Brand protection · UK
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Observations, not verdicts
Glossary · D

Letter
D
Related terms
4
Guides
6
Lessons
1
In one line

The web address shown on a search ad. Its domain comes from the ad's final URL, and only the path after it is free text.

A Google search ad shows a web address under or beside its headline. On today's text ads that address isn't typed in. Google takes the domain from the final URL, the page a click lands on, and the advertiser can add up to two path fields after it, such as /official or /sale, for show. An ad showing yourbrand.example/official leads to yourbrand.example.

So the display URL is honest about the destination's domain, and that's exactly why it isn't proof of who ran the ad. Any advertiser whose final URL is your site shows your domain: your own account, your agency's, a reseller's product listing, or an affiliate linking straight to you. The name behind the ad is in About this advertiser and the Ads Transparency Center.

  • Google's Trademarks policy never restricts the domain shown in a display URL.
  • Destination requirements expect the display domain and the final URL's domain to match.
  • Programme terms often have a clause on your address as a publisher's display URL, separate from direct linking.

Looks like yours shows how a copied headline and your own address combine.

Sources

Google's own help and policy pages first.

  1. Google Ads Help: Path
  2. Advertising Policies Help: Destination requirements
  3. Advertising Policies Help: Trademarks
Related terms
Guides that use it
  1. How to find which partner is behind an ad on your brandMatch an ad on your brand's searches to a partner in your programme without clicking it: the four clues an ad carries, the record each meets and what to ask.
  2. How to read Google's “About this advertiser”What each line of Google's About this advertiser panel means: verified and unverified names, the name paying for the ads, what not to press, what to do next.
  3. How to use Google's Ads Transparency Center for your brandSearch Google's Ads Transparency Center for your name and web address, read an advertiser's page and each ad's dates, and know what it never shows.
  4. What is ad hijacking? How a brand's ad gets copiedWhat people mean by ad hijacking: an ad that reads like a brand's own and leads to its shop, run from another account. How it works and how to look into it.
  5. Google Ads trade mark complaints: what they can and can't changeWhat a Google Ads trademark complaint can restrict, what it never touches, how to file one against named advertisers, and how to authorise a partner.
  6. Paid-search rules for affiliates: the clauses to writeThe paid-search clauses a programme's terms need, why “bid on or appear on” matters, how Google's matching shapes the wording, and how to roll it out.
Lessons that use it
  1. Looks like yoursHow another account's ad can show your web address, take the top spot from your own ad, and reach GA4 as paid search.
Related terms
  1. Final URL
  2. Direct linking
  3. Destination requirements
  4. About this advertiser