Sep 4 2008
Jeremy Schoemaker

Are Your Google AdWords Getting Nuked?

By Jeremy Schoemaker 82 comments

The last 3 people that have told me they can’t ever get good Adwords Quality Scores were all direct linking to the affiliate offers they were promoting.  They all said their quality score was fine for a couple days (good ctr and stuff) then boom…  I suggested they use a jump page and when they did they were able maintain their good quality score.

Here is the thing… do you guys know that most affiliate companies auto geotarget for you?   Do you also know that most of the humans at Google that check Adwords ads are not in the USA?  In fact most are in India (from what people inside Adwords have told me).

So use your own jump pages when possible and when not possible do your own geotargeting to show non us users a jump page but us users the jump page.

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  1. bobosse said on September 4th, 2008 at 6:44 am

    I wouldn’t be surprised that GG has automated tools that sniff affiliate links too and apply a low quality score immediately.

    [Reply]

    meethere Reply:

    Yeh, but initially you can get going for few days until they manually review the ad ;)

    [Reply]

    eve Reply:

    they manually do review it and in fact flag your account when you are using affiliate links so that the quality score sucks for every other campaign you run… no manual checking needed.

    [Reply]

    jack Reply:

    Google keeps surprising us , but let’s look at it this way , it’s all for a better user experience ;)

    [Reply]

  2. Michael said on September 4th, 2008 at 6:46 am

    A jump page can help your quality score A LOT. Great tips shoe. You’d be surprised at how much cheaper your bids can be if you use an optimized jump page.

    [Reply]

    Static Reply:

    Ditto on that. I learned it the hard way by losing quite a bit of money by not making a good jump page. :(

    [Reply]

    Custom T-Shirts Reply:

    Any recommendations on tutorials for creating an effective jump page?

    [Reply]

    Liz Reply:

    I second that request! :)

    [Reply]

    Online Dividends Reply:

    I third it :-)

    Matt Huggins Reply:

    Fourth’d

    [Reply]

  3. James said on September 4th, 2008 at 6:59 am

    I believe landing pages are almost necessary for AdWords now.

    [Reply]

    TylerC Reply:

    Same goes for facebook and pretty much all PPC I think… Putting up landing pages almost always has benefits.

    [Reply]

  4. trucker said on September 4th, 2008 at 7:01 am

    This would make a great video “how to” for newbs like me, I don’t yet get “jump page”. How about it Shoe?

    [Reply]

    Melvin Reply:

    a page that redirects i think…

    [Reply]

    web hosting rebates Reply:

    let me give you a simple example. Let’s say that Shoe want to link to AzoogleAds. Instead of linking directly to AzoogleAds, in which case the link will be this one: azoogleads.com/?ref=shoemoney, he links to shoemoney.com/azoogleads.php, which redirects you almost instantly to azoogleads.com/?ref=shoemoney. The end result is the same but there are lots of benefits by using jump pages.

    [Reply]

    Matt Huggins Reply:

    So when the article reads “jump page”, what it’s essentially saying is “301 redirect”?

    [Reply]

  5. Bri Manning said on September 4th, 2008 at 7:02 am

    Nice inside scoop.

    [Reply]

  6. Borgo7 said on September 4th, 2008 at 7:04 am

    I think that I’ll never use adwords and adsense in my website. It’s useless in my case I presume ^^”

    [Reply]

    Moneybites Reply:

    I disagree, Adsense can be ONE way to monetize your website, I wouldn’t call it useless…

    [Reply]

  7. Static said on September 4th, 2008 at 7:16 am

    I’ve found them quite helpful too. I’m still a newbie at all this, but hey, even a newbie knows that something isn’t going right when he’s losing quite a bit of money!

    [Reply]

  8. Moneybites said on September 4th, 2008 at 7:19 am

    I didn’t know that fact about who clicks. Is there any published information that demonstrates the breakdown of clickers in averages?

    [Reply]

  9. Andy Crofford said on September 4th, 2008 at 7:53 am

    Shoe,

    Could you clarify this: “So use your own jump pages when possible and when not possible do your own geotargeting to show non us users a jump page but us users the jump page.”

    Are you saying to use one jump page for non-US visitors and another for US?

    [Reply]

    Jeremy Schoemaker Reply:

    yes just a single page on your domain that redirects based on your own targeting.

    [Reply]

    Le Melon Reply:

    Do you have any examples of wordpress plugins to make this (jump page creation and geotargeting) easier?

    [Reply]

    Monty's Mega Marketing Reply:

    Google a plugin called Wordpress Redirection. Works great.

  10. Zack - Amer1can Paratrooper said on September 4th, 2008 at 8:12 am

    I thought that was the whole point - create a landing page for adwords and hope they click on your targeted ads. Guess I’m learning something new as to linking affiliate links directly to paid adwords. Cool.

    [Reply]

  11. Melvin said on September 4th, 2008 at 8:12 am

    oh never knew that there are many indians who are part of G

    [Reply]

    TylerC Reply:

    “indians” are a part of pretty much every outsourced tech company lol

    [Reply]

  12. Clog Money said on September 4th, 2008 at 8:29 am

    You will still get busted for this. It’s against googles adwords guidelines. Google’s guidelines for a good quality score suggest

    1) Your site provides relevant unique information.
    2) You clearly defined the section containing the adverts as an advert section.

    More here

    http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=mr&answer=46675

    I would also suggest that you instead create two campaigns and target one for US only traffic, and one for other traffic, with two separate landing pages/ad copys for each campaign.

    [Reply]

    Jeremy Schoemaker Reply:

    well im telling you what works and how it works… not quoting TOS’s ;)

    [Reply]

    TylerC Reply:

    I think he forgot where he was :P

    [Reply]

  13. Otooo said on September 4th, 2008 at 8:29 am

    Sorry - is a jump page the same as a landing page?

    [Reply]

    Clog Money Reply:

    Jump page - no content just a redirect to where your going.

    [Reply]

    Jeremy Schoemaker Reply:

    A jump page can be a landing page… its just a page in between the ad and the end offer

    [Reply]

  14. meethere said on September 4th, 2008 at 8:35 am

    I also had the same problem and results are good after landing page..

    [Reply]

  15. Vahsi000 said on September 4th, 2008 at 8:36 am

    hmm… geo targeting is based on the users IP, is it not? Anyone with slight knowledge of proxies can get around geo targeting / redirecting, whether it’s a web proxy or a proxy server…

    [Reply]

  16. Craig said on September 4th, 2008 at 8:41 am

    This has been a challenge for me, as I am in Canada and most offers are US only. Not sure if my location has anything to do with using a US geotargeted campaign for a US site.
    Landing pages is the way to go.

    [Reply]

  17. Steven-Sanders said on September 4th, 2008 at 8:42 am

    Very good information, and while it does violate Google’s terms of service, they don’t spend all day checking to see who is violating them. If they did, they wouldn’t have time to do anything else.

    Besides, I only think they even have a terms of service to cover their own a$$.

    Jeremy’s right though, it is what works.

    [Reply]

  18. Rice Blogger said on September 4th, 2008 at 8:46 am

    this is my first time hearing this term…jump page….sounds like an intro page rather than going straight into the content…

    is this the same as those website that have flash intro? but rather than flash, you optimize using normal html?

    [Reply]

  19. eve said on September 4th, 2008 at 9:06 am

    A google rep told me literally they are picking out everyone using affiliate links and that in the end they only want the ‘real’ companies doing adwords… in the EU tradedoubler is already facing heavy probs due to this, the quality scores for their affiliates is disastrous even with jump pages.

    [Reply]

  20. netmeg said on September 4th, 2008 at 9:07 am

    Shoemoney, I love you and your blog to death, but I don’t think this is very good advice. It may work for you, but everyone isn’t a Shoemoney.

    People need to realize that you *are* putting your campaigns, and possibly your AdWords account at risk if you do this. If I had a nickel for every ‘thin’ affiliate I’ve heard from in the last 12-18 mos who got slapped or lost their account - well, I wouldn’t be Shoemoney rich, but I’d sure have a whole lotta nickels. I get tons of requests to try to resurrect these types of accounts, and I have to turn them away, because it takes more of my time and effort than I have to give (even at a hefty consulting rate). Sure, lots of people get away with it; Google hasn’t had the time or the staff to police everyone, but they’re taking more time and hiring more staff. And it’s getting harder and harder to sustain this business model. And in fact, that’s what Google tells you when they cut you off - that you no longer fit their business model.

    As long as you’re still okay if you don’t have AdWords to rely on, go for it. But if losing your AdWords account will put a major hurt on you - I’d not advise it.

    [Reply]

    Jeremy Schoemaker Reply:

    agreed… but if you read the post its referring to people that are already getting nuked and giving them something to test

    [Reply]

    netmeg Reply:

    Right. I did read it; I just think it’s important to list the risks along with the rewards.

    [Reply]

  21. Jon said on September 4th, 2008 at 9:12 am

    So that’s what I’ve been doing wrong, spending all this time developing landing pages and I could just throw together a jump page with a redirect. Although I still think a landing page is appropriate in a lot of situations (but they’re a pain to put together sometimes).

    [Reply]

    Jeremy Schoemaker Reply:

    no… actually landing pages are a jump page…

    [Reply]

  22. Dustin Cucciarre said on September 4th, 2008 at 9:15 am

    I know that Google could fix this if they wanted to, however I can understand the business side of it as far as making a ton off of people who are unaware to this fact.

    [Reply]

  23. Blogging Millionare said on September 4th, 2008 at 9:24 am

    Google adwords piss me off. They cheat you so bad!

    [Reply]

  24. TylerC said on September 4th, 2008 at 9:25 am

    I would also recommend this to anyone who is doing any marketing on Facebook. Cloak your URLs and use landing pages!

    Some info here: http://www.smmguru.com/2008/09/02/make-money-with-facebook-ads-part-4

    [Reply]

  25. Chris Guthrie said on September 4th, 2008 at 10:10 am

    Hello Shoe,

    I haven’t done a lot of work in affiliate marketing, but I see the common theme in these comments is the confusion over jump pages and their best use.

    Why don’t you write another post about them? (I already searched your site and couldn’t seem to find any.)

    [Reply]

  26. Bradley said on September 4th, 2008 at 10:11 am

    ya, i’ve been getting slapped too.

    [Reply]

  27. Jarret said on September 4th, 2008 at 11:01 am

    Thanks for the great tip Shoe! I just found out that one of my campaigns got slapped yesterday so it is back to the drawing board.

    [Reply]

  28. Reid said on September 4th, 2008 at 11:24 am

    This is an interesting way to look at things and use ideas!

    [Reply]

  29. Nimic said on September 4th, 2008 at 11:32 am

    Good advice for maintaining quality scores.

    [Reply]

  30. stevewrightaz said on September 4th, 2008 at 11:59 am

    Good tip to remember. Thanks Shoe.

    [Reply]

  31. Custom T-Shirts said on September 4th, 2008 at 12:26 pm

    Always remember not to be narrow minded on the Internet.
    There is more to the world than just the US!

    [Reply]

  32. hi said on September 4th, 2008 at 1:02 pm

    Possible because in India there is cheap labor so employee from india might be checking and do all the works.

    [Reply]

    dinesh Reply:

    You are mistaken my friend.
    Google pays the same wages for all its employees.

    [Reply]

  33. cheap used cars said on September 4th, 2008 at 1:48 pm

    i think geo-targeting is sooo undervalued. a great tool to hide things from people who shouldn’t be looking at them :-)

    [Reply]

  34. Rekzai said on September 4th, 2008 at 2:12 pm

    I guess I have to research how to geotarget now.

    [Reply]

  35. Bryn Youngblut said on September 4th, 2008 at 4:01 pm

    Actually a good tip, stupid outsourcing though. Even though their somehow better at approving ads then the kids from Harvard who approve ads over at facebook.

    [Reply]

  36. mrkbsm said on September 4th, 2008 at 5:20 pm

    I think that’s a good bit of advice for folks to try, especially if they’re new to the game. There may be risks as others have mentioned, but that caveat applies to many money-making strategies on the web. If nothing else it’s a good post to give folks some idea why their quality plummeted.

    [Reply]

  37. Douglas said on September 4th, 2008 at 7:29 pm

    great tip! thanks!

    [Reply]

  38. lasvegascom said on September 4th, 2008 at 11:01 pm

    ofcourse google is going to lower your quality score. you are not providing any additional value to the equation.

    [Reply]

  39. River Girl said on September 4th, 2008 at 11:31 pm

    Thanks useful info for me for the future.

    [Reply]

  40. SEI Design Group said on September 4th, 2008 at 11:36 pm

    Newbie at this, need more info.

    [Reply]

  41. Tom Jones said on September 5th, 2008 at 12:01 am

    Are you using a “jump” page as a meta refresh? Or is it an actual page that is an index.php page?

    [Reply]

  42. Kenneth Dreyer said on September 5th, 2008 at 2:05 am

    I guess this is a good tips, but I don’t want to get slaped and loose my adwords account..

    [Reply]

  43. Mario said on September 5th, 2008 at 3:05 am

    hmmmm, interesting thoughts….i didn’t have that kinda of problems, but I’ll surely look for some info now…

    [Reply]

  44. JumboCasher.com said on September 5th, 2008 at 10:41 am

    hmmm… i know i get all the adwords responses from my own country…India!

    [Reply]

  45. PG said on September 5th, 2008 at 2:43 pm

    google adwords is the best.

    [Reply]

  46. Make Mone Online With Harry said on September 5th, 2008 at 4:16 pm

    I have a jump page but not using it on my PPC campaigns. I am using the direct links which do work for a period on Adwords like you said. Replacing them with my jump page now. Thanx.

    [Reply]

  47. Dan said on September 5th, 2008 at 10:07 pm

    Funny that you mentioned this because I was just testing it.

    [Reply]

  48. Earth4Energy said on September 6th, 2008 at 7:06 am

    That really sucks. :(

    [Reply]

  49. Jason Online said on September 8th, 2008 at 4:39 pm

    i agree jump pages works the best when it comes to google adwords

    [Reply]

  50. Ari - Laberinto Social said on September 11th, 2008 at 12:45 pm

    I developed a landing page (jump page) that summarizes and highlights the product I am going to eventually refer link to and give them the best information I can (relative to my keyword selections) and then I let them click to continue.

    It gives me a landing page without the mirror, redirect, and duplicate penalties and I don’t have to worry about my score diving and I’m in compliance. Its a little more work, but hey, even ShoeMoney knows that its work that gets you the money to put in your Shoe, not get rich quick! :)
    I have samples of that throughout my site.

    [Reply]

  51. Tushar Dhoot said on September 13th, 2008 at 11:12 pm

    Nice logic. That’s probably why google keeps hiring more and more people in India anyways.

    [Reply]

  52. CultureMob.com said on September 15th, 2008 at 7:41 pm

    Great advice!

    [Reply]

  53. Earth 4Energy said on October 4th, 2008 at 1:45 am

    I never knew this could happen

    [Reply]

  54. fact check said on September 4th, 2008 at 8:08 am

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  55. AdWords and Ad Manager One In The Same said on September 4th, 2008 at 9:41 am

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