy that the Display URL and that the final URL must match but that the Destination URL can be a tracking ID URL to redirect to the merchant's landing page. This is from a Google Blog Post: What about tracking URLs? We do understand that many advertisers utilize tracking URLs within the destination field of their ads. Therefore, if the URL of your landing page matches that of your display URL, your ads will be approved. For example: Display URL: www.google.com/adwords Destination URL: www.trackingurl.com/google123 --> Landing page URL: www.google.com would be acceptable So I guess my real question is that I can use a domain that I own, write some PHP scripts to redirect to the merchant's page and I should be approved right? This approach seems much easier to test multiple affiliate offers without having to build out individual landing pages. But at the same time it would be much more competitive since Google does not allow two ads with the same Display URL. What are your guys' thoughts on this?
My experience with using php redirects has been that Google looks at the php redirect page instead of the actual landing page. The result ends up being terrible quality score and ever increasing minimum bids. I have had good luck finding search terms the landing page isn't advertised on and linking directly, using the affiliate link for the destination and the actual landing page url as the display url.