Important Change to Google's URL Policy Enforcement

[LowlyDog]

Hi
I've just noticed Google's new policy on my adwords account. "Starting in April, display URLs for new ads will be required to match their Destination / landing page URLs, without exception."

Now as an actinic express user, I display my own domain in the ads (which redirects to my home page if you were to type it in manually) and use the long actinic express shop urls as the landing pages. I can't use the actinic express urls in the text of the ads as they are way too long and visually unappealing.

Am I reading this wrong or do I/we have a problem with this new policy? Any suggestions?

David
By the way, here's the full Google details:-

The policy refers to
https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=91451&hl=en_GB
and I've extracted the relevant stuff below.

Tracking URLs

Your ads will be approved if the URL of your landing page domain matches that of your Display URL domain.

For example, the following would be acceptable:
Display URL: www.google.com/adwords
Destination URL: www.trackingurl.com/google123
Landing page URL: www.google.co.uk

However, this example would be unacceptable:
Display URL: www.google.com/adwords
Destination URL: www.trackingurl.com/google123
Landing page URL: www.trackingurl.com

[RuralWeb]

Its not really a new policy as G has always asked for them to be the same - unfortunatly the minority who abused Gs non enforcement have resulted in G now enforcing it.

Its not really a problem for most users as the domain is normally the same anyway but I do see a potential problem for express users (Im no big expert on express so I may be wrong) who use thier own domain as you do because the express shop domain will not match your main domain.

The people at Adwords are very helpfull so your best bet is to drop them an email explaining your situation and see what they say. When you get an answer you can post it here for other users.

[LowlyDog]

Thanks for replying. I was using the default url created by Actinic. So people viewing Google Ads wouldn't go for this.

I had a look at some of the example live sites using Express and realised they weren't using the default - somehow they'd configured Express to use their own domain name. I figured if they could do it, then so could I. After stumbling around the community I found a link to the relevant support page:-

http://www.actinic.co.uk/express/overview/domain-name-registration.htm

This would be a lot easier with a manual. Anybody written one yet for Actinic Express?

[Ali00001]

I have contacted Adwords about this and they replied with a stock response (below). As I definately don't want to use my Express shop URL as my display URL that is the end of us advertising on Google Adwords. Ah well . . .

"I would like to inform you that we've given much consideration to our
stance on Display URL accuracy and have decided not to allow exceptions to
this policy. These include, but are not limited to, redirects and vanity
URLs.To ensure a positive user experience, your ad's Display URL must
match its Destination URL (the URL of your landing page). We monitor and
do not allow ads that redirect to different Destination URLs. Please note
that we cannot make an exception for you from this policy as you do not
come under shopping platform sites. One example of a shopping platform
site is eBay.com.

We've made this decision both in response to advertiser and user feedback,
and in an effort to provide relevant results and a high-quality experience
for our users. While we understand that you'd like to use your information
site as your display URL and shopping site as your destination URL, this
amendment to our policy applies to all advertisers, regardless of previous
exceptions for, or acceptance of, any campaigns. To provide a quality
experience for our users and partners, the Display URL policy will be
strictly enforced.

Google strongly believes in freedom of expression and therefore offers
broad access to content across the web without censoring search results.
Please note that the decisions that we make concerning advertising in no
way affect the search results that we deliver. At the same time, we
reserve the right to exercise editorial discretion when it comes to the
advertising that we accept on our site, as noted in our programme Terms
and Conditions. Visit
https://adwords.google.co.uk/select/contentpolicy.html for more
information on our content policies.

If you would like your ads to run on Google, please make sure that your
ad's Display URL matches its Destination URL (the URL of your landing
page).

We appreciate your cooperation and apologise for any inconvenience.

If you have additional questions, please visit AdWords Support at
https://adwords.google.co.uk/support, where you will find answers to many
frequently asked questions.

We look forward to providing you with the most effective advertising
available."


I thought the last comment was particularily annoying!