New affiliate scheme with Adsense

It's getting worse...!

[mzanzig]

So, today I checked my site with the preview tool, and guess what I found? Another slimy affiliate scheme promoted by Adsense. It works like this:

The ad copy promotes some service in my niche, nicely written, then it presents a URL that goes to, let's say, www.widget-service-find.tld

I looked at the target URL, and it was NOT www.widget-service-find.tld, but an affiliate program with a unique identifier to track the click. Ho-hum. I never liked these, but have recently accepted these guys.

Two or three ads down in the Preview Tool, I saw the exact same ad copy, different URL, like, www.widgetabcd-guide.ws - Again, the URL is the very same affiliate program with the very same (!) unique ID.

What the heck is going on? I was under the impression that URLs mentioned in ads need to be "the real target URLs" not some re-direct. Also, why is the tool presenting the same ads from the same advertiser on the same page? Something is definitely wrong here.

BTW, I have been seeing again a massive drop in CTR to levels unknown before. So far, I am still waiting for the positive effects of QS to the content network.

[Marcia]

I've been seeing some redirected stuff; been putting the page preview to good use lately.

[Green_Grass]

Many posters are gung ho about QS changes and improvement in income.. I see no change and a little deterioration...

[idolw]

OP, are in travel sector?
i have been seeing lots of this in the search results advertising.
URLs like: travelanywhere-wheneveryouwant.tv taking up to 3 spots on page one.

[FortySomething]

That type of redirect IS against the adwords TOS. I'd send them a screenshot though, as they always seem to fail to find it given the full url of the ad landing page copied from the ad. Send both!

[mzanzig]

idolw:

Spot-on, I'm in travel sector. :-)

Looks like Google has still a mile and a half to go before their ad quality really goes up again.

[swa66]

I really cannot imagine it being hard to make a python script to find these redirecting ToS breakers. I'm sure somebody in the Googleplex can code it up in a few minutes if not less.
A day or two later it should be well tested and ready for a first run. Add the same test while entering an ad in adwords and refuse the ads where the FQDN of both URLs differs too much.
Send the advertisers breaking the ToS a few warnings of increasing urgency and a month later the good guys will have complied, while GOOG now can ban the scumbags ignoring good taste, ToS and warnings about it.

So the real question is why don't they enforce their ToS on the advertisers and leave us stuck with the advertisers that break the ToS? [us being both the publishers and the general public]

[webdudek]

the TOS [adwords.google.com] is very clear on this issue:

...We also monitor and don't allow the following:
* Redirect URLs: Ads that contain Display URLs that automatically redirect to the parent company.
* Bridge Pages: Ads for webpages that act as an intermediary, whose sole purpose is to link or redirect traffic to the parent company.
* Framing: Ads for webpages that replicate the look and feel of a parent site.

[UserFriendly]

This has been going on all year. (I joined AdSense in January.)

I figured it was permitted to use affiliate redirect URLs, so long as the URL that you're redirected to is the one that shows in the ad copy.

If this isn't allowed, then someone had better tell the hundred-odd affiliates on cj.com that actually encourage affiliates to create AdWords ads that redirect with their tracking code. (So long as those affiliates don't tread on the parent company's toes by bidding on trademarked keywords, etc.)

[cabowabo]

I am growing tired of it as well. It seems to go in waves ... it dies down for awhile and then it booms again with this garbage. It is clear these people have little knowledge and a smaller budget.

Cabo

[idolw]

Looks like Google has still a mile and a half to go before their ad quality really goes up again.

i am on the other side of the barricade.
waiting for google to take care of poor publishers so that i can advertise on your site :P

[stuartmcdonald]

OP,
likewise I'm in travel sector - have not seen a big drop in CTR, but eCPM has dropped to lowest level since July 1... droped yesterday - am hoping it is just a hiccup...

[swa66]

I'm not sure those Adwords ToS quotes actually ban the following:

Widgets
Seek Widgets?
Find it on eBay.be!
www.eBay.be

[Translation is mine, was local language]

with a link (preview tool) not to ebay, but to: http: //www.example.com/redirectscript?url=http://www.ebay.be/long-string

They are a pain to block with the filter. As you need to find them in all geo locations to start with, and they move domains all too often.

Personally:

if ebay wants to advertise, contact me, I'll have an ebay made-to-measure pricelist right after I hear what the want.

I don't need affiliates advertising "dead popes" style stuff on my site.

If I wanted to have irrelevant ebay ads, I could add them in a few minutes as I'm an affiliate myself ... Someday I'll figure out how to get to the relevant stuff and do it right.

[edited by: martinibuster at 4:40 pm (utc) on Nov. 12, 2006]
[edit reason] Removed religious reference. See [url=http://www.webmasterworld.com/help.cgi?cat=tos] [/edit]

[UserFriendly]

I think Google needs to alter the filter so that it blocks by the URL in the ad copy too.