I had one of my long running Google AdWords campaigns suspended yesterday, the email alerting me to the fact went something like this....
Ad Issue(s): Violation of Affiliate guidelines - Bridge page
POLICY DEFINITIONS:
Violation of Affiliate Guidelines: The domains of your Display URL and Destination URL must agree, you may not simply frame content from another site and your landing page may not be a bridge page with the sole purpose of driving traffic to another site..
The key part of the message is this:
"your landing page may not be a bridge page with the sole purpose of driving traffic to another site".
What I tend to do for some merchants is create a page dedicated to them on my main site, UKOffer or sometimes I even create a stand alone page on a new domain. If I'm honest these pages tend to just contain the key facts about the product/offer and very little else. After all the very point of being an affiliate is to get your visitors to click out of your site and go elsewhere.
Anyway, I have rebuilt the offending page in question and added a lot of genuine content. It's all relevant to the product/market in question and is quite interesting even if I say so myself! I have emailed the revisions to my Google account manager and will wait to see what she says.
So does this signify Google yet again clamping down on affiliates? I think so.
This is the first time I have had a campaign suspended for this reason and looking around on the web I can see it has obviously affected other affiliates too.
Still, what fun would life be if things just stayed the same? Adapt and move on I say.
What I'm listening to right now: Ashanti - "Concrete Rose"


Welcome to my blog. My name is Kieron Donoghue and I am the founder of ShareMyPlaylists.com, ContentNow.co.uk and some other stuff. I have no idea why I'm blue on this photo though but I like it!
Did this resolve for the better for you? They have effectively shut me down completely with this policy.