Changing Domains - Will a 301 redirect be looked unfavourably for my Ads?
-
Hey All,
So over the next few weeks we are switching over a clients domain to a new one. Each of the old pages on the old domain will have a 301 redirect to it's new contextual page (with the same content). My question is this, we currently have multiple PPC campaigns running for this client and the ads are pointed towards the old domain so the ads will redirect over to the new domain.
My question is this, will Adwords look at this redirection unfavourably? If so, then I will have to duplicate each ad (100's of ads) with a new destination URL (since if I edit the current ads they will lose all past performance history). Obviously for branding I'm going to have to probably change the display URL eventually but for now I'm looking at the BIG issues that could occur. I would normally call Google and ask this question but I don't want them to flag anything in my account just in case this is looked unfavourably.
Thanks!
Jon
-
You're correct and good catch! If you want that Ad History to remain, you'll need to duplicate the ads and update the URLs.
-
Hey Ray,
That's what I thought you'd say. Been managing campaigns for years but this is the first time this has come up for a client. Was definitely going to use this method to switch them out.
That being said, my ad history will clear if I change the destination URL so won't I need to duplicate the ads and then change the destination and display URL's?
Thanks!
Jon
-
Hi Jonathan,
Welcome to the Moz community!
You should definitely update the display and landing page URLs to match the landing page the user will eventually end up. Not doing so could be in violation of the Google AdWords policy and negatively impact your account.
source: https://support.google.com/adwordspolicy/answer/6021546?rd=1#027
- Redirects: You can use a redirect for tracking purposes as long as the destination URL's final resulting page uses the same domain as your display URL.
I know that in the above they talk about redirects for tracking purposes, but it remains the same for general advertising guidelines.
Updating the ads shouldn't be much of an issue, though, with Excel and the AdWords editor. I suggest exporting all of your campaign ads into Excel and then doing a Find and Replace to update all of the URLs to the new domain. Then you can easily import those ads back into the AdWords editor.
In fact, I believe the AdWords editor added this as a native function in the 11.0 version.
https://support.google.com/adwords/editor/answer/47657?hl=en
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Special Characters in Negative Keywords in Ads
Howdy, fellow mozzers, I came across this weird suggestion in my Bing account (screenshot link: https://dmitrii-regexseo.tinytake.com/tt/NDY3OTc5NF8xNDgyMzY4OA) It almost that the dollar sign in the negative keyword is acting like a wildcard character, or being disregarded completely. I did some tests, it seems that in Google Ads that is not happening. Does anyone have an idea if this is normal behavior? I have never seen this before.
Paid Search Marketing | | DmitriiK0 -
Need help regarding to get rank for “Product listing Ads” on perticular keyword
I have one project Canvas Champ and we have been running Google shopping campaign for this project and we are getting good visits from some of the keywords. But our client has sorted out some keywords having high search volumes like “Canvas Prints” Now, We want to show our Product listing Ad for this keyword. Let me make you aware about our past efforts: We have set an auto target in Google Adwords for this particular product and make its bid around $8 and we have reviewed that product in listing for 2 days, but we didn’t see our Product Listing Ad on Google Search Result for this keyword. So Now, My concern is that, How can we show our Product listing Ad on Google SERP for this particular keyword “Canvas Prints”? Let me know if you have any confusion with my question. It would be really appreciated if I would get valuable inputs for the same. Thanks,
Paid Search Marketing | | CommercePundit0 -
Trademarked words in in Google Adwords ads - Why do competitors get to use them?
Hi, The keyword I want to use in my ad is trademarked, so they disqualified my ad. The trademark was specifically cited as the reasoning. I tried this across maybe 5 different ads. All disqualified The thing I don't understand is that there are like 10 other advertisers who are actively using this "trademarked" word in their ads. It's not like 1 scooted past Google, there's a ton of advertisers doing it. So how do I get past them or were they grandfathered in or something? FYI... I tried dynamic insert to see if that could my "trademarked" word in the back door, but no luck. Any other ideas? Thanks!
Paid Search Marketing | | marketingcupcake0 -
Increasing Google Ad spend - is it worth it
Hi We are currently spending approx £500 pcm on google ad words however if I increased this spend to £4000 pcm what kind of results would this achieve? For example would it just be more visits per day as the budget is larger? Also what is the best way to track the success of an adwords campaign - the ultimate goal of the campaign would be to generate a lead whether this be a phone call, email or using our book an appointment form. Our service covers a geographical area (Scotland) and for organic search we are doing well 1st pages listings for searches such as pvc doors edinburgh etc so I am unsure whether it's worth increasing my PPC spend or put more resource into SEO, or even Facebook ads?
Paid Search Marketing | | ocelot0 -
Adwords: Brand ads appear bottom of SERPs
Hello, I'm running a sale promotion on a brand only Adwords campaign (I have the only account with trademark authorization) and have noticed that my ads are appearing at the bottom of the first page on Google. This happened last week so I split the campaign into three Adgroups and that fixed the problem but today I'm running brand only and there is no way to separate them. CPC has also increased dramatically. Normally it's less than 10 cents and now it's sitting at between $2-$4. Has anyone else seen this? Any ideas/advice on how to stop this happening? It's playing havoc with my CTR and conversions. Much thanks,
Paid Search Marketing | | Unity
Davinia2 -
Enhanced Campaigns: Can you disable the call extension from desktop/laptop ads and only show it for mobile ads?
I "upgraded" one of my campaigns to Enhanced Campaigns. Now my text ads appears with a phone number to the right of the Headline. Can I turn this off for desktop and laptops and only show our phone number / click to call button on mobile devices? That's how I had it set up before. Now it seems like Enhanced Campaigns is forcing the phone number in your text ads across all devices. Thanks.
Paid Search Marketing | | FSS0 -
AdWords question on text ads
Hey all, I have a certain format I want to follow on my text ads across several ad groups. I deleted all the past ads and only three ad groups remain with ads that follow this format. When I hit add new ad group, the ad come pre-populated with the text of a now deleted ad and I cannot for the life of me change it. I would love for one of my active ads to come up as I only have to change one name and one number in each ad. How do I control what that default ad is? How can I make it stop being an ad I have deleted. Please help!
Paid Search Marketing | | DanDeceuster0 -
PPC ad guidelines?
I learned Google PPC years ago and got certified by Google. Back then and for a long time since I know it was best practice to capitalize words in your domain name. I know Google no longer does this and that words in your domain name of your ad are now all lowercase. I hear recommendations and see them practice that adding keywords in a directory are a good way to still get capitalized words in your ad. When I learned PPC, I was told your display URL and your destination URL had to match. Now I'm seeing ads where that is not the case. If I have an ad that takes someone to my homepage of a coupon site, can I have a display URL that says: mysite.com/Coupons Even if the destination URL is just mysite.com ? I'm seeing conflicting things online and it's hard because I don't know what the current guidelines are after this change.
Paid Search Marketing | | DanDeceuster0