Hi all, I've been researching about Adwords PPC and am interested in giving it a try. However, I've read about this latest Google Slap and how affiliates have been affected. It seems like Google has been taking websites w/ affiliate links in them and dropping their quality scores to the point where the ads don't even show. Does that mean it's a bad idea to go into PPC affiliate marketing, b/c Google will eventually cover all the different industries? Google likes quality websites, and it seems like it also prefers businesses that actually sell stuff and have inventory (not review sites, comparison, ebook, etc). If this is the case, I don't get how it's still possible to do Adwords PPC as an affiliate and not get hit w/ the Google Slap. Does that mean people would have to turn to SEO methods? Thanks to anyone who can shed some light.
PPC isn't necessarily a bad idea for affiliates - you may have good luck on Yahoo or Bing. Adwords though is a bad idea for affiliates: https://adwords.google.co.uk/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en-uk&answer=66238 Essentially, if you open a new account your ads will be reviewed, if you're found to be an affiliate you will be hit with a Quality Score of 1/10, which essentially means you won't be able to advertise on Adwords
I agree with you. Unless you really know what you are doing or targetting you will end up a lot of money on ad words.
I am ot sure where you get your information from as you can direct link to the merchant and use your affiliate link ? maybe i read you answer wrong ?
Yep, you can, but the OP said " It seems like Google has been taking websites w/ affiliate links in them and dropping their quality scores to the point where the ads don't even show" - which is true, if you have your own website and you try to run affiliate links form it then you're basically screwed. As you say though, you can direct link...
ok, sorry for that, am still not sure its the affiliate link or a low quality / bridge page that causes the prblem, but i am doing some tests on this to see what happens with a better quality site over and above a old fashioned bridge page
The problem is having affiliate links. Doesn't matter the "quality" of the page, whatever you may mean by that. If you have just one affiliate link, that's the red flag to Google which deems the page low quality. It has nothing to do with how pretty it looks, whether you have an about us page or lots of content. Their definition of quality is providing good user experience and a page that promotes/sells a product only to have you click a link to the merchant to be sold again is poor user experience.
ok thanks i will look at other ways to work with the link, what if any options have you found work best.
I'm not an affiliate marketer and currently don't have any clients who are. It seems to me that the only option is direct linking. I'm not convinced that cloaking a link will work. There's 100s of engineers at Google, each one smarter than most of us here. I think they can figure out ways to uncloak your links and figure out what you're doing.
Tons of affiliates are still successfully using Adwords for affiliate marketing. Yes they are cracking down and it's getting harder, but it definitely can still be done. There are certain types of affiliate programs and landing pages that Google has been cracking down on lately, but that does not mean it can't be done. Having said that, I don't think Adwords is a good place at all for newbie affiliates to start, but for pros, if you are careful and know what you are doing it's still an option. As far as direct linking and if you are a newbie, please be aware... Many merchants do not allow direct linking so you need to check the TOS. Plus Google only allows one ad per domain so if the merchant and/or other affiliates are already advertising only the ad with the highest bid and the best quality score will get through.