This is the question that randomly popped into my head this morning while getting ready to head into the office. Maybe it was the dull razor I was forced to use for shaving or maybe I’m just weird and think about PPC related topics every second of the day, but in any case it is quite a thought provoking topic.

Please keep in mind before reading any further that I do not encourage the following ideas and behaviors, nor do I think they are even legal.

My initial thinking on how to get two ads for the same business on a Google search page is as follows.

I could create two separate AdWords accounts with no connection between them whatsoever including different billing information (credit card, address, etc) and linking them to different Google Analytics accounts. Linking to different Google Analytics accounts would be a necessity anyway since only one AdWords account can link to a single Google Analytics account.

In terms of keywords, I would obviously use the same ones within each account; however ad copy would need to be different in each. In addition, the display and destination URLs within ads could not be the same between the accounts as this would throw up a red flag right away. Theoretically, I could purchase a different domain name, setup a redirect to my actual website, and use that purchased URL as the display and destination URL within one of the AdWords accounts.

To provide a better idea of what I’m referring to, here’s a simple and visual example to demonstrate what I’m talking about.

My business’s website is “www.example.com” so this is the URL I will use for both display and destination purposes in AdWords Account 1 as shown below.

For the second AdWords account (shown below), I use the same keyword (“keyword 1”) but different ad copy (“copy 2”) and the display/destination URL of “www.examplestore.com”. I purchased “www.examplestore.com” and setup a redirect to “www.example.com” a while ago in case you’re wondering where I pulled that one from. It is important to keep in mind that Account 1 and Account 2 have no connection whatsoever other than using the same keyword and eventually taking a user to “www.example.com”.

Theoretically (there’s that word again), if I searched on “keyword 1” I could potentially see both “ad 1” and “ad 2”. With appropriate bidding and other optimization procedures, I could essentially dominate that keyword with the top two ad positions too.

After thinking about this crazy scheme, I took a look through the Google AdWords help center and came across this link that doesn’t necessarily address the previously mentioned setup. I say “doesn’t necessarily” because I’m not quite sure what Google means when stating “the destination site”. Are they referring to both the display and destination URL used in the ad or the final URL a user is taken to after clicking on the ad?

Again, I have no idea if this would actually work nor do I ever encourage someone to try it unless you feel like getting sued by Google and spending a few months in jail. It sure is interesting to imagine if this was possible though, don’t you think?

Tags: AdWords, Google Search

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 8th, 2010 at 2:21 pm and is filed under Pay-Per-Click, PPC Management Related. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.