Intermediate tracking sites for affiliates

[Jon12345]

I have noticed that some Adwords advertisers have this set up:

Adwords > tracking site > actual site

...where the tracking site just logs the stats and then they are immediately redirected to the actual site.

Questions:

1. Why would they do this and not just track from the actual site?

2. Is this against Google's (MSN's/Yahoo's) TOS since you are not directing them immediately to the landing page but instead going via an intermediate page?

3. Would this affect your quality score?

4. How do they do the redirect (or what is the best way)? Is it just a php header('Location:http://www.yoursite.com/index.html') command? Or do they do something different?

Thanks,

Jon

 

[Stanley]

I don't do this but I can take a guess

1) because they log the click (ip, date & time, search term)...most likely to detect click fraud

4) I would guess it's a PHP header redirect. it logs the click into their database and then does the redirect

 

[Andrew]

The display URL is what matters with Adwords. You can't say Blah.com in the ad and then php direct it to Walmart.com

 

[Diorex]

I have noticed that some Adwords advertisers have this set up:

Adwords > tracking site > actual site

...where the tracking site just logs the stats and then they are immediately redirected to the actual site.

Questions:

1. Why would they do this and not just track from the actual site?

2. Is this against Google's (MSN's/Yahoo's) TOS since you are not directing them immediately to the landing page but instead going via an intermediate page?

3. Would this affect your quality score?

4. How do they do the redirect (or what is the best way)? Is it just a php header('Location:http://www.yoursite.com/index.html') command? Or do they do something different?

Thanks,

Jon

2. Google only requires that the actual human landing page is on the same domain as the display URL.

3. Yes. Since you have little or no control over the landing page, your QS might be high or it might be low.

4. Most of the tracking sites just give you a link by keyword and then ask where you want that pointed. Each site probably does it a little differently. All that you care is that it works and that it works fast.