Will I Violate Google or Facebook Ads Policy with URL Redirect Tests?

You might be concerned if running the URL Redirect Test will impact your Google or Facebook ads. The short answer is: URL Redirect Tests will NOT violate ads policy as long as you meet the platform’s requirements. In this article, we will go through the current ads policy and address potential concerns (Nov 1, 2024).

Google Ads Policy

Google’s Destination requirements mentions a principle called “Destination Mismatch“. You might be concerned with violating this specific ads policy when choosing to run an URL Redirect test. This will NOT be the case as long as the display URL on your ads is the same as the final URL. Therefore, make sure you are using the same domain in your ads and the redirected URL to meet this requirement.

Refer to Google’s example for more details:

Display URLs give people an idea of where they'll arrive after they click an ad. The landing page that you define with a final URL tends to be more specific. For example, if your display URL is www.example.com, your final URL might be example.com/sweaters.

Facebook Ads Policy

In Facebook’s “About Meta’s Unacceptable Business Practices advertising policy”, it is only mentioned that your ad’s landing page should be functioning properly and the content is relevant to your ad. Therefore, URL Redirect Tests will NOT cause a problem with your Facebook ads. While Facebook does not have a clear requirement for URL destination, refer to About destination links in your ad to learn more about Facebook’s definitions:

The display URL allows you to show a shortened link instead of your full website URL to make it easier for viewers to recognize the website. The link goes to the same domain as your website URL.

According to the above, you can also double check if you have the same display URL on your ad as the final URL to be on the safe side.

Can I redirect visitors to other domains?

You CANNOT redirect visitors to another domain using ABConvert URL redirect tests.

ABConvert is designed to work only inside your Shopify store domain. Because:

We cannot track sessions, conversions, or revenue on external domains
Redirects must stay within the same Shopify domain
Only relative paths are supported in test setup

Subdomains vs subfolders

Subdomains do not work

Redirecting to a subdomain is not supported because it counts as a different domain.

Example (not supported):

Original: mystore.shopify.com
Target: mystore.uk.shopify.com

This setup cannot be tracked and will fail validation.

Testing using subfolders (supported)

If you want to test region-specific or localized content, subfolders are the correct approach.

Subfolders stay on the same Shopify domain, which allows ABConvert to:

Track visitors correctly
Attribute conversions accurately
Keep test results reliable

Example

Original: mystore.shopify.com
Variant: mystore.shopify.com/uk/

How to test different offers using url redirect tests?

If you’re looking to compare different offers (e.g. landing pages with unique discounts, bundles, or messaging), our URL Redirect Test is the most suitable feature for this kind of A/B test.

Create landing pages with different URL, each landing page represents a clearly different offer or experience so the data can reflect meaningful differences.

Because we track the full journey from the landing page to checkout, the result reflects overall conversion performance.

This helps you understand which landing page drives better engagement and conversions across your store, not just on that specific page.

How to test product content in product detail page (PDP)?

While the template test can be used to experiment with PDP layouts, testing product content requires duplicating the product and leveraging a URL redirect test.

Step 1: Duplicate the Product

Access the Original Product

Navigate to the product page of the original product in your Shopify admin.

Duplicate the Product

Click the “Duplicate” button at the top of the page to create a copy.

Step 2: Edit the Duplicate Product

Customize the Duplicate Product

Navigate the duplicate product page and modify its title, images, or description as needed for your test.

Step 3: Hide the Duplicate Product from the Storefront

To avoid displaying duplicate products alongside the original in your store, you’ll need to hide the duplicate product.

Based on Collection Settings

Adjust your collection settings to exclude the duplicate product.

For example, if a collection displays products tagged as “sport,” you need to remove this tag from the duplicate product.

[Advanced] Hide from collections/all page

Add a specific tag (e.g., “duplicate”) to the duplicate product in Shopify settings.

Navigate to Sales Channel > Online Store > Themes, and click “Edit Code.”
Locate the code that loops through products and add a condition to filter out the duplicate product:

{% for product in collections.products %}
  {% unless product.tags contains 'duplicate' %}
    <!-- Your code to display the product -->
  {% endunless %}
{% endfor %}