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Google is making
changes to its AdWords program that will limit
the number of sponsored links on results pages
that point to the same URL, a move which will
have the most significant impact on online
merchants and their affiliates.
The new policy, which will be implemented over
the coming weeks, is intended to create a
cleaner interface for users, increase the
diversity of merchants represented in the
links, and reduce duplicate ads, all while
recognizing the important benefits affiliate
marketers bring to the table, said Salar
Kamangar, director of product management at
Google.
"Affiliates are an important part of our
third-party ecosystem. They bring users to
valuable content and drive traffic to our
merchant partners," Kamangar said. "We need to
balance the positives they bring with the
negatives of users seeing the same ads over
and over. Our focus is on maintaining the
quality of the ads."
The problem, as Google sees it, arises when
multiple affiliates of a merchant bid on a
keyword, leading to multiple similar ads
pointing to the same merchant.
To counter this, for each search query, Google
will no longer display multiple ads that link
to the same destination page. This means an
individual merchant won't be able to dominate
the results for a given search query by having
its affiliates bid for the same keywords and
link to the same landing page. Google won't
give preference to merchants over their
affiliates, but will show the link that has
the highest ad rank, a rating calculated by
Google using the cost per click bid and the
click-through rate of the ad.
Some in the affiliate community speculate the
policy change might result in a proliferation
of special landing pages tailored for
individual affiliates.
Google will continue to let advertisers use a
destination URL that doesn't match the actual
landing page's URL. Many advertisers use a
unique URL for tracking purposes that
redirects to the final destination page. This
process makes it clearer to users where the
link will take them, Kamangar said.
Advertisers will still be allowed to link to
sub-pages within a site, where appropriate.
There could be an ad that points to an eBay
search for an item as well as an eBay store
that sells that item, Kamangar said.
As part of the changes, Google will no longer
require affiliates to include the "AFF"
designation in their ads. The former policy
required it, so that users would be able to
differentiate affiliate links from merchants'
links. Since there will now only be one link
to each destination site, there will not be a
need for the designation, he said. |
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