5 replies to this topic

[A.N.Onym]

A client of mine had reported that after she had setup an AdWords campaign (smart or daring, I can't tell), Google said that she had a landing page problem and wouldn't display the ads.

The landing page looks exactly like this one:
http://okdork.com/mint/?i=5
offers a deal of 80% off for a luxury hotel suite and invites to provide an email address to be reminded, when the site is up to find that deal.

These landing pages on other sites have ads working for them right now:
http://yipit.com/?gc...CFeQD5QodfRGv7Q
http://redeemio.com/...CFdJL5QodB2CV8w
Apparently, they are hosted on authority sites and have a tiny bit more content, than my client's landing pages.

I've searched and found this in Google AdWords Guidelines:

In keeping with our policies about high-quality user experiences, we advise against promoting the following types of sites. In some instances, ads for such sites will not be allowed to run. Types of sites that go against our guidelines include:
- Data collection sites that offer free items, etc., in order to collect private information. Also known as information harvesting.

Note that in the earlier SEL post, a Google rep said:

* Data collection sites that offer the false promise of free items, etc., in order to collect private information."

It's interesting how "offer the false promise of free items" had changed to "offer free items".

So far, the only way to overcome this, as far as I understand, is to get lots of natural links to the site with the help of a blog and possibly even links to the landing pages (apart from improving the landing page itself, of course, by adding more content, using relevant phrases in titles and URLs, adding about and privacy policy links/pages, etc).

Google used to ban a lot of sites in AdWords for wrong business models last October, but I haven't found any fresher info:
http://www.seroundta...ves/020893.html
http://www.webmaster...rds/3995572.htm

What would you suggest in this situation?

Thank you.

Edited by A.N.Onym, 27 August 2010 - 08:30 PM.

[iamlost]

My three best WAG (remember I do not know the actual situation):

1. your 'not acceptable' example is from some time back and G's changed the rules. Arbitrage comes to mind.

2. Y&R are offering the equivalent of a daily coupon 'book' for current deals, your friend is offering a single coupon possibly usable sometime in the future. The first is a service, the second could be a scam.

3. AdWords quality score issue.

[AbleReach]

WAG?

[iamlost]

WAG == Wild As.s Guess
Note: thanks to an overly sensitive coarse language filter ye olde period hack was necessary. :angel:

A Wild As.s Guess (WAG) is an estimate that is based upon experience, similarity and 'windage' and does not have immediately verifiable data that could be used to substantiate the estimate.

[DonnaFontenot]

I think it's the "we aren't live yet" that is the killer.

[A.N.Onym]

Yup, lack of any history or evidence is probably the problem, data collection doesn't help, too. Should we charge money to leave an email to be accepted in AdWords?

I guess I'll also advise to have a more or less informative homepage, which has even less text, than the landing page.

Thanks for the tips, but I was expecting a more educated guess about the data collection element.