The most effective advertising communicates a clear message to a targeted audience. Once you determine whom you want to reach and select appropriate keywords, you need to create ads that will inform your potential customers about the products and services you offer. The Google AdWords Editorial Guidelines will help you create effective ads to generate sales and meet your goals.
Underlying all the Editorial Guidelines are two simple principles that have worked for thousands of advertisers already in the program:
Clearly and accurately describe your site.
Emphasize the unique benefits of your product or service.
Our ultimate goal is your success, and we believe that providing a great user experience is the best way to ensure it. To run your ads on Google and our growing ad network of sites and products, you must adhere to these guidelines. Please also ensure that your site and ads comply with our Content Policy.
In cases where only minor changes are required for an ad to comply with our Editorial Guidelines, an AdWords Specialist may edit your ad for you. Examples of the type of edits we may make for you include the following: removing an exclamation point, removing or adding an extra space, and fixing a spelling error. However, Google shall not be responsible in the event that a change is not made to your ad text and a disapproval results. So, please be careful to follow the Editorial Guidelines to help ensure that your ads continue running.
Ad Style & Grammar
Use clear, direct language and avoid gimmicks.
Use Standard Punctuation and Symbols
No repeated and unnecessary punctuation or symbols.
Your title may not contain an exclamation point.
Your ad text may only contain one exclamation point.
Use Standard Capitalization
No excessive capitalization such as "FREE" or "GOOGLE ADWORDS."
Capitalization of the first letter of each word within your displayed URL is permitted.
No Repetition
Avoid gimmicky repetition
Use Correct Spelling
Check that you use correct spelling.
Use Proper Grammar
Your ad text must be in logical sentence or phrase form and must contain grammatically correct spacing.
The use of symbols, numbers, or letters must adhere to the true meaning of the symbol.
Keep It Concise
Please keep the following ad text limits in mind when planning your ads. We believe that concise ads provide a great user experience and ultimately contribute to your success.
Ad titles are limited to 25 characters.
The two description lines and Display URL are limited to 35 characters each.
Note: Languages using double-byte characters (such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hebrew, and Arabic) can have 12 characters in the title, 17 characters for each line of ad text, and 35 characters for the Display URL.
Ad and Keyword Relevance
Your keywords and ad text must be relevant to your site, products, or services.
Write Accurate Ad Text
Your ad text and keywords must directly relate to the content on the landing page for your ad.
Distinguish your ad by including your company name, line of business, or product in your ad text or title.
If you offer a local service or product, clearly indicate your location in your ad text.
Example:If your alterations business only services New York, you should include "New York" in your ad text, mention your company's particular specialty, "experts in reweaving fine garments," and link to a page that displays this service.
Target Specific Keywords
Use specific keywords that accurately reflect your site.
Use keywords that reflect your location if you offer a location-specific product or service.
Example:A New York apartment rental agency would not be allowed to run on only the keyword "rentals." The agency would have to use keywords such as "New York rental agency" or "NY apartments."
Ad Content
Should be informative, targeted, and represent your uniqueness.
Adhere to the Content Policy
As a business, Google must make decisions about where we draw the line in regards to the advertising we accept. We, therefore, may not accept ads or keywords containing or relating to certain products or services. We reserve the right to exercise editorial discretion when it comes to the advertising we accept on our site, as noted in our advertising terms and conditions. Please note that the decisions we make concerning advertising in no way affect the search results we deliver. To learn more, please review our Content Policy.
No Double-Serving
Google maintains a high standard for our user experience and the quality of our advertising. To protect the value and diversity of ads running on Google, we do not generally permit advertisers to manage multiple accounts featuring the same business or keywords. To learn more, please review our Double-Serving Policy.
Follow Proper Copyright Usage
Copyrights are important business assets in which the copyright holder maintains exclusive rights. In your AdWords advertising, you must not use copyrighted content for which you don't have consent from the copyright holder. To learn more about how we handle copyright issues within the AdWords program, view the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and our Copyright Policy at http://www.google.com/adwords/learningcenter/text/19473.html.
Follow Proper Trademark Usage
Trademarks are important business assets that can diminish in value if they are not used correctly. To learn more about how we handle trademark issues within the AdWords program, review our trademark policy.
Affiliate Policy
We allow affiliates to use AdWords advertising. Please note that we'll only display one ad for affiliates and parent companies sharing the same Display URL per search query. We also monitor and don't allow the following:
Redirect URLs: Ads that contain Display URLs that automatically redirect to the parent company.
Bridge Pages: Ads for webpages that act as an intermediary, whose sole purpose is to link or redirect traffic to the parent company.
Framing: Ads for webpages that replicate the look and feel of a parent site.
Support Competitive Claims
If your ad text contains competitive language regarding other companies, support for this claim must be displayed on the landing page for your AdWords ad.
Avoid Superlatives
If your ad contains the comparative or subjective phrases "best" or "#1," verification by a third party must be clearly displayed on your website.
Support Advertised Prices, Discounts, and Free Offers
If your ad includes a price, special discount, or 'free' offer, it must be clearly and accurately displayed on your website within 1-2 clicks of your ad's landing page.
Example:If you mention that you are selling socks for 20% off in your ad text, your Destination URL should link to a page that clearly displays socks at the discounted price.
No Unacceptable Phrases
Avoid call-to-action phrases such as ‘click here’ that could apply to any ad, regardless of content.
The limited text space should be used for concise, informative language that sets you apart from your competition.
Phrases in the 3rd line of your ad cannot continue into the Display URL.
No Inappropriate Language
Your ad cannot contain offensive or inappropriate language.
Non-Family Safe & Adult Sexual Content
Ads are reviewed and categorized as "FamilySafe," "Non-FamilySafe," or "Adult Sexual Content" on a case-by-case basis.
After our AdWords Specialists categorize the ads, Google generally allows ads containing adult themes, such as explicit sexual content, provided that they meet the conditions for AdWords advertising.
These ads may not be accepted on our ad network of sites and products. Therefore, there is a possibility that your ads will appear only on Google search results pages.
Ads categorized as "Adult Sexual Content" aren't accepted in certain countries such as Germany and India, and won't appear on Google search pages or via the Google Network for those countries.
Links
Your URLs must meet our standards for accuracy, accessibility, and security.
Review the Landing Page and Site Quality Guidelines
Google incorporates certain site quality principles into factors such as ad approval status and Quality Score, so review the Landing Page and Site Quality Guidelines for more information.
Display URL Must be Accurate
Your Display URL must accurately reflect the URL of your website. If your actual Destination URL link is too long for your ad, use a shortened version (such as your homepage) that meets the character limit for this field.
The Display URL field cannot be used as another line of ad text.
Your Display URL must include the domain extension, for example: .com, .net, or .org.
Example:Destination URL: http://www.shoesforsale.com/ladiesshoes/highheels.htmlDisplay URL: www.shoesforsale.com
Destination URL Must Work
Your Destination URL must work properly. Check your spelling and symbols to make sure you entered the correct URL for the page you want users to visit.
Your Destination URL must link to a working website. You cannot link to an email address or a file (ex. an image, audio, video, or document file that requires an additional program or application to open or run).
The landing page for your ad cannot be under construction. We require your Destination URL to link to an actual web page with content relevant to your ad. When your site is under construction or down for maintenance, you must pause your Ad Group(s).
No Pop-ups
We do not allow links to landing pages that generate pop-ups when users enter or leave your landing page. We consider a pop-up to be any window, regardless of content, that opens in addition to the original window.
Working Back Button
Links to your website must allow users to enter and exit the landing page easily, and to return to the Google search results page or ad network by clicking once on the browser's 'Back' button.
Site Security
Your site should use a secure server (https://) when collecting personal information from our users.
Next Steps
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Please click here to learn how to edit your current Google AdWords campaigns.
Please click here to create a Google AdWords account if you do not already have one.
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