Adwords- Does the Visible Display URLs Domain have to Match the 'hidden' url domain?

by entry
9 replies
  • SEO
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When using adwords, you enter 2 domains. One hidden one (a long url) and one visible display one, which is what gets displayed.

Does the domains on both of these have to match?

eg, Hidden url = www.ourdomain.com/squeezepageOptin

Visible url = www.ourdomain.com


where both contain the Domain = www.ourdomain.com
#adwords #display #domain #hidden #match #url #urls #visible
  • Profile picture of the author sainteve21
    Hi

    As long as the 'hidden' URL is a sub of the 'visible' URL then thats fine

    ie You are allowed to show top level domain name & link to a page on that domain (as per your example)

    But be aware that if you just link to a 'squeeze' page without much RELEVANT content in it then that will affect your overall Quality Score (QS)

    Best of luck

    Steve
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    • Profile picture of the author entry
      Originally Posted by sainteve21 View Post

      Hi

      As long as the 'hidden' URL is a sub of the 'visible' URL then thats fine

      ie You are allowed to show top level domain name & link to a page on that domain (as per your example)

      But be aware that if you just link to a 'squeeze' page without much RELEVANT content in it then that will affect your overall Quality Score (QS)

      Best of luck

      Steve
      Quality score? Adwords has a quality score?

      can you please explain it?
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      • Profile picture of the author sainteve21
        Originally Posted by entry View Post

        Quality score? Adwords has a quality score?

        can you please explain it?
        Your whole Ad will have an overall Quality Score, which is determined by a number of different factors:

        Keyword relevance
        Title relevance
        Ad text relevance
        Landing page relevance to the Ad etc etc

        Take a look at Google's Adwords Learning Center
        Importance of relevancy - AdWords Help

        Steve

        PS - PM me if you need more in depth help
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      • Profile picture of the author sainteve21
        Originally Posted by entry View Post

        Quality score? Adwords has a quality score?

        can you please explain it?
        And what Quality Score is also affects the price you pay per click & ad positioning
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        • Profile picture of the author AdWordsPMGeoff
          (disclosure: I'm a Product Manager at Google, currently working on ad approvals)

          Hi entry, here's our documentation page for link policy:

          adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/static.py?hl=en&topic=23208&page=guidelines.cs&adt ype=text

          sainteve21's advice is right on.


          For the under-the-hood crowd, here are some more gory details on how checks for "accurate visible URLs" work:

          There's an additional implicit URL for your ad, which is the page the user ends up on after all redirects triggered by the "hidden URL" resolve. We call this the "landing page". In many cases (those where there's no redirect), the landing page is the same as the hidden url (called "destination URL" in the documentation).

          Our system checks whether the visible URL is accurate by comparing the domains of the landing page and the visible URL. So you want to make sure that you don't have a redirect on your destination URL that would take the user to a domain different from the visible URL - this would fail the accuracy check.

          Note that it's also possible to use a different domain to host your destination URL, as long as each destination URL redirects back to to a landing page that matches the visible URL for that ad. Some advertisers who run multiple campaigns through different ad networks use this technique so they can run their own consolidated click tracking systems.

          Geoff
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          • Profile picture of the author aldoital
            I've read the policy page and the sub-page "Why do I sometimes see ads whose display URL domains don't match their destination URL domains?"

            where it says:

            "We also provide exceptions in the case of a company, often an AdWords Authorized Reseller, using proxy pages. Proxy pages are exact copies of live, functioning websites used in place of the original site, for the purpose of isolating advertising traffic from all other website traffic. They are hosted on a separate domain from the original site (and may contain a different business phone number), but because they provide the same user experience as the original site, they are permitted to use the original website as the display URL.

            For example:
            Original website: example.com
            Proxy website: example.proxydomain.com

            We allow the company to use "example.proxydomain.com" as the destination URL, but retain "example.com" as the display URL."

            I'm now wondering if what I'm proposing is allowable. I've registered a domain name "opt-for.me" and wish to use subdomanis for each of my clients, for example:

            "Client-Domain-Name.Opt-For.Me"

            in both the Display and Destination URLs, but to redirect to "Client-Domain-Name.com" or whatever domain extension the client is using. It seems to me that this provides the user with a good and acccurate experience while avoiding the need to host a proxy website, which would surely be very difficult for websites that change on a daily basis.

            Can you please comment?
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  • Profile picture of the author sainteve21
    I think everybody considering employing Adwords as part of their marketing strategy should work their way through the the Adwords Learning Center (even if not intending to take the Qualified Professional exam)

    They could potentially save themselves a lot of expense, just by following the various lessons and understanding about Quality Score, Cost per click calculations, Ad positioning etc

    AdWords Help

    Steve
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    • Profile picture of the author Croz
      Hi Steve,
      Do you happen to know how long it takes before image ads start getting traffic on Adwords? The image ads have been approved for more than a week but no impressions yet.

      Cheers!

      Craig
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      • Profile picture of the author sainteve21
        Originally Posted by Croz View Post

        Hi Steve,
        Do you happen to know how long it takes before image ads start getting traffic on Adwords? The image ads have been approved for more than a week but no impressions yet.

        Cheers!

        Craig
        Normally almost straightaway, same as text ads

        If your not getting traffic then check if you are getting impressions

        If you are getting impressions but no clickthrus then the ad needs looking at

        If you are not getting impressions, then look at your CPC is it high enough to be giving you decent placements?

        Steve
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