Adwords script?

[retired_member33]

This might be a long post so grab a cup of coffee before you start reading.

I run several voucher websites and used to bid on brand names including the word voucher/discount code etc...

Now several affililiate managers have contacted me saying that I should stop bidding on these terms.

Funnily enough most of my competitors are still doing this so I asked one of the affilaite managers why they are allowed to do it.

He told me that they bid on generic terms such as Voucher, Discount code etc... But when I for an example search for Hotels.com discount code they still show up and funnily enough I am being redirected to their Hotels.com discount code... Which from my point of view means they still bid on the Brand + a voucher related keyword.

But no, according to two affiliate managers they use a (php?) script which redirects users to the correct page.. So from their point of view they bid on the generic terms but that script redirects them to the correct page.

From my point of view they are still bidding on terms which they are not allowed to but it seems its allowed.

So... How do these scripts work, where to I get them!?

Hope its all clear, having my Friday afternoon drink as we speak

Thanks

 

[AuthorityDomain]

Wow I was under the same impression as you. Let me know if you find out more as would be interested to know more.

Cheers

 

[jwm]

Not sure I understand this, so if I search for Hotels.com discount code one of the adwords ads I see is

Hotels.com Discount Code | Hotels.VoucherCodes.co.uk - title
hotels.vouchercodes.co.uk - url

Surely this is bidding on the phrase 'hotels.com discount code' since this an exact match to the first part of the ad title?

Are affiliate managers saying it is okay because hotels.com doesn't get mentioned in the url?

 

[retired_member33]

Sorry, should have mentioned.

The search terms used in my post are just examples.

 

[AuthorityDomain]

I've enquired before and got a straight forward No this is not allowed, its against brand bidding and that you need to use negative keywords so you don't appear for the merchants brand whatever the case. I think this should be regardless of if there is a redirect

 

[retired_member33]

Its still happening mate, can give you some examples from the Dutch Serps.

 

[iamrofe]

Can you give me an example Lennart (feel free to DM as PM box here is full) as I am not sure i quite understand.

I do know this though, sometimes merchants permit some affiliates to bid on brand terms in PPC ads. this is a strategy used so that competitors don't feature there.

E.G using your example of hotels.com discount code this is the SERPs without the PPC affiliates

1st Ad: Hotels.com
2nd Ad LateRooms.com voucher code -Competitor
3rd Ad: Marriot Hotel voucher code- Competitor

This is the SERPs with the PPC affiliates

1st Ad Hotels.com
2nd Ad Hotels.com Voucher code -PPC Affiliate
3rd Ad Hotels.com Discount code- PPC Affiliate

By allowing those two PPC Affiliates which would be the only affiliates permited to bid on brand terms it pushes down the competitor sites in the SERPs. If you were to also bid on brand term, it pushes the merchants costs up.

Could that be what's happening here? That the affiliates currently bidding on brand terms are permitted to do so? & you are not? Cos imo networks make up a load of shit sometimes lol.

 

[retired_member33]

Would not be able to give you any UK examples, just Dutch ones.

But basically they bid on the generic term...

Lets say the term is Discount voucher...

But not not on the brand name...

And their landing page is not the general merchant page either in their ads...

They just bid on the term Discount voucher and whatever comes before it and via a scrip they make sure they direct visitors to the right pages.

Hope this makes sense

 

[Retired_member41]

Are you sure they are not just using {keyword:default text}

 

[monaghan]

Can't you just do the same and pull the desired page based on the data returned from the google click?

I presume google returns you the keyword(s) so you can pull this from the URL and do a simple case statement to pull the right redirect for the keyword you are bidding on.

Probably no more than a couple of hours work to do something like this.

 

[iamrofe]

Hi Lennart,

The affiliates are likely using an advanced feature of adwords called dynamic keyword insertion.

http://support.google.com/adwords/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=74992