The New Affiliate Policy is Implemented

Looks like the button has been pushed

[cagey1]

Continued From [webmasterworld.com...]
It is Official : AdWords Policy Takes Aim at Affiliate Ads

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Read it and weep - EST

Looks like Google needs use use a case filter...

[oasisx]

Well, I'm in a somewhat unique position which I don't really want to go into, but basically the merchant doesnt' compete with me and my only affiliate competitor - we are both still showing (no other ads in our category are allowed) and I got an email from google this morning offering me $116 for some broken link that was their fault or something like that.

But yeah it's definitely implemented, no more hundreds of dell adverts. - I'm in the UK.

[edited by: oasisx at 1:43 pm (utc) on Jan. 14, 2005]

[esllou]

I don't know if this is because I am using G here in Italy but I am seeing the following issues:

- 3 identical display URLs and landing URL's - all affiliates
- another couple that differ only with capitalization - again affiliates
- many examples where display and landing URLs are NOT the same

I had 150 ads rejected yesterday only because I was trying to implement the new policy and changing my ads whereas it seems existing ads are allowed to be in as much contravention of the new ToS as they like.

I hope this is first day gremlins. I have put in about ten hours of work this week to try and stay in line with the new policy, but it seems I would have done better doing nothing.

[wayne]

I've noticed in my searches that ads jump around a
lot, this has been happening for quite some time.
Many times the last two or three ads on the bottom
of a page will show again at the top of the next
page. I can search for my keywords and sometimes it
will be at the top of page 2, other times the middle
or bottom of page 3. In fact, just last week when
searching on one of my keywords, the first search it
showed near the top of page 1, the next time I
searched it was near the bottom of page 2. I don't
know why they jump around so much, but it has been
happening for quite a while now.

[shaka1978]

Guys, I just spoke to my Google representative in the UK at length. The official word they have from the US is the policy change has been delayed. However, it's clear the Stage 1 has gone through:

• an exact display URL match, i.e. www.brand.com and www.brand.com, has been blocked and highest page rank gets shown.

Stage 2, which hasn't been implemeneted yet, will block all obvious loopholes:

• Capitalisation
www.Brand.com and www.brand.com and www.bRand.com etc...

• Inaccurate display URL's
www.brand.com going to www.brand.co.uk
www.brand-offer.com going to www.brand.com
etc...
www.brand.co.uk going to uk.brand.com

• Merchant duplicate pages
www.brand.com and www.brand-offer.com going to unique URLs but with duplicate content. This is more difficult to police but will be stopped eventually.

Exploit these loopholes while they last if you want but my advice would be to start building sites that add value instead because they'll be gone within days.

Neil

[IntegraGsrBalla]

• Merchant duplicate pages
www.brand.com and www.brand-offer.com going to unique URLs but with duplicate content. This is more difficult to police but will be stopped eventually.

Are they talking about EXACT duplicate pages? I know a user searching for "Green Widgets" -- 9 times out of 10, any ad he clicks on will have content about Green Widgets. That is why the advertisers are bidding on the keyword "green widgets".

[jkwilson78]

I don't see much change at all. Still see tons of ads for same merchant.

[keywordguru]

I definitely see HUGE changes!

Some searches that used to contain endless adwords are hardly filling up the first page. Very interesting to see just how many domains were affiliates.

Many "brand names" and domains have dropped off the pages completely it seems. I would guess they are still tweaking away at the system.

KG

[shaka1978]

I mean exact duplicates. I can sticky you the example if you want.

[iamchmod]

this will definitely make for an interesting day, I am already seeing huge changes in the amount of traffic going to different campaigns - some way higher and some way lower...

[FromRocky]

shaka1978

I agree the change will go through various stages. Since there are so many variations, Google must sort them out gradually.

[Catalyst]

I am still seeing MANY affiliate ads for a couple of our biggest clients. Many still say affiliate, some are direct CJ links, some are some pretty creative use of landing pages and I think I found some auto cookie setting going on too, which we don't allow. Need to do some broader research.

I'll be adding all my findings to my existing page of blogs, articles and potential solutions about the issue. We have a whole team working on research so we can send suggestions out to our 10,000 or so affiliates. I will also try to remember to come back and post things here as I find more info and things that could be helpful for some of you.

Linda

[wayne]

You start checking for auto cookie setting, it will keep you busy for a long time. Seems to be a popular practice. Doesn't help when many of the top gurus recommend to do this, a lot of them selling their own software to accomplish this making them more bucks.

[FromRocky]

What I see now is one direct-merchant URL only for my monitoring keyword. No more variation.

"Another ad in your account is showing for this keyword". This reason was not there before on some of my ads. Now all of them get the message.

[PeteM]

Stage 2, which hasn't been implemented yet, will block all obvious loopholes:

I love the way they make this sound planned. What they mean is that stage 2 will fix the bugs that Google didn't spot in the inital roll-out. Methinks at this rate we might see a few stages after 2!

[dnathan]

It appears that they JUST implemented the case-sensitive variable... bummer.

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Hi all - sorry to have not been very present on this Forum today. I've had lots of time away from my desk this entire week, unfortunately - today being no exception.

"Another ad in your account is showing for this keyword". This reason was not there before on some of my ads. Now all of them get the message.

I am pretty sure that I mentioned this in another thread - or at least I hope so. But in any case, FromRocky, the Ads Diagnostic Tool will be updated soon to reflect 'ads not shown' reasons having to do with the policy change, but this has not occurred yet. So, I think you were correct when you posted:

I agree the change will go through various stages. Since there are so many variations, Google must sort them out gradually.

AWA

[MultiMan]

Just as this policy (a move in the right direction) finally starts to go through, out comes the newest loopholes being exploited.

I've already seen someone using a new way to bypass the one domain ad per search rule.

Lower down the ads lists are two ads, for essentialy the same thing, I have already seen the following. Two ads, for example:

Buy KEYWORD
Buy all KEYWORD now.
www.eBay.com

Buy KEYWORD
Buy all KEYWORD today.
someothersite.com/eBay

When you click the second scam ad, it is obvious that that is only a PHP file using the fopen() command to basically open the entire contents of an eBay site page.

So, they are still using the eBay name in their URL to try for "credibility," and their site is essentially a copied page straight from eBay.

G$ has made a good move in the right direction here, but obviously, it is not enough. The affiliates are still out to destroy the adspace. It still seems the only way is to follow OV's lead in removing these kind of non-original-content affiliates and requiring REAL relevance to keyword (not disproved CTR theories).

If that was not bad enough, I saw this above situation in a search query where "Buy KEYWORD" is a totally absurd idea, like saying "Buy Red." :)

[robertskelton]

I'm no longer seeing the differently capitalized URLs in the SERPs, so it looks like Stage 2a has begun.

For all those who changed their display URLs, congrats, you managed to get an extra day of profits!

[Veneficuz]

I am a merchant, and have been thinking of the effects of this policy. I just can't see the positive side of any of this, for me or my affiliates. Or will my affiliates be competiting for better spots, be better for me? Can someone help me with the pros and cons, and how to deal with both of them as an affiliate and merchant.

Thanks.

[Robsp]

Yes,
Captitalized URL's are also taken care of today. This will be quite some extra traffic (and conversions) for us :)

[PeteM]

Multiman,

It's rare that I agree with anything you say but I do agree that Ebay advertisers play the dirtiest. Today I'm seeing ads for www.ebay.com and www.ebay.co.uk for the same keyword. This would be OK except that the .com affiliate is using a script to redirect .com to .co.uk.

Pete

[esllou]

searching for "[keyword] posters" for example still turns up the big 2 or 3 affiliate sites but being used with a ton of fake display ID's and, worse, people just using instant redirects from their landing page.

Is that allowed? Or people Iframing the whole of the merchant site?

[PeteM]

Yep, searching for widget posters produced 4 ads that resolved to the same url. Some were alternative domains registered to the merchant (pointing at the same web space). Affiliates appear to be using these domains to get round the new rules.

[shaka1978]

Some were alternative domains registered to the merchant (pointing at the same web space)

The loopholes in the display UTL vs actual destination e.g. capitalisation, hyphens, non-www, .co.uk instead of .com, sub-domains etc... should all be taken care of soon I hope.

The policing of merchants simply registering brand.com, brand-offer.com, brand-special.com etc... and sending to the same content will be a bit more difficult I expect. I'm certainly sure Google have thought of all these scenarios and are simply pushing the changes through in phases which seems sensible. I for one hope these loopholes get closed very shortly.

It's time direct-to-merchant PPC'ers, me included, pulled their finger out and start building sites that add value. Let's face it, those who did this seriously know there was far too much money for the level of effort required, it’s good to see a new challenge to keep things interesting.

Neil

[toddb]

This is true the party is over and these stop gap efforts are only going to delay the pain of just building a real site.

[stormy]

Maybe this is obvious but: I'm in Spain and I'm doing direct PPC for searches in the US.

How can I know if I'm affected by the new policy? Or - how can I see the adwords a US user would get?

In Spain I get zero adwords for my search terms, but I know I'm position 5-6. I just don't know who's advertising for my kw's! :-(

[chrisgarrett]

Add &gl=us to the end of your search query url
[webmasterworld.com...]

[google.com...]

It seems it is case sensitive, make sure you add it in lower case ..