Greetings may be it is something well-known and I ignore the mechanism behind it. But I am seeing ads that have fake domains as Display URL, that is they don't use the real domain name on which the user will land to. Is this against TOS? I am mostly sure it is. Also, do you recommend to create slightly modified domain names to match almost entirely the domain on which the user will land to, in order to defeat the "competitor with same domain name bidding higher"? I am quite new to adwords so I am trying to understand some of the tricks going on there. Any clarification would be greatly appreciated Thanks in advance
In my limited experience, you're supposed to have a matching domain between the display and destination URLs. There are lots of people who put up completely bogus display URLs. I've tried it and it seems that eventually (and soon) Google figures it out. My conclusion is that you can certainly try it to see how the keyword behaves. If it's worth it, get a domain or use your related domain with an exact match subdomain or directory name.
Yes I think that can lead to better results. By using domain.com/keyword you should be either copy and paste the original vendor sales page (provided that he gives you permission to do so) or create another sales page yourself. I should try both and see... Anyway there a lot of bogus destination domain names on adwords and they still steal money to other advertisers being compliant with the TOS