Can you use adwords and set up the direct link as your hoplink or is that not ok with google? If not do I need a landing page and what should the landing page be? A review blog? A replicate of the merchants page? Or just some page that says "click here!".... I am wondering what is the best way to use adwords.
You can actually use adwords directly with your clickbank link.but u have to be extremely good master of adwords. Display URL would be the sites name and destination URL would be the clickbank hop URL. Instead if you decide to use a landing page , stuff your page with lot of related keywords so that you can get the same traffic for less CPC. But you should also have a good Click Thrus from your page.Your layout should be good. hope this helps.
You'll have a better chance of your ads showing up with your own domain and a landing page as Adwords has a no double-serving rule which means the same URL will not be displayed twice.