Direct linking vs pre-sales page - PPC

Hi gmartins,

Since your 3 step example would be considered a bridge page, in violation of AdWords policy, it would not be permitted in the AdWords program. Instead you could create your own sales page (pre-sales pages are not permitted) and simply link from your landing page to the order form.

The advantages in having your own sales page are as follows:

1. Unlimited impressions - Only one ad will be displayed per landing page and direct linking would forced you to outbid all other direct linkers before your ad will generate an impression.
2. You can experiment and optimize your own sales page.
3. You have control over your own landing page content so you aren't jeapordizing your account through the uncontrollable content of the merchant's sales page.

The disadvantages of doing your own sales page are:

1. Time and expense to maintain those pages. It can take a while to optimize your sales page and not everyone is cut out for it.
2. I can't think of another one.

It depends on how much weight you put on these advantages and disadvantages as well as the expense. Don has three excellent points but on his first one, how many people are promoting that product and direct linking and using Adwords? There could be nobody else. Even if there was one or two, you can outrank them and pay less with better quality. Simple research will tell you that.

Don's third point is probably the biggest. That leaves out most Clickbank products with cookie cutter pages making wild claims that is exactly what Adwords doesn't like. But if you stick to more standard kinds of products and pages, it should not be a problem.

In the end, it's up to you to decide for each product. But if you create your own page, sell and link to the order page.

The issue is are you a product owner or affiliate promoting the product? If you're a product owner, Adwords might actually like you. If you're an affiliate, you're in for a big battle as they don't like your kind. They've decided to paint all affiliates with the same broad brush stroke.

So for an affiliate marketer, if you've got a real business plan and know that one hit sales will never be long term anymore then a landing SITE is absolutely necessary. Landing pages don't work anymore for affiliate marketers on adwords. They work fine for product owners though.

My suggestion is build your sales funnel, if you're an affiliate marketer, that means a full blown site in the niche building a list that you can the promote multiple offers, multiple times to your list.

If you're a business with a product, you don't need to take all that extra effort although list building with ppc always leads to more conversions in the long term as you get to drip on the person more then once even though you only paid for one click.