How Can Affiliate Marketers Get Along with Google and Make a Profit?

Google is an incredibly popular source of traffic across a wide range of niches. As the search engine that processes over 10 billion searches every day, it's a giant in terms of traffic, attracting affiliate marketers. But how can these marketers get on Google's good side? What does Google consider gray-area advertising? And how can they channel traffic without worrying about losing time and money?

In this article, we'll dive into these questions and also explain how using proxies can make working with Google easier for affiliate marketers of all levels.

What Does Google Consider Gray-Area Advertising?

Google Ads is the most popular advertising platform in the world, so it maintains strict standards for the quality of the ads it allows. It's hard to find an affiliate marketer who hasn't faced stringent ad campaign moderation, even if everything seems in order at first glance.

Interestingly, the review process involves both human moderators and automated systems. While people often talk about how artificial intelligence is smarter than humans, the quality of Google's automated ad reviews isn't quite there yet.

This makes sense. Google operates in 195 countries, adhering to various local laws that can change frequently. As a result, the search giant often prefers to play it safe. The outcome? Requirements that aren't always clear, affecting both affiliate marketers and businesses alike. While businesses usually have budgets to accommodate experimentation, affiliate marketers often find it more challenging.

What Does Google Ads Expect from Advertisers?

Google Ads' requirements are actually pretty straightforward, but they can be somewhat vague at times, making it hard to pinpoint exactly when a violation has occurred.

There's no official rule, but affiliate marketers have observed that Google doesn't really like them. Google's core mission is to connect businesses with their target audiences. It is a mediator, so it tends to be wary of other intermediaries, seeing them as a threat to its revenue.

That said, it's clear that Google prohibits promoting pages that are not useful, lack informative content, or give the impression that they don't belong to the advertiser.

There are exceptions, such as ad agencies with official Google Partner status. These agencies start with a higher level of trust, granting them certain advantages.

Overall, it's hard to blame Google. Consider this example: A company that rents luxury real estate. The ideal advertiser is either the property owner or their authorized representative, like a real estate agency. But if this company offers an attractive affiliate program, it draws in affiliate marketers willing to bring in customers for a commission.

The idea is for them to share affiliate links on social media, messaging apps, and forums, but the easiest way is to buy ads on platforms like Facebook and Google. However, they don't necessarily add any real value to customers, as their main goal is to redirect traffic to a site where orders can be placed.

A lot depends on the landing page - how informative and useful it is. However, the primary goal of an affiliate marketer is not to satisfy the user's informational needs but to facilitate a transaction by directing them to the advertiser's site.

Bypassing Google Ads Checks

Knowing that their ads might get blocked, affiliate marketers sometimes use sophisticated methods to bypass Google's checks. These methods often require creativity and risk-taking, but some are quite effective at getting around Google's restrictions. Here are a few common techniques:

• Cloaking involves showing different content to the advertising platform than what end-users see. This is done to bypass automated checks for prohibited content. For example, an affiliate marketer might present a "clean" site to Google Ads, but after a user clicks on the ad, they are redirected to prohibited or questionable content.
• Pre-landing pages are intermediate pages that users are directed to before reaching the final destination site. Affiliate marketers use pre-landing pages to make their content appear compliant to Google Ads. Once a user clicks on an ad, they might be redirected to a final site with content that violates Google's rules but aligns with the affiliate's objectives.
• Affiliate marketers also use farm accounts (older accounts that look more legitimate due to their history and activity) to avoid automated Google checks. Since these accounts have a track record and appear to be from real users, they are less likely to trigger suspicion.
• Anti-detection browsers allow affiliate marketers to change their digital fingerprints (such as User-Agent, screen resolution, installed plugins, etc.) to avoid identification. This can help them run ads with a lower risk of being blocked.

There are other strategies as well. The general idea is to appear more legitimate to Google without necessarily breaking the rules, although sometimes it involves pushing the boundaries to adapt to Google's requirements.

Effective Traffic Generation Strategies Through Google

Considering all of the above, there are two effective approaches to generating traffic through Google Ads. These methods can be used individually or combined, depending on the marketer's preference and strategy.

• Using trusted ad accounts managed by partner agencies: This approach leverages trust. These accounts can be developed by the marketer or purchased. One advantage is that these accounts often get priority during moderation, meaning ads are reviewed faster. Additionally, there's the ability to withdraw funds even if an account is blocked. Notably, in 2023, Google introduced stricter rules, requiring advertiser verification before launching the first campaign.
• Farming and warming up accounts with proxies: This is a simpler and faster approach for affiliate marketers. However, it requires specialized tools, including reliable proxies, since one or a few physical devices may run dozens or even hundreds of accounts.
  
  Conclusions and Recommendations
   

Google's attempts to reduce the impact of intermediaries like affiliate marketers make sense from a business perspective — they don't want to lose revenue to these middlemen. However, the stricter rules also affect legitimate advertisers, and not everyone welcomes the tighter controls. Nevertheless, adaptation is key.

Affiliate marketers have effective strategies to bypass restrictions and avoid account bans, allowing them to generate traffic and earn revenue. These strategies often involve specialized tools, including proxies, which can be crucial for successful operations.

KeyProxy is a well-known provider among affiliate marketers and other online professionals, offering high-quality mobile proxies that support successful earnings across various levels. With 99.8% uptime and speeds of 3-90 Mbit/s, they are excellent tools for working with Google and other advertising networks efficiently.