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Clickbank- Drect Linking and PPC Keywords

by JDSalinger
13 replies
Hi guys,

For Clickbank products, is it okay to assume the following:

1. Direct Linking is allowed. and
2. There are no keyword restrictions.

Or do you have to check out each individual program to see? How about for Paydotcomm products?
#clickbank #drect #keywords #linking #ppc
  • Profile picture of the author PCRoger
    Keep in mind with Google only one ad can go to that domain, and, likely as not, Google will not like it and at some point penalize your account; not sure about Yahoo!

    Most CB vendors don't seem to say much (or even care much) about what affiliates do.

    Regards,
    PCRoger.
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    • Profile picture of the author JDSalinger
      Originally Posted by cjmo75 View Post

      What do you mean buy only one ad? One ad pointing to that particular link?
      He is talking about direct linking. With direct linking you do not use a squeeze page or landing page, but you link directly to the company website. Google has a rule where you can only have one website domain used per PPC Search advertising results. This keeps the Search results from just having 5 listings with all direct links to the company website.
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    • Profile picture of the author JDSalinger
      Originally Posted by PCRoger View Post

      Keep in mind with Google only one ad can go to that domain, and, likely as not, Google will not like it and at some point penalize your account; not sure about Yahoo!

      Most CB vendors don't seem to say much (or even care much) about what affiliates do.

      Regards,
      PCRoger.
      I am curious by what you mean by saying Google would at some point penalize your account? Why would they be penalizing your account for direct linking to a website? Are you talking about a situation where they lower your quality score b/c they feel the website you are linking to is not a legitimate site and rather is like a 2 to 5 pager site?

      Now, if you are talking about that Google will end up giving you a low score b/c they don't care for the product (ex. satellite tv products, cars run on water, etc.) or are you talking about instances where the keyword your quality score gets dropped b/c the page you are linking to (in this case the company website) is not in line with the keyword. Ex. you are putting up ads for the names of competitor products but direct linking to the company's website that you are promoting.

      I have heard stories that Google has a problem with Clickbank products. I am just curious if this is specifically towards all the crazy ebooks out there? What about Clickbank products that are not ebooks like software and such?
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  • Profile picture of the author caseyho
    My adviced is don't ever tried Google on Direct Linking because you will be get slapped and end up paid higher cost per click or worst account closed. Google always change their policy if you are not an advanced player. I would suggest you tried Bing,Yahoo and 7search.
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    • Profile picture of the author JDSalinger
      Originally Posted by caseyho View Post

      My adviced is don't ever tried Google on Direct Linking because you will be get slapped and end up paid higher cost per click or worst account closed. Google always change their policy if you are not an advanced player. I would suggest you tried Bing,Yahoo and 7search.
      I assume you are referring specifically to Clickbank products. Is this all clickbank products though? I can understand why Google doesn't care for the small ebook sites b/c they have no meat to them, but for the Clickbank products where it is actually something more elaborate and has an extensive website supporting it, why would Google have a beef there?

      What type of products did you get slapped on?

      BTW, I will have to look into 7search, I am not familiar with that one.
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  • Profile picture of the author PCRoger
    This is discussed a bit here:

    http://www.warriorforum.com/adsense-...need-help.html
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    • Profile picture of the author JDSalinger
      Originally Posted by PCRoger View Post

      Thank you for sharing. I think that helps the other guys question, but doesn't really address mine. I recognize that someone else could just go in and raise their bid and/or quality score and bump my ad. My question is aside from this issue, what do I need to be worried about using Clickbank products that are not ebooks and are on legitimate websites that have several pages to them. Has anyone experienced problems with direct linking to these types of clickbank products?
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  • Profile picture of the author GeorgR.
    Originally Posted by JDSalinger View Post

    Hi guys,

    For Clickbank products, is it okay to assume the following:

    1. Direct Linking is allowed. and
    2. There are no keyword restrictions.

    Or do you have to check out each individual program to see? How about for Paydotcomm products?
    Clickbank and Adwords AND direct linking: Best way to fail with adwords....just saying...
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    • Profile picture of the author JDSalinger
      Originally Posted by GeorgR. View Post

      Clickbank and Adwords AND direct linking: Best way to fail with adwords....just saying...
      I think you are going to elaborate a bit further here. What exactly do you see as the issues there? Or put another way, are their instances where direct linking would be ok?
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      • Profile picture of the author GeorgR.
        Originally Posted by JDSalinger View Post

        I think you are going to elaborate a bit further here. What exactly do you see as the issues there? Or put another way, are their instances where direct linking would be ok?
        The first issue is clickbank and their conversion rates.

        The second issue is average bids for mainstream keywords.

        The third issue is average clickbank payouts. (Most CB products pay less than $30)

        Direct Linking, meaning no landing page, means:

        *) duplicate URL problem in Adwords. (Only one advertiser can have that URL, the one with the highest bid...)
        *) bad quality score (== high CPC)
        *) potential deactivation of ad by google upon manual review since direct linking is "basically" frowned upon.

        Combine all those factors...not good.
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        • Profile picture of the author JDSalinger
          Alright now we are getting somewhere. I have posted my thoughts in >>> and would like to get others thoughts on these issues.

          Originally Posted by GeorgR. View Post

          The first issue is clickbank and their conversion rates.

          >>> There are some products that have good conversions. My question is how can you find out what the conversions are if they don't list them?

          The second issue is average bids for mainstream keywords.

          >>> I think the answer here would simply be to avoid mainstream keywords. These are not normally good converting keywords anyway.

          The third issue is average clickbank payouts. (Most CB products pay less than $30)

          >>> This is a good point. I think it would be smart to focus on CB product over $30 b/c of the lower conversions as you mentioned.</b>

          Direct Linking, meaning no landing page, means:

          *) duplicate URL problem in Adwords. (Only one advertiser can have that URL, the one with the highest bid...)

          >>> This is a problem for the long term as someone can always come in compete with you, but you would probably be ok in the short term. I would think you would want to move to a landing page over time for this reason. However, I think they could just as easily ding your landing page if they felt the destination website was crap.</b>

          *) bad quality score (== high CPC)

          >>> Wouldn't this depend on the quality of the actual company website? If the website is just a generic sales letter website then, yes I think you are right. But if it is an actual website and the keywords you are targeting are on point, I don't think you would be getting a bad quality score. In addition, the quality score may not matter as much for some keywords as they are unlikely to get some competing advertisers at all. I would think as long as you are getting at least a quality score of 3 or 4, you would be ok.</b>

          *) potential deactivation of ad by google upon manual review since direct linking is "basically" frowned upon.

          >>> It is not really the direct linking they have a problem with is it? Isn't it more that an individual reviewer doesn't like direct linking to a crappy website or dubious niche (satellite tv on your pc, running cars on water, etc.)?</b>

          Combine all those factors...not good.
          >>> I get that because of those factors you choose to avoid it altogether, but direct linking is still alive and well for other websites. If the website on clickbank is a nicely put together site, I don't know that Google would have a problem with that.

          >>> I am curious if you think this also applies to products on Paydotcom and affiliate networks like CJ where the program allows direct linking? If not, do you think Google just doesn't like info products?
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  • Profile picture of the author CrispyDuck
    If your sales page does not rank highly for that keyword you are using in your ads, you get a bad quality score and CPC goes up. You get less impressions too.
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    • Profile picture of the author JDSalinger
      Originally Posted by CrispyDuck View Post

      If your sales page does not rank highly for that keyword you are using in your ads, you get a bad quality score and CPC goes up. You get less impressions too.
      Right, but we are talking about keying on Clickbank products that are not just a run of the mill sales letter type and are actually from a legit website where they have over 5+ pages to them. In other words, they are sites that should get good quality scores from Google assuming the keywords you target are in line with that website.

      What I am asking is are these also getting hit by the Google stick as well or are these being allowed to pass unmolested like other regular sites would?
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