Q: I am new to Internet marketing and, as such, I am very dumb. My question concerns display and destination URLs. Can you explain what exactly goes into the display and destination URL? Also, where does my affiliate hoplink fit in? I’ve asked Google and ClickBank and have not received a very clear answer.
A: The display URL is what people will see when your ad is run by Google AdWords on Google. It will often be the top level domain for the final destination page for the link.
The destination URL is your affiliate link, either the link supplied to affiliates by the affiliate program, or a tracking link that points to your affiliate link.
For example, this is my destination URL as an Amazon affiliate for the Kindle:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0015TCML0?ie=UTF8&tag=velocitynyc&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0015TCML0
If I were running an AdWords campaign for this link, I would put www.amazon.com as the display URL.
As far as your hoplink, you would set that ClickBank affiliate link as the destination URL.