Google AdWords bans use of hyperlinks
successfulsoftware.net
successfulsoftware.net
This seems to be an excessively common trend with Google and sometimes Apple. Most cases that seem to be posted about say that they did not even get human contact and usually will be banned for life because they resubmitted but apparently didn't fix that one magical thing Google or others cared about.
I feel like Apple, for app review, attempted to build a system that would be invisible, and because of this they ended up with a completely awful customer service system. I think their goal was to build something where you just submitted good stuff and it went through, and bad stuff that didn't go through was obviously bad and you should feel bad for submitting it. It turned out that there are a lot more gray areas than they thought but their process isn't built for it. The result is that it's like interacting with a badly programmed computer. Sounds like Google is in a similar spot.
If you have an AdWords campaign and its underperforming, HIRE THIS MAN. I had the opportunity to work with Aaron about 5 years ago, through a client, and I could not have possibly been more impressed. He took an absolute dog of a marketing campaign [2], and made it work. Unreal.
Anyway - I don't do this often, but he's that good. Hire him / Software Promotions if you need help with AdWords - you will not regret it.
[1] http://www.softwarepromotions.com/
[2] previously managed, quite unsuccessfully, by yours truly
Running ads to a landing page with little content other than a redirect to another domain is forbidden and rightly receives poor ratings. As stated in the article, this was not the case. The rulebook was pretty specific about this, so I don't know how this got so badly interpreted. The AQRs do have a forum they can appeal edge cases on, so I'm surprised this got past a supervisor. I got in so many online arguments with the other AQRs who were not able to interpret the intention behind some of the rules.
Adwords Policy prohibits something called "low value content", which includes:
Landing pages that are solely designed to send users elsewhere
Examples: Bridge, doorway, gateway, or other intermediate pages
The review page isn’t a landing page. It isn’t linked directly from any of any of my Google ads. To get to it the user has to: 1. click on the ad 2. click on ‘customers’ in the navigation bar 3. select ‘review’ 4. click on the Amazon.com hyperlink (there is no automatic redirect)
Also I am only linking to that page so they can read independent reviews of my product. I don’t [want] them to buy it from Amazon!
> Adwords clearly (but mistakenly, I guess?) interpreted your page as a gateway page, with the sole purpose being to drive users to your Amazon listing page (on a different site, obviously).
I'm just saying that your headline does a particularly bad job of characterizing the issue.
It appears what you need to do today to be safe is have a landing page on a completely unique site, without hyperlinks going anywhere else. Or maybe, send people to Google Shopping. That's probably what this is all about.
These [no malware] requirements apply to software hosted
on your site or linked to from your site.
The support was just bad. I can not defend that. Good on you for keeping your cool.
1. Add a link to the uninstall instructions on my download page. I told him that my uninstall was completely standard for the platforms I support (Windows and Mac). But he insisted.
I looked at point two: 2. Remove some links that were ‘redirections’ from my reviews page.
and was wondering what that was originally all about. Could be linking to malware, but I also do know that Google has become stricter in attacking linking practices where money could have exchanged hands. When you run an affiliate program with Amazon for instance, it is a good idea to "nofollow" these links, to make sure you don't run afoul of these rules.
Then again, it seems a lot of things just went wrong in this case. Having just received a warning that a 5-year-old 960.gs fixed width site of mine was delisted from Mobile search for being "not friendly to mobile users" I can now better sympathize.
I've spoken to someone who's adword budget was 20K a month and even he couldn't get someone to talk to when they suspended his account.
Interesting to compare how those founders talk about treating their customers and industry partners with how Google is treating those same kinds of folks.
Only just now?
At least the kind Indian person on the telephone assures me otherwise. It's too bad that Google doesn't share the sentiment of their Indian employees who are at least feigning helpfulness.