Display URL violations when linking to affiliate merchants.

[Shiznaught]

In the past few months I've been getting a good number of disapproved ads in my Adwords account. The reason for the disapproval is given as "Inaccurate Display URL."

A very typical scenario is an ad that uses an affiliate link via a network such as Shareasale or Affiliate Window. The display ad entered by me matches the destination url (the merchant's website) exactly. No sub-directories or sub-domains. Yet I consistently get my ads disapproved for display url violations.

My working theory is that the redirects used by affiliate networks trigger these violations. The thing is, that, affiliate redirects used to work fine for years, and I'm left wondering if Google is starting to target specific ad networks.

I'm wondering if others have experienced a similar problem or have any elucidating information. I'm also obviously looking for workarounds. If network redirects are the culprit, are in-house affiliate programs safer to use?

[smallcompany]

You have to check with Google - anything else is speculation.

It sounds like a technical issue, I'm not aware of changes on Google's side that would cause a redirect being disapproved.

Google either gets stuck at some point which causes the system to disapprove ads, or something is wrong with redirects.

If you can land onto the end page by clicking onto your ad from within the account, simply email/call/chat Google and the thing should get fixed.

[Shiznaught]

Well, I just chatted with Google chat support, and was told to use the redirect domain as my display url. In other words, I was told to use shareasale.com in the specific ad we went over.

[smallcompany]

That's totally wrong.

Be careful with violations that may be piling up within your account. Google is hard to forgive these days.

Take a look into the big picture:

Not only affiliates use redirects. So many big brands outsource their PPC to other companies which use redirects (you ever seen dartsearch from DoubleClick in destination URL of many ads?)
Even without outsource, many companies may be using third party technologies where redirect is being employed.

However you take, no matter how many redirects is there, your display URL has to match the very last URL where the visitor actually is being sent.

Finally, a couple of links from AdWords help:

[adwords.google.com...]

[adwords.google.com...]

Be sure you talk to them again, and also to have all violations in regards of this reversed. Google counts them and smacks folks that break the ceiling (whatever that is).

[Shiznaught]

smallcompany:

I am aware that it was bad advise. The ad came back disapproved within an hour!

I chatted with them again and the rep was perplexed at the situation. She forwarded things to a specialist and, hopefully, I should be hearing back on Monday. I will post back with any developments.

Sadly, I am aware of Google suspending accounts with multiple minor violations.

[Shiznaught]

After some back and forth with Adwords chat support, I've been able to get some more information on the issue.

The support rep advised me that while they couldn't determine the exact reason for the disapproved ads, back button functionality could be a related issue.

As most Adwords advertisers know, your destination url must allow the visitor to exit your site with a single click of the back button.

While that wasn't necessarily an issue in the case that we discussed, I realize that this could be an issue for anyone using redirect urls, especially those with cloaker functionality.