Does the "indicating you're an affiliate" apply only to links

or does it apply to your relationship with what you're advertsing?

[HughMungus]

In other words, would I have to indicate I'm an affiliate if my adwords destination page was a page on my own site with the affiliate link (e.g., nothing else on the page other than the affiliate link)?

[eWhisper]

This is from G's AdWord FAQs:

If you are an affiliate and are paid to send traffic to another site or a distributor, you must identify yourself as an affiliate or a distributor in your ad text.

This is rather vague. Personally, I send traffic to some of my sites which are a combination of content and affiliate links, and have never added 'aff' to the ad, and have never been questioned about it.

I could see this being a one of those 'depends on the uniqueness' of the content to how G enforces this policy.

[skibum]

Seems like some people add it, some don't. It's better to use the real estate for better ad copy than to put affiliate in there if ya don't have to.

After all, how many sites actually sell their own products or even hold the products they sell in their own warehouses?

Tons of big commerce sites don't take posession of many of the products they sell & then you have shopping engines and on and on.

[GuitarZan]

Hey,

This is how I do it:

If I am sending people straight to the Merchant, then I will ad "Aff in there without the quotes.

If I am sending people to my own site that is totally geared towards Aff products or whatever, then I will not ad "Aff", as it is my site that clickers are being sent to.

C.K.

[HughMungus]

Just wanted to see if anyone had gotten any clarification from Google but it appears that you only have to use Aff if you're sending people directly to Google.

Thanks for the replies!

However, just out of curiosity, I do wonder why Google requires the Aff label.

[vibgyor79]

Are you loading the affiliate link in a frame? If no, I wouldn't add AFF to my ad copy.

>>> nothing else on the page other than the affiliate link

But are you sure you want to do this? I would expect the conversion rate to be a lot lower this way.

[HughMungus]

But are you sure you want to do this? I would expect the conversion rate to be a lot lower this way.

Probably not. Just wondering what's possible.

[skippy]

I think the requirement to add affiliate when sending directly to an affiliate has to do with a law in the states about advertising on search engines.

I read it somewhere but for the life of me I can’t find it.

[Fischerle]

Off-topic, but I wish Google would stop allowing the three characters "Aff", and force people to use the entire word "Affiliate" Their editorial policy is a key reason for the success of Adwords, I think, and the one glaring aesthetic deficiency in a lot of ads is that meaningless three characters "Aff". Ugh, I hate seeing it. Are people embarassed to be affiliates? I'm not, that's why I type in the entire word. (And I don't buy the argument that "Aff" is better because it allows more space for ad language. Most of the ad language I see is sloppy and not concise, anyway)

[nerowolfe]

Fischerle, we use "Aff" instead of "affiliate" simply because that gives us higher CTRs. Embarrassment isn't part of the decision, we just do whatever brings in the most money/clicks. :-)

[HughMungus]

I use Aff to save space. I'd use "A" if they'd let me. :D