In the context of the ever-evolving advertising landscape today, a unique challenge has emerged for advertisers. Despite their products being placed on the prohibited list on major platforms such as Google, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, these advertisers still wish to promote their products, reaching a wider audience and attracting potential customers.
What’s even more surprising is that a significant majority of these advertisers demonstrate considerable support for the implementation of cloaking ads techniques in their black-hat (BH) advertising campaigns. This increasing trend highlights the ingenuity and determination of advertisers seeking creative solutions to navigate the ever-changing rules and regulations of the advertising world.
In this article, we will delve deeper into the world of cloaking ads and explore how it provides an effective means for advertisers to overcome restrictions and connect with their target audience while still gaining the favor of advertising giants.
What is cloaking in SEO?
Cloaking in the context of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a black hat technique that involves presenting different content or URLs to search engine crawlers than what website visitors see. It is essentially a way to offer search engines a different version of a website, typically intended to manipulate its ranking in the search engine results pages (SERPs). This technique is considered a form of search engine manipulation and is widely recognized as an unethical practice that could result in a website being banned from appearing in SERPs.
There are several types of cloaking techniques that are typically used to present different content to search engine crawlers than what visitors to a website see. The various types of cloaking include:
- User-Agent Cloaking: Serving different content based on the user-agent that identifies the software agent (e.g., web browser) accessing the website.
- IP-based Cloaking: Redirecting users to specific pages based on their IP addresses, often done through reverse DNS records.
- JavaScript Cloaking: Presenting different content to users with JavaScript-enabled browsers compared to those with JavaScript disabled.
- HTTP_REFERER Cloaking: Checking the HTTP_REFERER header of the requester to display cloaked or uncloaked content based on this information.
- HTTP Accept-language Header Cloaking: Using the user’s HTTP Accept-Language header to determine which version of the website to display, often used to serve different languages or content versions.
Each of these cloaking techniques serves the purpose of manipulating search engine rankings by showing alternative content to search engine crawlers compared to regular users.
What is Ad Cloaking on Social Media?
Cloaking ads on social media involves displaying different content to users who click on an ad, as opposed to what the social media platform’s ad review process approves. This technique is frequently employed to circumvent advertising policies and guidelines established by social media.
The aim of cloaking ads on social media is to conceal the true destination URL or content that users will see after clicking on an ad. This is typically done by showing compliant content to the platform’s review process to get the ad approved, while redirecting actual users to a different landing page that may contain advertising Prohibited Products.
Cloaking Ads Technique: Solution for Advertising Prohibited Products
Cloaking ads can indeed impact the approval of ads in various major niches. It is important to understand that while some business niches are legal and ethical, they are not allowed to be advertised on major social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, Twitter, Snapchat, or search engines such as Google or Bing. This is where ad cloaking becomes significant for marketers to achieve fast ad approvals.
The cloaking technique involves displaying different content to the ad review team of social media platforms compared to the content shown to regular users. This is done in an attempt to gain approval for ads that do not meet the policies of platform. Essentially, advertisers are trying to deceive the system.
For example, let’s say an advertiser is promoting an affiliate offer that violates Google’s policies, such as a weight loss supplement making false claims. The advertiser can use cloaking techniques to show a different web page to Google’s ad review team, making the supplement appear legitimate. However, when users click on the ad, they are directed to the actual web page promoting the weight loss supplement.
The cloaking technique helps you bypass the bots of major platforms and run advertising campaigns effectively targeted at your chosen audience.
If you are unfamiliar with cloaking, you may consider hiring an expert to carry out cloaked advertising. However, if you have programming knowledge, SEO skills, and practical experience using various software, you can also run cloaked advertising campaigns on your own.
The services offered by Agency include the arrangement of ad accounts, obtaining ad approvals, running and scaling ad campaigns, and ensuring continuous ad presence, which can significantly impact ad approval in various niches. With their expertise in cloaking ads for businesses in niches like
- Cryptocurrency
- CBD products
- Weight loss supplements
- Replica brands
- Government services
- …
Ads Approved is equipped to assist in obtaining approvals for ads that might otherwise be challenging to advertise through conventional means.
Steps to Run Cloaking Ads on Social Media
Here are some fundamental steps to run cloaked advertising on various social media platforms:
- Formation of Account: The first step is to create an account on all social media platforms you intend to use for your cloaked campaigns. Important tips include
- Never use your official account.
- In case your account gets banned, always have a backup account.
- If the account is new, maintain it with various activities before running cloaked advertising.
- SEO Audit:
- Conduct an SEO audit to select the right keywords and target audience.
- Avoid showing ads to irrelevant audiences, as this wastes your budget and annoys users.
- Setting Up Two Different Landing Pages
- The cloaking process requires you to create two distinct landing pages-one for real users and one for bots.
- To distinguish between them, you can apply different filters for clicks on ads and web pages based on IP addresses and user agent names.
- Use Free Cloaking Tools: If you decide to execute cloaked advertising for prohibited products on your own, there are specific tools that can guide you through the process. These tools can help you perform related cloaking tasks effortlessly.
- hoax.tech
- Keitaro
- LinkTrackr
- MagicChecker
- FairLab
- Palladium
- Binom
- TrafficArmor
How Ad Cloaking service work?
Here is a breakdown of how cloak ads work:
- Research and Planning: The process starts with identifying ad content and keywords that comply with ad platform policies. This includes planning the ad strategy based on the niche and past experiences.
- Custom Safe Page: Prior to implementing ad cloaking, a thorough review of the website and business niche is conducted. This analysis facilitates the creation of a custom safe page that ad bots will see, helping to ensure ads are approved.
- Cloaking Configuration: Next, the cloaker is configured based on the target ad countries, business niche, and preferred ad platforms for running ads. This step ensures that the cloaked ads align with platform policies.
- Testing: Thorough testing of the cloaking setup is crucial to confirm that it functions as intended. Both the user-facing pages and the pages seen by ad reviewers are checked to verify that the content complies with platform policies.
- Ads Approval & Scaling: After the cloaked ads are live, continuous monitoring of their performance is conducted. This involves identifying successful ads, scaling conversions, and maintaining the ads to ensure they are continuously running without issues.
By following these steps, marketers can effectively utilize ad cloaking to navigate strict ad platform policies, reach their target audience, and achieve ad approvals in niches that may otherwise face restrictions.
In conclusion
Running advertising for prohibited products is not an easy task, but the cloaking technique can be an effective solution for those who want to reach potential customers without violating the advertising regulations of major social media platforms. Understand the basic steps of cloaking and use them wisely to achieve your advertising goals.