On July 20 2021, Google announced that in September, they’ll release the new three-strike ad policy system. For advertisers, this was a new twist in the plot to fight against Google Ads policies.
With the announcement, several questions have arisen amongst the advertisers and marketers. With this post, we’ll try to cover these –
- What is Google’s three-strike policy?
- How will the plot come into effect?
- How to avoid and prepare for these strikes?
- What are the reactions from the advertisers after the announcement?
The answer to these questions will give clarity on how to be ready when the strike gets introduced and what actions to take if your account is affected by the new penalties.
- What is Google’s three-strike policy?
For a safe and positive experience for users, Google came up with the three-strike policy. Under the Google Ads enforcement system, Google will issue strikes to advertisers, along with email notifications and in-account notifications to prevent repeat violations of policies. The repeat offenders will get a series of penalties and, with the third strike, the account will be suspended. The three current policies of Google Ads are –
- Enabling dishonest behaviour policy
- Unapproved pharmaceuticals or supplements
- Dangerous products or services
2. How the three-strike plot will come into effect?
The first disapproval is considered as a warning against offending ads. If the violation continues, then the strike system will follow, impacting your entire account. Strike one is implemented if a section of your ad violates the same policy that received a warning in 90 days. Strike one will put your account on hold for three days.
You get strike two if you violate the same policy within 90 days of the first strike. It will put your account on hold for seven days. You’ll need to submit an acknowledgement form after correcting the violated ad.
You receive strike three when you violate the same policy in 90 days of the second strike. This strike will lead to the suspension of your account.
3. Here’s how you can mitigate the policy.
Resolve all outstanding disapprovals.
Get rid of disapproved content and review your account periodically to eliminate disapprovals. Google plans the strike system to reflect in other policies as well in the future.
Review your account and website to identify any risky content.
It’s better to avoid any disapproval by changing images or verbiage that can be picked by Google’s automated review system. If the content feels questionable, remove it.
Set a backup plan for promotions.
In the worst-case scenario, if your account gets suspended due to repeated violations, you can always have your advertisement running on other channels, so that it does not affect your brand promotions.
Don’t create new accounts.
Google has also stated that the creation of new accounts will also bring suspensions. So, creating a backup account is a foolish move.
4. Reactions from the advertisers after the announcement of the policy –
- The automated review system is flawed, giving wrong disapprovals.
- Happy with the change but expecting improvements in the current disapproval system.
- Harmful for repeated violators and, the rest are not affected.
Are you concerned with Google’s three-strike policy? If you always adhere to Google’s policies, you are safe. The policy is basically to target repeat offenders. However, Google’s algorithms can also pick an ad wrongly at times due to some words that can have more than one meaning. You can create custom alerts for disapproved ads. The new policy has definitely alerted the advertisers. An initial warning can help to make corrections at the early stage only.
