Merchant says you can't use their URL in display

[Porkchop]

If you want to use your affiliate link and send the visitor directly to the merchant's website......Is there a way to do this if you are not allowed to use the merchants url in the display url?

[Porkchop]

Has anybody done this and care to comment? Thanks......

[breny]

If your merchant doesn't allow it there is no way around it. Either negotiate permission with the merchant to link directly to their site or build a site of your own.

[Receptional]

Couldn't you put the merchant's site in a frame?

[aeiouy]

I guess you could, but it is not wise to mess with the merchant. If you do something they consider a breach of your agreement, they are likely to just not pay you.

If you can't get them to agree to let you do what you want to do, then you better be careful about it.

[RhinoFish]

find another merchant with an affiliate program, there's roughly 15,000 of them in the us to choose from. it's only a few hundred that don't allow direct-to-merchant ppc.

[QualityNonsense]

More and more merchants in the UK are disallowing direct-to-merchant PPC. There are three obvious solutions:

1. Buy a domain yourself and frame the merchant's site, as Receptional suggested

2. Ask the merchant to use a separate domain for PPC affiliates (eg, widgetmerchant.com for their main site, widget-merchant.com/widgetmerchant.co.uk for PPC affiliates).

3. Build a landing page.

Of course, you don't want to upset your merchants, so best to run one and two past them before you try them.

[ByronM]

They don't want PPC direct links because they want you to make a site that links in and boosts there PR. Simple as that. PPC links don't help in SEO, but site links do.

[Marcia]

because they want you to make a site that links in and boosts there PR. Simple as that. PPC links don't help in SEO, but site links do.

"Legit" network enabled affiliate tracking doesn't pass PR because it's generally 302'd through their tracking software.

If a merchant is trying to wrangle PR or linkpop from their affiliates, RUN AWAY.

It's more a matter of protecting their branding (and their trademark in some cases), and not allowing their affiliates to drive up the cost of their own PPC efforts by competing. Some affiliate managers handle both the affiliate channel and the PPC for their employer/client, and it's in their own best interest to keep the channels separate.

It's best to check the merchant's TOS carefully and thoroughly and if you don't like it, move on to another. That's a whole lot better than getting booted out of a program for TOS violations, in which case commissions can be withheld altogether.

Couldn't you put the merchant's site in a frame?

How would the tracking be implemented, in such a case?

[edited by: Marcia at 2:58 am (utc) on Feb. 27, 2007]

[SanDiego Art]

PorkChop -

From what I understand, when the merchant doesn't allow you to use their DISPLAY URL, you simply register your own domain and use that as the DISPLAY. The DESTINATION URL is the Affiliate Networks domain (This tells you they don't need to match!).

Whether or not the merchant allows direct-to-merchant PPC for affiliates is usually stated in their T&Cs -- and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with whether or not they allow you to use their domain as your DISPLAY URL.