Has Google gotten suddenly strict with Display URL? Was there a memo? Did I (and my AdWords rep) miss it?
I decided to trial some of my AdWords Optimisation rep Kevins efforts on a group in one of my campaigns. To begin with, I added one of his ads to one of my groups for testing.
Coming from a programming background, Ill often make one change at a time, test, and then if everything is OK change some more. Sometimes I forget myself and recklessly make hundreds of changes with no documentation. I also drink alcohol and eat foods high in sugar and fat. I must have a death wish 
For the rejected AdWords ad, Kevin was using a shortened version of my URL that I had used elsewhere *but* it was a 404 URL. For example, if my real URL was http://www.yummychocs.com/home/nothome/somewherenew/yummy/chocs/index.html I was displaying http://www.yummychocs.com/chocs/
When reviewing AdWords guidelines, I was given the impression that short but non existent URLs were acceptable. Indeed, I was trying to be representative of the landing page within character limits.
I looked at Google’s advise and while it says: If your actual destination URL link is too long to use as your display URL, use a shortened version (such as your homepage) that meets the character limit for this field it does not specify that the URL has to be a valid page on the site.
Is anyone else using URLs that 404 in their Google AdWords display URL? Has anyone else found this happen to their account? Is Googleviolating their own guidelines when optimizing client accounts?
