Last Updated on April 30, 2026 by Mr.Feng
This article is part of Experiment #001. While building compliant landing pages for my Google Ads experiments, I kept asking myself: how minimal can a site actually be? This article is my policy analysis of which footer pages are legally or practically required and which ones are optional. It’s the foundation for how I structure every test site I build.
[👉 See the full experiment context here: Experiment #001]
Many affiliate marketers believe that a one page website is the fastest way to test a campaign with Google Ads.
I thought the same. The idea is simple: using my SOP for testing affiliate offers from scratch with Google Ads, I create one page affiliate website, drive traffic to it, and quickly validate the offer.
But after running my own Google Ads compliance experiment in 2026, I discovered something surprising.
A true one page affiliate website doesn’t actually exist.
Why Most “One Page” Affiliate Sites Actually Have Multiple Pages
In one of my previous experiments (Iteration 2), I tested a landing page used to promote an affiliate offer through Google Ads. The ad was successfully approved and ran without any issues.
However, the domain used for that landing page was not actually a one page website. In the footer, the site included five additional pages: About Us, Contact Us, Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, and Affiliate Disclosure.
All of these pages existed under the same domain. Some of them were related to legal compliance, while others helped improve the site’s transparency and credibility.
When I started digging deeper into Google Ads policies and reviewing other affiliate landing pages that are actively running ads, I noticed a consistent pattern. Almost none of them are truly one page websites. Even when the main landing page itself is a single page, the site usually includes several supporting pages in the footer.
Based on their function, I categorize these supporting pages into two groups.
| Legal Compliance Pages | Trust & Transparency Pages |
|---|---|
| Privacy Policy | About Us |
| Terms of Service | Contact Us |
| Affiliate Disclosure |
After reviewing the official Google Ads policy documentation, as well as guidance from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regarding disclosure and transparency, I decided to include these five pages in the footer of the landing page used for my experiment.
The results of the experiment confirmed that this structure worked well for passing Google Ads review.
However, to improve the speed and efficiency of testing affiliate offers, I want to analyze this setup further. My goal is to determine the minimum requirements needed for a Google Ads compliant affiliate site.
Specifically, I want to find out which of these pages are truly necessary, and which ones could potentially be simplified or removed.
Which Pages Are Actually Required?
Let’s take my ad campaign targeting the United States as an example. Using U.S. legal requirements and platform policies as a reference, I’ll analyze whether each of the five footer pages I previously included is truly necessary, and why, strictly speaking, a “one page affiliate website” for Google Ads doesn’t really exist.
1. Privacy Policy
The Privacy Policy primarily explains how a website collects, uses, and processes user data.
After reviewing laws and platform policies, I identified 3 areas related to the Privacy Policy
(1) Google Product Terms
Google’s product terms include the following statement:
“You must disclose clearly any data collection, sharing and usage that takes place in connection with your use of Google products, including information about the technologies used, such as your use of cookies, web beacons, IP addresses, or other identifiers. This applies for data collection, sharing and usage on any platform, surface or property (e.g., web, app, Connected TV, gaming console or email publication).”
— Source: Google Product Terms
This means that when a website uses Google products (including Google Ads), it must clearly disclose how data is collected, shared, and used. This is a fundamental rule for the Google Ads platform, and violations could result in account suspension or termination.
(2) Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which regulates commercial transparency and advertising compliance, states:
“Unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce are declared unlawful.”
— Source: Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914, 15 U.S.C. § 45(a)(1)
Since I use Google Ads, which may involve Google Analytics, ad tracking codes, or remarketing tags to collect cookies or personal information, my landing page cannot hide important details and any sharing of user data must be transparent.
(3) California Online Privacy Protection Act (CalOPPA)
This 2003 California state law explicitly requires commercial websites to post a privacy policy in a conspicuous location:
“22575. (a) An operator of a commercial Web site or online service that collects personally identifiable information through the Internet about individual consumers residing in California who use or visit its commercial Web site or online service shall conspicuously post its privacy policy on its Web site…”
— Source: California Business and Professions Code § 22575 (Online Privacy Protection Act of 2003)
While none of these laws or policies explicitly mandate a landing page to have a page titled “Privacy Policy”, they require that data handling practices be clearly disclosed.
In practice, embedding all of this information directly on a landing page can be messy. Therefore, I prefer to centralize these disclosures on a separate Privacy Policy page.
Among the five footer pages on my landing page, the Privacy Policy is the one with the highest legal risk if omitted, making it essential.
2. Terms of Service
The Terms of Service (also called Terms and Conditions) primarily outline the rules users must follow when accessing or using a website, as well as the scope of the website operator’s legal responsibilities.
Like the Privacy Policy, this page is generally classified as a legal compliance page, but the purpose is different. The Privacy Policy discloses data handling practices, whereas the Terms of Service protect the website operator’s legal liability.
After reviewing relevant laws and advertising policies, I found no explicit requirement that a landing page must include a Terms of Service page. It functions more as a legal safeguard for the site rather than a mandatory compliance measure. Therefore, I consider this page optional rather than essential.
If you want to play it safe, for a one page affiliate website like mine, I would choose to combine the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy into a single page.
3. Affiliate Disclosure
Since the primary purpose of this landing page is to promote affiliate products, the Affiliate Disclosure becomes very important.
As I mentioned in my previous discussion of the Privacy Policy, the Federal Trade Commission states:
“Unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce are declared unlawful.”
— Source: Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914, 15 U.S.C. § 45(a)(1)
If a website may earn a commission when recommending products, it must disclose this commercial relationship to users. This requirement not only applies to disclosing data collection, but also to disclosing commercial activities and affiliate relationships. The core FTC requirement is that the disclosure must be clear and conspicuous. However, the FTC does not require this disclosure to exist on a separate page.
Therefore, I believe the disclosure can be placed at the top or bottom of the landing page content, or under the CTA. Following the common practice of most affiliate sites, a simple statement like the following is sufficient.
Affiliate Disclosure: This site may contain affiliate links. Purchases through these links may earn a small commission at no extra cost.
In my view, the Affiliate Disclosure is very important and directly affects whether an ad campaign can be approved. However, it does not need to be a separate page, so I consider it not mandatory.
4. About Us
The About Us page is primarily used to introduce the website’s background and the individuals or team behind it.
From a legal perspective, I found no laws or advertising policies that require a landing page to include an About page.
However, this page can significantly enhance the site’s credibility and transparency, especially for sites that acquire traffic through ads, and it can even be a positive factor in Google Ads review.
I also believe the same effect can be achieved by adding a brief introduction at the bottom of the landing page without creating a separate page. Therefore, I consider the About Us page not mandatory.
5. Contact Us
The Contact Us page is mainly used to provide users with a way to reach the website operator, typically including a contact address, contact person, email, or even a phone number.
Like the About page, there is currently no legal requirement that a landing page must include a Contact page. However, providing contact information can help improve the website’s credibility, transparency, and authenticity.
Similarly, I believe this information can be placed at the bottom of the landing page, listing the address, contact person, and email, achieving the same purpose. Therefore, a Contact Us page is not strictly necessary.
Minimum Pages Required for a Google Ads Affiliate Landing Page
Based on the analysis above, I summarized the minimum page requirements for a Google Ads affiliate landing page in the table below.
| Page | Required | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Privacy Policy | Yes | Required for data transparency and platform compliance |
| Terms of Service | Optional | Legal protection for the website owner |
| Affiliate Disclosure | Required (not necessarily a page) | FTC requires clear disclosure of affiliate relationships |
| About Us | Optional | Improves trust and transparency |
| Contact Us | Optional | Improves credibility |
Next Step: Experimental Verification
Based on the analysis above, it appears that not all five pages are strictly required for an affiliate landing page running on Google Ads. In particular, the Privacy Policy and Affiliate Disclosure seem to carry the most importance from a compliance perspective.
However, this conclusion is still mainly based on policy analysis and observation rather than controlled testing.
To verify the minimum page requirements more accurately, my next step will be to run a series of experiments by gradually removing or simplifying these pages from the landing page used in my Iteration 2 experiment and observing whether the ads can still pass Google Ads review.
If the results provide useful insights, I will update this article with the findings.