Do You Click On The Ads?

So you're an affiliate and you want to research your competition...see what they're doing. Do you click on the ads?

I hope you said no. If you said, "duh, how else am I supposed to see what my competition is doing" then read this post in its entirety.

By now you know that clicking on the ads charge some good affiliate out there for that click. If you're an affiliate yourself and use adwords its kinda unfair because you wouldn't like someone clicking on your ads now would you? Especially if they're not going to complete the desired action.

So how do you actually see the landing page without charging your fellow affiliates?

Here's how:

1. right click on the ad you want to view.
2. Select properties
3. Copy the url and paste it into the browser.

At this point you should have something looking like this:

google.com/pagead/iclk?sa=l&ai=BDqCsGsxtR4byojee&num=4&adurl=http://www.beatingadwords.com

Note the part on the end with the destination url.

4. Delete everthing else in your browser leaving the destination url (bolded in the above example)
5. Click enter and you see what your competition is doing...without charging them for the click.

Another way to do this is to use research tools like Wealthy Affiliate's Research Top Listings tool. The tool shows the top listings and their destination urls so you can look at their landing pages without charging the affiliate or advertiser for the click.

So the next time you're doing some research...be considerate to your fellow advertisers...competition or not.