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Search Industry Updates - April 2008
Starting in April 2008, Google began strictly enforcing its policy regarding display URLs on new ads – the display URL of an ad must match its landing page URL.
For example, if a publisher sends search traffic to http://publishersite.com, they will need to
make sure that the display URL within Google is http://publishersite.com. If the display URL and
landing page URL do not match, the ad will not appear.
The following questions and answers are meant to shed some light on this topic and provide some
considerations for advertisers that are concerned about the impact this may have on their search
publishers.
Q. How will the new policy affect my search publishers?
A. It depends on their respective promotions within search. If your search publishers'
pay-per-click ads are linking to and landing on their own sites, then there will be no negative
effect.
However, Since the policy clearly states the display URL must match the landing page URL, redirected
URLs and alternate URLs that redirect to your primary URL will no longer appear in Google.
Q. Are search publishers who direct link to our site using Commission Junction's links affected?
A. If your search publishers have authority to use your display URL, then there will be no issue.
Since this change only applies to display URLs, Commission Junction's tracking domains within the destination
URL fields should not be affected by this policy.
Q. What are our options for continuing to work with search publishers?
A. The best course of action is to develop a comprehensive strategy for your search program.
By working directly with your search publishers, Commission Junction's Publisher Development team, and
your internal search department and/or search agency, you will be able to create a search policy that
will allow you to continue to work with your search publishers.
Below are a few examples of policies you can adopt that will help you continue your relationship with
search publishers using Google (or other search engines):
- Allow trademark bidding to publishers' Web sites. This tactic is used when your competitors
are taking up your trademark results in Google or other search engines. Selecting some key search
publishers that you can partner with to "take back" the inventory on Google for your trademark.
- Coverage in Tier 2 search engines. Do you have full coverage outside of Google? Allow your
publishers the use of trademark bidding and display URL to give you maximum coverage in all search
engines.
- Allow display URL. By allowing the use of your display URL, publishers can link directly
into your site for the highest potential of conversion. By doing this, your search affiliates can
cover more keywords than your internal teams or agency may have thought of or that are below their
threshold of conversion. Always remember that what didn't work well for you, may work well with a
publisher. Good search publishers are able to identify large quantities of terms that you are not
taking advantage of, and can increase your internal search efforts. These search efforts can extend
your marketing budget and ad incremental sales and leads at fixed CPA costs for your business.
Good search publishers will work closely with you as partners to insure that your brand
guidelines are upheld and be responsive to making any changes that might be required to protect
your brand image. You can investigate allowing display URL by speaking to your current search
publishers, since they have the experience to look at your account and give you a fair assessment
of your program. In addition, you may speak to your Commission Junction account team or Commission Junction Client Services for more
details.
Advertiser Concerns and Suggestions
As mentioned above, we think that partnering with a trusted, core group of search publishers will
bring you the greatest success. The following suggestions may help get this group working together:
Divide and conquer – One way to think of the vast sea of keywords out there is to put
them into two groups: the trademark keywords and "the long tail" keywords. Obviously, most of your
search budget will be allocated to the trademark keywords, but open up your policy to let your search
publishers bid on the long tail keywords. "The long tail" is a reference to generic keywords that
are so broad in their reach that they do not attract the higher levels of traffic. You can
capitalize on this by allowing your publishers to work on a broader range of terms within specific
categories (or even create a blanket "generic" term rule). This will give you exposure to those
"long tail" terms and mean that both ends of the keyword spectrum (trademark and broader, generic
terms are covered).
Working Together on Bidding – The easiest way to ovoid overlap (you and your search publishers bidding on the same keywords) is a very clearly defined search policy. It is true that if you and your publisher are using the same display URL, that only one ad will show. However, this overlap happens in a pre-auction that doesn't effect final cost calculations for your keywords on Google.
Typically we have found that, in most cases, an advertiser's ad will outrank publishers on most terms because the advertiser, who is making 100% of transaction, is typically bidding more than a publisher who is only making a fraction in commissions. You can further avoid the overlap by communicating directly with your core group of search publishers and clearly outlining your strategy.
By working with your publishers and treating them as your partners and as an extension of your search team/agency, you will be able to bring in incremental sales while keeping the overlap to a minimum.
Protecting the Brand – Your core group of search publishers should include those that work with you so that together you represent your brand appropriately. Trusted publishers have no desire to tarnish your brand, in fact, just the opposite. Publishers who are successfully promoting your brand are often just as diligent (if not more so) in protecting it as you are.
A Little Healthy Competition – We understand that you want to appear in the top spots on the search results. But think past that top spot – who will place in the #2 spot? The #3 spot? Do you want it to be a competitor or a publisher that's going to redirect to your site anyway? Once you set a policy that tells publishers they can't out bid you, let them fill the remaining paid spots on the page and now you've got all clicks coming back to you. Allowing this kind of flexibility works for you, not against you.
By speaking to your Commission Junction account team, Commission Junction Client Services, or one of your current search affiliates, you can review your current policies and work with you to find a proper search policy.
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