Direct Linking PPC - Don't do it but everybody does it?

[omegapandor]

For the past year I have been under the impression that direct linking is against google's TOS for adwords etc. All of a sudden I'm browsing keywordspy and notice that it's extremely common!

Now I have noticed that amazon will no longer allow it come May 1st. . .but have I been misinformed all along?

The Adwords TOS says not to use redirecting links, so I guess that means they are more worried about your display URL and actual URL being really-cute-puppies.com but then it's just a domain that redirects to senior-bareback-cowboys.com or something.

Please tell me about your experience with direct affiliate linking. Does it work for you? Maybe you've always used landing pages? Some product pages can actually provide a good quality score? CJ? Clickbank?

 

[enlytend]

Direct linking is allowed by Adwords and always has been. Some individual affiliate programs don't allow it and Amazon just added themselves to that list.

The downside is that there can be only one ad showing per distinct top level domain and, as you correctly stated, you cannot use a redirect so you'll be competing against everyone else who's direct linking to the destination domain using that keyword just to get your ad to show in the results!

Some people do very well with it, I prefer my own sites and landing pages.