Does changing query string in Destination URL via Adwords API trigger editorial?

[Taylor Lilley]

This is an ongoing debate at my company. We run massive Adwords accounts. I need to automate adding or changing query string parameters on large numbers of keywords. Our SEM team is nervous that this could cause the Adwords editorial staff to disable large numbers of keywords while they review the changes (effectively killing traffic).

I can understand why changing the domain or page in the URL might cause this. But changing the query string should not, I would think.

Can anybody confirm/deny this possibility?

[Zweitze]

Maybe your team is worried about this:

Google requires that all URLs (the destination URLs of ads and keywords, and the visible URLs of ads) within one group all point to the same domain. When the destination URLs are redirected to other URLs, Google looks at the final destination URL. It gets more complicated when you use subdomains, check out the display URL policy.

Further, Google keeps a quality score of all keywords, and the quality score is partly determined by the contents of the landing page where the user is taken - and the response time of the webserver too. So, if you change the URLs Google will recalculate the quality score, and that score could be less than it is now.

I hope this helps.

[Taylor Lilley]

In general, those are valid concerns. However, in our specific case we are talking about doing this:

Current URL:

http://www.foo.com/somePage/?a=g&b=123456

New URL:

http://www.foo.com/somePage/?a=g&b=123&c=12345678


The new parameter does not affect the content of the landing page. It simply allows better tracking via various logging and analytics systems.

This is far less "invasive" than many bid management systems are, which overwrite the entire URL with a click tracking URL that then redirects to the originally defined destination.

Are we stuck? Do we just have to test the hypothesis on some low traffic keywords and see what happens?

[Anash P. Oommen (AdWords API Team)]

Hi Taylor,

My suggestion would be to get in touch with your Google Account manager. If it is a one-time bulk update, I'm sure they will help you find a good workaround for the issue.

Cheers,
Anash P. Oommen,

AdWords API Advisor.

[Oliver]

I don't work for google, so this is just from personal experience,.

Changing the keyword destination URL should not affect your traffic since the keyword remains intact (along with its quality score).  Most people confuse this with changing the Ad destination URL which causes the current Ad to be deleted and a new one created and hence definitely causes a traffic  drop.

However, please check the above with someone from google.

Oliver

[Bfri]

Hi Taylor,

As long as you only deal with/update the keyword destination URLs (and not at creative level) it won't impact your keyword statistics or quality score.

Hope that helps.

[Taylor]

Anash, can you confirm/deny the statements made by Oliver and Bfri below? This is an important point: 

Modifying keyword level destination URLs does not reset statistics whereas modifying URLs at the creative (Ad) level does and will therefore affect traffic.

True/false?

It would be nice to get confirmation from a Google employee.

[Anash P. Oommen (AdWords API Team)]

Hi Taylor,

I believe this is true, but since this question is product specific, I recommend that you ask it on the product forum at https://www.en.adwords-community.com/t5/Community-lounge/AdWords-Forum/td-p/2488.

Cheers,
Anash P. Oommen,

AdWords API Advisor.