Lessons Catalogue

Lesson 1b: AdWords Policies

A typical AdWords text ad looks like this:

Text ads contain the following four lines:

• Headline (25 characters, including spaces): The title attracts users who might be interested in your products or services.
• Description (two lines of up to 35 characters each, including spaces): These two lines contain your product, service and other details (such as promotions). The content in these lines should be clear enough to communicate your intent and compelling enough to convince the user to click your ad and visit your site.
• Display URL (35 characters, including spaces): This line indicates which website the user visits when clicking your ad. In the above example, adwords.google.co.uk is the display URL.
• Destination URL (up to 1024 characters): This is the actual page where users land when they click your ad. The URL won't appear in your ad. Many advertisers link their ads to particular destination pages within their website, but use the simpler URL of their homepage as the display URL.

Certain wide characters and double-byte characters will reduce the number of characters permitted per line.

Spacing: You should have appropriate spacing between each word and after punctuation. For example, 'C-h-e-a-p C-l-o-t-h-e-s' would not be allowed. Similarly, 'Free Shipping.Buy Now' would also not be allowed.

Punctuation & Symbols: Punctuation cannot be used to attract a user's attention. It should not be unnecessary or repeated two or more times in a row. In addition, your ad title cannot contain an exclamation mark and an ad can contain only one exclamation mark in total. Furthermore, all symbols, numbers and letters must adhere to their true meaning; you may not use them instead of words. For example, 'We have a huge selection 4 U online!' is violating this policy because '4' and 'U' are replacing words.

Grammar & Spelling: Ads must comply with basic grammar and spelling guidelines, using logical sentence or phrase form as well as correct spelling. Appropriate grammar and spelling greatly contributes to the clarity and credibility of your ads. The only exceptions to our spelling policy are commonly misspelled words or spelling variations that the majority of users would recognise and understand. If the word can be found in an online dictionary, it's generally acceptable.

Capitalisation: A word cannot be completely written in capital letters to draw attention to that word or phrase. For example, 'FREE' or 'NEW' would not be allowed. However, capitalising the first letter in each word of your ad is allowed.

Repetition: Repetition should not be used to attract extra attention or for the sake of promotion. Specifically, the same word cannot be repeated three or more times in a row. For example, an ad with the title 'Deals, Deals, Deals Here' would not be allowed. The ad title should be replaced with a phrase like 'Amazing Deals Here' to comply with this policy requirement.

Inappropriate Language: Ads, including the Display URL, cannot contain language that may be considered as inappropriate or offensive to some users. This also applies to misspellings, self-censored or other variations of inappropriate language.

Unacceptable Phrases: Certain 'call-to-action' phrases cannot appear in the ad text if they are not descriptive of the product, service or website. For example, a generic phrase like 'click here' would not be allowed. An example of a good 'call-to-action' phrase would be 'Order Your Online Contacts Today' because it is representative of the product and the site content.

Superlative Claims: Superlatives are words that emphasise superiority. To make sure that users feel that they are being treated in an honest, credible manner, your ad text cannot contain comparative or subjective phrases such as 'Best' or 'No. 1' unless verified by a third party. This verification must be clearly displayed on your website.

For example, if an ad claims to be the 'Best of the Web', the site must display third-party verification of the claim. A Forbes Magazine seal indicating that this site received 'a best of the web' award would be acceptable, thereby making the ad comply with this policy.

Competitive Claims: Competitive claims are claims that imply that your product/service is better than a competitor's. Competitive claims in your ad text must specifically be supported on your landing page. This establishes trust with your user and ensures that the user is finding exactly what they expect to find based on your ad text.

You can offer support for your claim in a variety of ways such as a chart or table that compares the features of your product versus your competitor's product or a competitive analysis discussing why your product is superior.

For example, ad text that states 'better than SmartFilter' would be considered as a competitive claim and would require support on the website. If the landing page includes a competitive analysis of the advertiser and SmartFilter, this claim would be acceptable and the ad would be approved.

Offer Not Found: Any specified price, special discount or free offer displayed in ad text must be clearly and accurately supported within 1 or 2 clicks of your ad's landing page. Examples of offers that must be supported include '50% off all items', 'Save £20 on first purchase', 'free hat with purchase', 'DVDs for £5 each' and similar phrases. Prices in your ad text must be accurate. Prices can also apply to bulk purchases. For free offers, it is acceptable if the user can infer that the product is indeed free, even if the word 'free' does not appear along with that product or service.