Display URL: AdWords ads include a Display URL. For example, the Display URL in the ad below is 'www.books.com'.

So as not to mislead users, the Display URL should give users a clear idea of the website or landing page to which they will be taken when they click on an ad. A Display URL must:

• Indicate who owns the Destination URL, but does not need to match the actual Destination URL of the landing page exactly.
• Appear to be a viable website address. It must include the appropriate extension such as '.com', '.net' or 'co.uk', but 'www' and 'http://' are not required.
• Represent a website. The Display URL cannot be an email address either. For example, 'flowers@flowers.co.uk' would not be allowed.
• Comply with editorial policy, which will be discussed in later topics.

Here is an example of a correct and an incorrect Display URL:

Correct:
Destination URL: bigbookstore.co.uk/new/a-c.htm
Display URL: bigbookstore.co.uk

Clicking on the ad takes users to a page within the bigbookstore.co.uk website. Even though the Display URL is different from the Destination URL, it accurately represents where the user will be taken when he or she clicks the ad.

Incorrect:
Destination URL: http://www.amazon.com/home.html/104-7002842-259
Display URL: bigbookstore.co.uk

The Display URL bigbookstore.co.uk does not accurately represent the site to which the user will be taken, which is a page within the amazon.com domain. This is improper use of the Display URL. An ad with this Display URL would not be approved.

Here are some of the guidelines included in our link policy:

Destination URL: The Destination URL is the web address of the landing page to which an ad will actually link. The guidelines surrounding the Destination are designed to ensure that users clicking on AdWords ads will find what they are looking for easily and quickly. Your ad will not be approved if your Destination URL does not meet all three of the following rules:

• It must link to a working website. If a user clicks on your ad but your site is not working, you are charged for a click, but you have no chance to convert this user into a customer.
• It must not link to a site that is under construction or broken. The site must have content. Otherwise, users will not find what they are looking for.
• It must not require a programme other than the browser to view the landing page. In other words, the Destination URL must be an HTML page. Some unacceptable formats of destination pages include Adobe Acrobat and MS Word. If your site requires another programme to load, not all users will be able to view your site without loading additional software. This detracts from the user experience.

Back Button: After linking to your website, the back button must work properly and return the users to the page on which the AdWords ad is located within one or two clicks.

Pop-Ups: Pop-ups are defined as any browser window that opens in addition to the original window, regardless of content, function, size or source. When a user enters or leaves your site, no additional browser window, including pop-unders, should appear. Pop-unders are browser windows that open behind the original browser window. This policy is based on research indicating that users find pop-ups distracting, leading to a poor user experience.

Affiliate Policy: Affiliates get paid a commission to promote a merchant's website and drive traffic or create sales on that site. We allow affiliates to use AdWords advertising. Please note that we will only allow one ad for affiliates and parent companies sharing the same Display URL per search query.

Please review the complete list of link 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.

To run your ads on Google or on our growing network of sites, products and services, you must adhere to all our policies.

Application of our policies will always involve an element of discretion and we reserve the right to reject or approve any ads. Please note that the decisions we make concerning advertising do not affect the search results that we deliver.

Ads and keywords are screened for products that:

• May be subject to legal regulations and/or restrictions
• May contribute to a negative user experience
• May be contrary to Google's values or policies

Please be aware that these products and services are subject to change, as are the guidelines governing this list. Please refer to Google's online guidelines frequently to ensure that your ads and keywords are complying with these guidelines.

It's important to note that:

• Your image ads must adhere to the policies that apply to text ads, as well as these additional policies for image ads.
• Image ads are available in many languages. Here is a complete list.
• Image ads are not shown on Google search results pages. Image ads are shown on some partner sites.

Guidelines summary:

Quality: Google does not allow images to be of poor quality. Images must be clear and easy to read. The content and purpose must be easy to understand and all text must be clear and legible.

Deceptive Tactics: AdWords does not allow mock animated features, such as mock drop-down menus, search boxes or other functionality that does not actually work for the user. Mock dialogue boxes or error messages such as those generated by windows or Internet Explorer are not allowed. Clicking on these drop-downs or boxes will be registered as a click on the image ad, and thus these features are unnecessary and deceptive.

Image Ad Layout: Image layout guidelines govern the size and orientation of your ad. Image ads have specific height and width requirements, and must completely fill the area of the size you choose. Otherwise, image ads may not look correct on partner sites since images may be much smaller than the format chosen. Images cannot be rotated or inverted. Images cannot show more than one ad at a time or the same ad multiple times.

Image Ad User Bar: When your image appears on Google's partner sites, an image user bar will automatically be included. The user bar is comprised of a Display URL, a link for users to give feedback to Google on the ad, and a designation that this ad is provided by Google. Since these features are already included by our automated system, you do not need to include any of them in the images you upload. Otherwise, the information will be duplicated.

Image Ad Content: Just as we do for text ads, we have guidelines for appropriate content that can appear in images. Generally, the content of image ads must be family safe, meaning that the images must be appropriate for viewing by minors. Therefore, your image ad cannot contain any adult material, sexual themes or inappropriate language. Examples of ad content that would not be approved include an ad that promotes drinking alcohol, scantily clad women and an ad for a porn site.

Please review the complete list of image ad policies.

Google's trademark policy does not apply to search results, only to sponsored links. For trademark concerns about websites that appear in Google search results, the trademark owner should contact the site owner directly.

If an advertiser has been restricted from using a trademark and disagrees with the owner's assertion of exclusive rights, we encourage the advertiser to contact the trademark owner directly and request permission to use the trademark. The owner reserves the right to grant permission to a third party to use the term. Exceptions authorised by trademark owners are incorporated into our trademark procedure.

In some instances, Google may not remove the ad or ads as requested. For example, with Google's broad match keyword option, an ad can show on variations of a keyword term. As a result, an ad may show for a term that is a variation of an advertiser's keyword. Even if the search query that shows the ad contains a trademarked term, Google will not remove an ad if the advertiser isn't using a trademarked term as a keyword.

1. Name of company.
2. Contact information, including email address and postal address.
3. List of trademark or trademarks at issue and the country or countries in which it is registered.
4. The identity of the ad or ads at issue via the URL stated on the bottom line of the ad. Please indicate if your complaint is limited to specific advertisers or advertisements or if it is a general objection to all advertisers.
5. If certain affiliates or partners are permitted to use your trademark in their ad content, please list the company names in your letter.
6. Include the following statement: 'I have a good faith belief that use of the trademarks described above with the advertisements described above are not authorised by the trademark owner or its agent, nor is such use otherwise permissible under law'.
7. Include the following statement: 'I represent that the information in this notification is true and correct and that I am authorised to act on behalf of the trademark owner'.
8. Your signature.

1. Name of company.
2. Contact information, including email address.
3. List of trademark or trademarks at issue and the country or countries in which it is registered.
4. The identity of the advertisement or advertisements at issue via the URL stated on the bottom line of the ad or other identifying information. Please indicate if your complaint is limited to specific advertisers or if it is a general objection to all advertisers.
5. The nature of your concern(s) with the advertisement's content and/or the keywords that trigger the advertisement. (Note: This item doesn't appear in the form for US, UK, Ireland and Canada.)
6. If certain affiliates or partners are permitted to use your trademark, please list the company names in your letter.
7. Include the following statement: 'I have a good faith belief that use of the trademarks described above with the advertisements described above are not authorised by the trademark owner or its agent, nor is such use otherwise permissible under the law'.
8. Include the following statement: 'I represent that the information in this notification is true and correct and that I am authorised to act on behalf of the trademark owner'.
9. Your signature.

Google, Inc.
Attn: Google AdWords, Trademark Complaints
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
USA

You can also fax us your letter.
In the US: 650-618-1499
Outside the US: 001-650-618-1499
Attn: Google Trademark Complaints
Or via email to ads-trademarks@google.com

In accordance to the DMCA, ads may be removed for copyright infringement reasons. Ad disapprovals due to copyright complaints may be contested through the DMCA counter notification procedure.

1. Identify in sufficient detail the copyrighted work that you believe has been infringed. For example, 'The copyrighted work at issue is the text that appears on www.google.com/ads.'
2. Identify the material that you claim is infringing the copyrighted work listed in item #1 above. This requires you to provide the search query that you used and the URL for each allegedly infringing ad.
3. Provide information reasonably sufficient to permit Google to contact you (email address is preferred.)
4. Provide information, if possible, sufficient to permit Google to notify the owner or administrator of the web page that allegedly contains infringing material (email address is also preferred.)
5. Include the following statement: 'I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials described above on the allegedly infringing web pages is not authorised by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.'
6. Include the following statement: 'I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or am authorised to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.'
7. Your signature.

The administrator of an affected site may make a counter notification. When we receive a counter notification, we will reinstate the material in question. To file a counter notification with us, you must provide a written communication that sets forth the items specified below.

1. Identify the specific URLs of material that Google has removed or to which Google has disabled access. For Google Groups, identify the sender, date, newsgroup, and subject matter of all the material in question.
2. Provide your name, address, telephone number, email address, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court for the judicial district in which your address is located (or Santa Clara County, California if your address is outside the United States), and that you will accept service of process from the person who provided notification under subsection (c)(1)(C) or an agent of such person.
3. Include the following statement: "I swear, under penalty of perjury, that I have a good faith belief that each search result or message identified above was removed or disabled as a result of a mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled."
4. Your signature.

Please send your letter to the address listed under 'Trademark Complaint Procedures' in Topic 1.

• Manual clicks intended to increase your advertising costs or to increase profits for website owners hosting your ads.
• Clicks by automated tools, robots, or other deceptive software.

We closely monitor these and other scenarios to help protect advertisers from receiving invalid clicks.

The goals of our system are to automatically identify clicks generated by unethical users and automated robots and to filter out these clicks before they ever reach your reports. However, if we believe that you have been charged for invalid clicks in the past two months, we will apply a credit to your account.

Google has three powerful tools for protecting clicks on AdWords ads:

Detection and filtering techniques: Each click on an AdWords ad is examined by our system. Google looks at numerous data points for each click, including the IP address, the time of the click, any duplicate clicks and various other click patterns. Our system then analyses these factors to try to isolate and filter out potentially invalid clicks.

Advanced monitoring techniques: Google uses a number of unique and innovative techniques for managing invalid click activity. We cannot disclose details about the software, except to say that we are constantly working to expand and improve our technology.

The Google Team: In addition to our automated click protection techniques, we have a team that uses specialised tools and techniques to examine individual instances of invalid clicks. When our system detects potentially invalid clicks, a member of this team examines the affected account to glean important data about the source of the potentially invalid clicks.

Competitor Behaviour: If a competitor has stopped running his or her ad, your ad may start receiving more clicks.

Google Network: You may see an increase in traffic if your ads have recently been approved to run on search and content sites and products in the Google Network, if you recently opted in to the Google Network, or if new sites for which your ads are relevant join our content network. Also, your ad may receive an unexpected increase in clicks if it appears on a site with a large audience. For example, if you run an ad for a weight loss product, you might see a significant increase in impressions and clicks when the online version of The New York Times runs a feature on weight loss. Please see the Ad Distribution lesson for more information about the search and content networks.

Seasonal Changes: Fluctuation in clicks due to seasonal promotions or special sales are common. Keywords popular at particular times of the year will also experience a higher click volume regardless of whether you have made proactive seasonal changes to your account content. For example, if you sell greeting cards, you may see a significant increase in clicks as a holiday approaches, even if you are not advertising cards for that particular holiday.

Budget Changes: Increasing your daily budget or maximum cost-per-click (CPC) may cause an increase in clicks and impressions. A higher maximum CPC can help to increase the position of your ad, which can lead to more clicks on Google and on the Google Network.

Ad Relevancy: If your keywords are too general, your ad may accrue clicks and impressions but yield very few sales. To make sure your ads are running optimally, please refer to the Beginning Optimisation lesson.

Internet service provider: an Internet provider (such as AOL, Earthlink, or Comcast) may assign identical IP addresses to multiple users by geographic area.

Comparison shopping: individual users may legitimately click on your ad more than one time when comparison shopping or returning to your site for more information.

1. Identify instances of suspicious activity, such as receiving 2 or 3 times the normal number of clicks you would receive on a single day. Keep in mind that you may see a sudden increase in impressions or clicks as a result of legitimate user activity, such as seasonal increases in clicks or the appearance of your ad on the Google Network. Google's proprietary technology works to filter out invalid impressions and clicks before they reach your reports.
2. Look at click patterns over time. Identify changes from week to week that are not explained by any of the legitimate reasons for high click volume. See the Reports lesson to learn more about how to review your account activity.
3. Compare your weblogs to your AdWords account reports. (If you are not sure how to access your web logs, talk with your webmaster or website hosting service.) If your web logs show a higher number of clicks, remember that Google's technology works to filter out invalid clicks before they reach your reports. If your account shows a higher number of clicks, remember that Google relies on its own servers' web logs to supply site traffic data to include in your reports. By creating an AdWords account, advertisers agree to accept the Google AdWords reporting system and reported metrics as provided in the AdWords programme Terms and Conditions.

We have a team that investigates invalid click activity on a case-by-case basis. To expedite their time-intensive investigation, please include the following information in your email to us:

1. The campaign(s), ad group(s) and/or keyword(s) associated with the suspicious clicks.
2. The date(s) and time(s) of the suspicious click activity.
3. Any data in your weblogs or reports that indicate suspicious IP addresses, referrers or requests.
4. A paragraph describing the trends in logs and/or reports that led you to believe that the click activity is invalid.

The verification and research process can be time consuming and we appreciate your patience while our investigation team reviews your account. Please allow 3-5 business days before we respond. If you have any additional information, please be sure to let us know so we can include it in our review.