How accurate should the display url be? I have an ad going to domain.com/bd/<something odd>/eoe Is it fair game to change it to domain.com/<keyword>? The keyword is technically not in the destination URL.
Hi Joe, You can get away with domain.com/JUSTABOUTANYTHING (as long as it fits in the character limit of course!), Google's updated URL policy only refers to the first part of the URL being fully accurate. Nicely summarised by Google here in their blog post: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2008/02/update-to-display-url-policy.html (sorry I can't post real links yet!) Hope this helps Ben Snr Account Manager Attacat - ppc specialists
Thanks. Your right just about everything goes. I now have images of <keyword>.domain.com/<keyword> when I'm really linking to domain.com/<something completely different>. My next ad's display URL will be longer and more descriptive.
Although you can have keyword.site.com/keyword ... to some people that looks like spam.site.com/spam So try to make it look natural. I prefer site.com/promotion - where promotion is not the keyword, but something else like "discount"
Would domain 'masking' get round this issue so the domain name re-directs to the site but the domain (which is different) remains in the browser? Example (all names made up!): My record shop is called ABC Records and my site is hosted at abcrecords.com - however I own the domain cheap-cds.com - I cannot use this as my display url as it doesn't match the 'real' web address although ctr (and google's income!) would be much higher if I did. However using my domain settings, if I 'mask' the domain, cheap-cds.com would remain in the browser but the site behind it is abcrecords.com. Would this be accepted by Google? I understand that they want to make sure advertisers are not making up display url's to increase ctr, but surely if the url displayed is owned by the advertiser and re-directs to the right site with domain displayed in browser, would that not be ok? Their policy does not mention anything about masking. Any advice would be much appreciated.
I use a simple 404 redirect and often use the keyword in my display URL. It increases CTR for sure. For example, the person types in [widgets] My display is domain.com/widgets The actual URL doesn't exist but if someone did type that in it would show my homepage (or whatever page the 404 directs to).
no need for a 404 in AdWords though - this just confused matters. As long as you domain is accurate you can type just about anything after it.
I uses www.abc.com/keyword as putting keyword in url will high lighten that keyword when some one search on google and it will then increase CTR.
I disagree. Many surfers will copy and paste the display URL as they don't wish to charge the advertiser money. If they do this on a display URL that doesn't exist, and as you suggest, don't bother with the 404 redirect, as it's confusing matters, they'll land at a dead end. My advice is to do what I've put above.