My fight with Adwords - help!

[beb19]

I've been reading this forum for a while but never posted before. Anyhow, I took my first dive into PPC, using adwords to drive traffic to a site of mine that promotes a clickbank product. I know that most people say that adwords hate this - but I thought I designed by site cleverly enough to avoid any problems - I have terms of use, privacy, contact, and links to other part of the website that have content.

When I first started the campaign, it worked fine for the first two days. My quality scores were all about 7's and my click through rates were much better than I expected. I ended up with about 20 hops and 1 sale. I know this isn't really enough data to make future predictions, but I was feeling good so far.

Then, Adwords said they temporarily suspended my site because of misleading claims on my landing page. Also, they wanted me to add testimonials. I made the changes and submitted for review.

So today, they get back to me, saying that there are "still misleading and inaccurate claims" on my landing page. Here are the examples:

1. I wrote the landing page from a first person point of view, and at one point in the page, I say, "I decided this product was worth a try because everyone that tried the program was seeing serious results"

2. " Don't waste your time on expensive gimmicks that claim to (give you a certain result)...you don't need them!"

3. "Imagine what you could do with (a certain level of performance)"

I put the parentheses to summarize as to not give away the product, but it is in a sports related niche. I'm really not making any very specific claims. I feel like if I take these out, half of the (already watered down because of adwords) sales pitch is gone.

So what I am wondering is: Is Adwords going to just keep fighting me like this? I set this up a little like a blog, with a few articles, etc, and I didn't directly link to the clickbank product on my site (there is a "sign up now to get a free report" button on my site, which takes them to my mailchimp form, then it goes to the clickbank page). I feel like they're just doing it because they hate squeeze pages.

Any thoughts/suggestions? This is frustrating.

[mrinternational]

Time to look into other ad networks, like adbrite or facebook can be more targeted, because of the number of data available for each user. Also a lot cheaper and they dont hate on IM like google does.

or you can also combine with some good ol' fashioned SEO

or you can use squeeze boss theme.

just a couple of suggestions

[Russel Mogul]

Google is notorious for this. They hate hype and well direct marketing is riddled with it. In your disclaimers you need to convey that the results used in testimonials are not typical and that means there is no guarantee that the customer will achieve the same level of success.

adbrite is junk traffic. go to Facebook, they are a little more lenient with these offers. you might wnat to look into PPV as well

[dburk]

Hi beb19,

Please don't fault the AdWords program for enforcing those rules, they are just trying to comply with FTC trade rules. If they don't make you comply, or kick you out of the program, then they get into trouble with some mean nasty government bureaucrats looking to shut down violators.

About the Endorsement Guides Video - What do the Endorsement Guides mean for bloggers?

There is a strict policy against Bridge pages, so check that out to make sure you are compliant.

Bridge page - Advertising Policies Help

[Lucid]

Originally Posted by beb19

So what I am wondering is: Is Adwords going to just keep fighting me like this?

Basically, yes. Until you follow all their guidelines. Follow Russel's advice and check out dburk's link regarding bridge pages as well as squeeze page rules as I have a feeling you may be violating those too.

[MikeFriedman]

On top of the other problems you are having, you are also going to have trouble with mailchimp.

Unless they have changed their policies, I believe they are strictly against doing any kind of affiliate marketing.

[Mike Anthony]

Originally Posted by beb19

I know that most people say that adwords hate this - but I thought I designed by site cleverly enough to avoid any problems

apparently not. Really doesn't make any sense to be in a war with the provider of your traffic. You have no leverage and knew going in they were against what you were attempting. Get another source of traffic or another monetization plan.

[GetKane]

Originally Posted by beb19

I've been reading this forum for a while but never posted before. Anyhow, I took my first dive into PPC, using adwords to drive traffic to a site of mine that promotes a clickbank product. I know that most people say that adwords hate this - but I thought I designed by site cleverly enough to avoid any problems - I have terms of use, privacy, contact, and links to other part of the website that have content.

When I first started the campaign, it worked fine for the first two days. My quality scores were all about 7's and my click through rates were much better than I expected. I ended up with about 20 hops and 1 sale. I know this isn't really enough data to make future predictions, but I was feeling good so far.

Then, Adwords said they temporarily suspended my site because of misleading claims on my landing page. Also, they wanted me to add testimonials. I made the changes and submitted for review.

So today, they get back to me, saying that there are "still misleading and inaccurate claims" on my landing page. Here are the examples:

1. I wrote the landing page from a first person point of view, and at one point in the page, I say, "I decided this product was worth a try because everyone that tried the program was seeing serious results"

2. " Don't waste your time on expensive gimmicks that claim to (give you a certain result)...you don't need them!"

3. "Imagine what you could do with (a certain level of performance)"

I put the parentheses to summarize as to not give away the product, but it is in a sports related niche. I'm really not making any very specific claims. I feel like if I take these out, half of the (already watered down because of adwords) sales pitch is gone.

So what I am wondering is: Is Adwords going to just keep fighting me like this? I set this up a little like a blog, with a few articles, etc, and I didn't directly link to the clickbank product on my site (there is a "sign up now to get a free report" button on my site, which takes them to my mailchimp form, then it goes to the clickbank page). I feel like they're just doing it because they hate squeeze pages.

Any thoughts/suggestions? This is frustrating.

It doesn't matter what you do you think is creative, the Adwords editors are fundamentally against "thin" affiliate sites. I've had campaigns paused by editors numerous times for legit offers with legit landers that I designed because they didn't like the destination after the quick email submits on my landers and I was spending up to $1,500 a day on one of those campaigns.

Welcome to the PPC game as an affiliate, get to know one or two editors at Adwords that will work on your behalf. A SUCCESSFUL Affiliate Marketing business is more about the relationships you build with your traffic sources and affiliate managers than it is simply choosing an offer and driving traffic.

[spartanic]

Don't fight with Google. Just comply. You're lucky they didn't ban you. Yet. Don't try to get clever with google by doing some kind of sneaky trick to your websites/landers. Everyone's been there and done it and Google almost always find out.