If your ads on Google violate the company’s policies, Google can limit the reach of your ads, or stop running them entirely. Today, we’re going over a few of the most common policy violations, including an example of the message you might see in your account for each violation, and the ways you can fix these violations.
Example Message: Ad violates policy and can’t run: Destination not working
The Problem: We’re starting off with what may be the most common disapproval of the bunch. If you receive this violation, it means that Google is having an issue reaching your ad’s destination URL.
The Fix: make sure your ad’s URL is correct, and that it doesn’t lead to an error page. Alternatively, ensure that your destination is accommodating to Google AdsBot web crawlers.
Example Message: Ad violates policy and can’t run: Sensitive events
The Problem: When you see this, it means that Google has determined that you may be taking advantage of some environmental, political, or otherwise significant event. This can be seen as exploitative, and is not allowed by Google.
The Fix: Many well-meaning advertisers will receive a violation like this if they work in an industry that assists people dealing with civil emergencies or natural disasters. Nonprofits may create advertisements for their programs to help those in need, but be flagged by Google’s automated policy review. If this is the case, make sure the focus of the ad is on the solution you offer, and avoid victim-blaming or using the event to drive clicks and/or profit. Then, if you are able, request a manual review to ensure your ads are not seen exploiting a sensitive situation.
Example Message: Some of your ads can only serve in certain countries or on certain devices due to the nature of the content.
The Problem: If you are advertising certain products, like alcohol, or your ads contain certain trademarks, your ads may be restricted from showing in certain areas.
The Fix: Maybe Google mistook a word used in its generic form as a trademark. Perhaps it incorrectly flagged a health-centered nonprofit’s ad for an upcoming conference as promoting a clinical trial. Whatever the case may be, if you’ve been incorrectly flagged, be sure to file an appeal.
Example Message: Ad violates policy and can’t run: Past Violation
The Problem: Sometimes, Google will re-review an ad and determine that it is no longer in violation of their policies. However, Google will not reactivate the ad for you; instead, it will change the violation to “Past Violation,” and request that you re-enable the ad manually.
The Fix: Google instructs users to appeal the “violation,” and submit it for approval. It’s as easy as that!
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For months now, Meta has been pushing automation to advertisers, like the ability to automatically “optimize” creative in order to fit different placements or increase its appeal. This and other automated features are grouped under Meta Advantage, a library of AI-powered tools meant to help advertisers, “Get the best results with fewer, more efficient campaigns,” and, “Save time and effort to free you up for strategic, big picture work”.
Now, Meta has introduced Advantage+ audience targeting for its paid social ads, another AI-powered product that is meant to help advertisers create optimized campaigns. Let’s talk about how it works, and whether it could be useful to your own business goals.
Meta claims that its ad technology “automatically finds your audience. If you share an audience suggestion, [it will] prioritize audiences matching this profile before searching more widely.”
In other words, you can simply upload your campaign, and let Meta figure out who to serve it to. Of course, you can still use Audience Controls to set crucial age, language, and location criteria. And if you would like to provide an Audience Suggestion, you can select custom audiences, detailed interest target audiences, and more to help Meta understand the kinds of users you want to reach.
Accessing Advantage+ Audience Targeting is easy. When you create a campaign, you’ll eventually reach the ad set page, where you will see that the Advantage+ audience option is already pre-selected. From there, you can follow the prompts to tailor the audience controls and suggestions to your liking.
However, if you would prefer to ensure that your ads reach a specific audience, there’s a prompt under the Advantage+ audience information that will allow you to switch to the original audience options.
The obvious answer is that this all depends on your business objective. Advantage+ audience targeting is useful when you want certain results, and you are willing to let Meta figure out which audience achieves those results. It’s a little less useful when you know a certain audience will be interested in your ads, and you want to target them directly.
There’s a fine balance, of course. Get too narrow in your targeting and you may find that you don’t generate enough leads. But get too broad, and many of those leads may not convert in the end.
It’s up to you (and/or your ad agency) to test what works for your business. We wouldn’t recommend retiring your old audiences all at once, especially if they’ve been doing well. Instead, try A/B testing different audiences alongside an Advantage+ audience, and see how the results differ.
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On September 7, 2023, the Privacy Sandbox (a Google initiative) announced that it has reached “general availability” on Chrome. Google claims that this is the latest step to a more private web, while “continuing to provide businesses with the tools they need to succeed.”
Put simply, it’s a set of technologies that are meant to be Google’s replacement for third-party cookies. In the past, third-party cookies have been used to track users across the web, which has been a crucial component of targeted advertising, allowing advertisers to determine topics of interest and browsing habits. However, privacy concerns have led major browsers – like Firefox and Safari – to phase out and/or eliminate cross-app and cross-site tracking via third-party cookies.
Google has been slower to phase out third-party cookies, most likely because the company didn’t want to block this source of user data before introducing an alternative. But now that this alternative has finally been rolled out to the general public, advertisers and consumers alike need to understand what’s changing.
If you’ve used Chrome recently, you may have gotten a pop-up labeled “Enhanced ad privacy in Chrome”. The pop-up provides a brief explanation of how targeted ads will now gather information about users. The browser will note “topics of interest based on [users’] recent browsing history”. Then, websites will be able to request this information in order to show users personalized ads.
With this new system, the browser (Chrome) will act as an intermediary between the user and the website. Essentially, as a user browses the web, their activity will be categorized into different, high-level summaries, or Topics. When an advertiser wants to show an ad to users with a certain interest (Topic), the browser will reply with an anonymized list of the interests, in order to determine whether that particular ad should be shown to that particular user.
Is this a better way to target advertisements to relevant users? By locally inferring user interests via their browsing history, user data is, theoretically, more private than it would be with third-party cookies. However, many people have expressed privacy concerns over the new initiative.
Some fear that this is a way for Google to gather even more personal data than before: a user’s entire browsing history, rather than just information gathered via third-party cookies. If users want to opt-out, the two options Google gives users - “Settings” or “Got it” - don’t exactly make it clear on how to do so.
However, Google insists that their new Privacy Sandbox initiative is a much better way to track users’ interests without compromising their privacy. Advertisers can still reach potential customers, and those customers won’t have to worry about invasive identification tactics. Because this new technology uses on-device processing, user browser history isn’t even available to Google’s own servers. Plus, Google allows users who are still worried about their privacy to switch off the new ad settings.
So, what do you think? Will you be enabling this new feature?
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Curious how Google’s changes will impact your e-commerce advertising efforts? Our team at Relevance Advisors can help your company succeed. Reach out to us today to set up a consultation.
Last month brought some big changes to Google’s ad and analytics features! Here’s our roundup of the top new features and announcements that Google introduced in August.
Google provided an update on some new analytics features made available to app marketers who use GA4.
One new and improved audience tool allows app marketers to more easily engage users who have not been notified via push notification. This is essential, since only just over a third of users are enabling push notifications!
Another update allows additional data to be used to optimize App campaign performance. This is possible by updated Google signals in your linked GA4 property.
Soon, it will also be possible to build GA4 audiences with Google Ads, which will make audience-building a much more efficient process.
You can read about more of GA4’s updates here.
We know, we know, it’s only September, but the holidays are always closer than we think! Now is the time to start prepping Google Shopping campaigns and other marketing tools for seasonal shopping, and Google recently shared some new insights and features to help advertisers prepare.
Google noted that a majority of holiday shoppers use multiple channels to shop over a two-day period, and suggested using its New Customer Acquisition with High Value optimization to optimize for customers with a “high predicted lifetime value”.
The company also stated that consumers in the U.S. are shopping in a wide variety of categories for the holidays, and has consequently improved its product page to provide more detailed insights into product issues or out-of-stock inventory for businesses.
Learn about some of Google’s other holiday upgrades here.
If you have any active Discovery campaigns, you’ll want to read this.
In June, Google announced Demand Gen campaigns, which are powered by AI and act as a new and improved eventual-replacement for Discover campaigns. You can now sign up for Google’s beta of these new campaigns, which will automatically upgrade your Discovery campaigns and give you access to all of Demand Gen’s shiny new features.
Learn what all Demand Gen has to offer here.
Google announced a new policy at the end of the month, which it claimed will improve “ad clarity” and “reduce the risk of scams and help prevent confusing and misleading ads”.
This new policy will potentially limit impressions on new advertisers’ ads, as Google becomes more “familiar” with the advertiser. The company claimed that this new policy will help prevent users from seeing misleading or otherwise confusing ads on their platform, and will essentially reward advertisers with a proven track record with Google Ads.
Google listed some of the criteria it will consider when gauging an advertiser’s reputability, including user feedback, advertising history, and identity verification.
You can read more about this new policy here.
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Are you looking for new ways to advertise your B2B business? Well, you’re in luck; Google Ads just announced two new campaign types at Google Marketing Live 2023 on May 23rd. Here’s everything we know.
Google Marketing Live is Google’s annual showcase event. The company shares its latest solutions and other updates via a livestream. The event is perfect for users who want to know more about the company’s up and coming projects and innovations.
This year’s livestream saw many different announcements, almost all of them centered around AI. But the two announcements we want to focus on have to do with Google Ads, and the new campaigns that will soon be made available to advertisers.
Video view campaigns - as their name implies - are meant to maximize views on YouTube in comparison to in-stream skippable CPV campaigns. They’ll work on a cost-per-view basis, and can come in many of the traditional video ad formats, including YouTube Shorts and in-stream ads.
This type of ad will allow advertisers to create a single video ad that can fit various placements across YouTube. Specifically, when creating a new campaign, users will be able to select “Views strategy,” in order to get more views across the platform. The option reads:
“Ads are shown across a variety of formats, including skippable in-stream ads, in-feed ads, and Shorts ads to get more views for your budget.
Bid strategy when using a variety of ad formats is Target CPV (cost-per-view). This allows you to set the average amount you’re willing to pay for a view.”
Demand gen campaigns are ads that are eligible to show across YouTube Shorts, YouTube in-stream, Discover, Gmail, and more, with the goal of driving conversions. This campaign type is just one of Google’s many recent AI-powered endeavors, as it will use artificial intelligence to perform a wide variety of tasks. This includes creating lookalike audiences, tailoring audience segments, and measuring conversions.
Unlike lookalike audiences of the past, lookalike segments for Demand Gen campaigns will be created with the help of AI. Advertisers need only provide a seed list, and then choose the level of reach that the lookalike segment will have.
The global beta for Video View campaigns will begin sometime this month. As for the Demand Gen campaigns, we expect to see these very soon, as Google has been quick to release its other AI-powered projects in recent months, such as Bard. However, at the time of this article’s publication, we did not have a specific release date for either campaign type.
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Want to know more about advertising with Google Ads, and how it can help your business succeed? Relevance Advisors is a marketing agency based in Atlanta, GA with the expertise to help your eCommerce business thrive. Have questions or need help getting started? Reach out to us here for a consultation.
On May 10th, 2023, Google shared its latest advancements in AI, including a new way to search on the Google search engine. Known as a search generative experience, or SGE, this update to Google Search will “supercharge” your searches.
According to Google, SGE uses “generative AI” to answer user search queries. But what is generative AI?
Generative AI is defined as a “set of algorithms” that can generate seemingly new content from the data on which it has been trained. In other words, the AI is trained with existing content or data, and this is used to develop relevant responses to user queries.
You might be familiar with some of the more popular generative AI models, like ChatGPT or DALL-E 2. Both of these are foundation models trained on enormous quantities of data, a knowledge base they use to develop responses to queries, such as text summations or image creations.
In much the same way, Google’s SGE will use its large data bank to generate more insightful answers to searches.
Searching on Google today typically takes a bit of… well, searching, and the more complex the question, the more you have to hunt for an answer. For example, you might want to plan a hike with some friends. “Hiking trails near me” would certainly be a good starting search, but what if you also need to make sure the trail you choose is a certain level of difficulty? And what if you want to make sure it’s completed in a certain amount of time? And even after you’ve narrowed it down to a handful of trails, you’ll have to check which ones are open on the day and time you plan to go hiking.
The real query you’re seeking answers to is, “easier hiking trails near me under two hours, that are open on Friday evenings”. Today, such a specific query may not garner a lot of results. You’ll probably have to break up your question into parts, slowly narrowing down the hiking trails until you find what you’re looking for. But with Search powered by generative AI, a lot of this “heavy lifting” can be done for you. Indeed, the hyper-specific query at the start of this paragraph would be just the sort of query a search engine powered by generative AI could answer.
As previously mentioned, a lot of the leg work is taken out of Search with generative AI, because it can essentially compile all the relevant information it has into one, coherent answer. If you have a super specific or multi-step question, Google’s SGE will make the discovery process much easier.
Beyond just regular searches, generative AI will also help users find products that fit their specific needs, something that will be especially important to B2B businesses. The AI shopping experience is built on Google’s database of over 35 billion product listings, which makes it well-equipped to inform shoppers looking to make complex purchasing decisions.
SGE is still in the testing phase, but you can sign up to test the update before it rolls out to the rest of Google’s users. You can provide Google with feedback that the company can use to optimize its SGE over time.
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A verified partner is simply a company that has successfully set up a Partner Network account and completed the necessary steps of verification. This is different from being a Partner in that there are additional benefits that unverified partners don’t receive.
Partner companies already get a lot of valuable perks, like the right to use the Amazon Ads logo in marketing materials and access to the Amazon Ads API. Partners gain access to educational resources, webinars, and videos. Many companies also take advantage of Amazon Ads certifications, and users can easily review their status to ensure their certifications are kept up to date. These are resources that Verified Partners also have at their disposal.
Unlike a regular Partner, however, Verified Partners also get status badges on the partner directory that recognize them as verified. There are some other key benefits too, like the ability to apply for Amazon Partner Ads Awards, access to exclusive events and sponsorship programs, and co-marketing opportunities.
Companies, such as marketing agencies and tool providers, can become verified partners of Amazon Ads by registering and completing their Partner Network account setup. In other words, the company must create an account for a business, link the account with at least one advertiser, and link at least one employee to the Partner Network account. Once that’s done, the company must create a partner directory listing, where it can showcase the products it supports through advertising.
After these steps are completed, verified partner status is granted automatically.
There are many benefits to working with a Verified Partner. Like we mentioned before, Verified Partners have access to a large library of guides, case studies, certifications, and other educational resources to help them make the most of the Amazon Ads Network. Working with a Verified Partner means working with a company that has countless tools and resources at its disposal to help your business succeed. Verified Partners can provide support across a wide range of areas, including retail, analytics, and creative and brand experience.
Remember that Partner Directory we mentioned earlier? All Verified Partners are listed in that directory, which can be filtered by services offered, certifications, pricing model, and more!
Relevance Advisors is a Verified Amazon Ads Partner, which means our team has familiarized itself with Amazon Ads and its tools, and knows how to help you achieve your business goals using the platform. We specialize in media planning and buying, ad creative, and analytics. If you’re interested in learning more, drop us a note here. We would love to hear from you!
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Want to advertise on Amazon Ads, but not sure where to start? Relevance Advisors has you covered. Our team has the experience and expertise to help your business succeed. Reach out today to learn more about the services we offer, or visit our services page for more information.
Relevance Advisors is a leader in paid search as demonstrated by our Google Partner status, and we are proud to have maintained this distinction for over a decade. Google has three primary requirements to be a Google Partner:
As partners we have access to product education through Skillshop. We also have access to livestream webinars and on-demand training. Google provides us with global consumer insights that we can use to help clients achieve their growth goals.
Google Partners also get access to a higher tier of customer support. Whether it’s a billing issue, an ad approval, or a technical issue, time is money on Google Ads. Our ability to identify issues, troubleshoot them, and resolve them quickly helps our clients keep their ads running.
New clients receive a promotional offer. Currently that offer is $500 in promotional credit once the client spends $500 on Google Ads. Simply by advertising with us you can increase your return on investment.
Relevance Advisors receives permission to use the Google Partner badge on our website and in our promotional materials. Savvy clients seek out Google Partner agencies, knowing they can trust that they have met Google’s strict program requirements.
We are also a Microsoft Advertising Partner, for clients that also wish to advertise on Bing. Bing has been in the new recently as a result of Microsoft’s integration with ChatGPT. Paid search will continue to evolve, and by selecting a partner who is certified on a platform, you can ensure that they are up to date with the latest features and updates.
Google includes us in their Partners Directory, so prospective clients that do not know Google Partners can discover them and start conversations. Visit our Partners page, where we feature our platform and technology partnerships.
If you are interested in starting a conversation with us, simply reach out via our Contact Us form. We look forward to speaking with you.
The digital marketing world is constantly changing and growing. As a result, there has been a huge number of agencies created to help businesses with their digital marketing endeavors. In fact, it’s estimated there are 7,761 in the United States! So what do these agencies do? This article will dive into the various roles of these firms.
One important role is SEO or search engine optimization. This is the process of understanding a website’s positioning and search engine results, and offering suggestions to make it more favorable for search engines like Google and users like you and me. The process can include a lot of information including analyzing the keywords a website ranks for and seeing what could be added, looking at referring domains, analyzing images on a site and URLs, looking for page errors, analyzing site descriptions, looking to see how fast a site is, offering social media suggestions, looking at the demographics of site visitors and much more. A lot of this information can come from resources such as SEMrush and Ahrefs which you can read about in our previous articles. Overall the goal of SEO is to increase the quantity and quality of traffic through organic (unpaid) search results.
PPC or pay-per-click is when an advertiser pays a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. For example, I may be advertising my product using Google Ads. To make sure it shows up in Google search results: 1) I would create a campaign that includes keywords related to my product. 2) I would write descriptions for what I want to show up on Google. 3) I would provide Google with the URL I want users to be sent to when they click on my ad (the destination URL. 4) I would set a budget (the maximum amount of money I want to spend total in a month for google to show my ad). Every time someone clicks on my ad, I would get charged. Digital marketing agencies can help clients set these campaigns up, and can help monitor results, make changes, and diagnose errors/issues.
Another important role digital marketing agencies play is reporting. Whether it be daily, weekly, or monthly, companies want to know how their advertising efforts are performing. Digital marketing agencies can provide them with reports that highlight metrics like how many impressions, clicks, and conversions are received, which ads are performing better than others, how traffic has changed over time, how much money was spent, what keywords are getting clicks, and much more! Obviously, this information is important for businesses to make decisions and reach objectives.
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Do you want to take advantage of digital marketing at your company? Relevance Advisors has the expertise and know-how to help you succeed. Reach out today to learn more about the services we offer
Digital marketing is an increasingly important part of a company’s marketing strategy. Many companies have looked to take advantage of the growth in digital advertising, especially as technological advances have resulted in considerable attrition of the customer base of traditional marketing agencies. This article highlights some of the companies at the forefront of the digital marketing world.
It’s not surprising that Zappos has a successful digital marketing presence given the fact that they set the gold standard for online customer care with free shipping and a 365-day money-back guarantee. Zappos invests heavily in online marketing and social media, focusing heavily on what the customer wants and needs. According to digital spark marketing, “when Zappos uses an example of their customer service, it… posts it to Facebook, tweets it on Twitter, and pins it on Pinterest. It clearly goes to where all its customers like to hang out. Cross-promotion is more valuable as the world becomes more digitally focused. Each network provides an opportunity to reach its audience in a new channel. Integrating their strategy on each is crucial to increasing visibility and promoting the brand.”
Slack, a platform that allows teams to communicate efficiently and share files is very focused on the customer experience. According to convince and convert, the company responds to 8,000 help desk tickets and 10,000 tweets a month. They also include tips on their Twitter feed for users. As their tagline says, they’re “on a mission to make your working life simpler, more pleasant, and more productive.” Make it all about solving your customer’s pain points.
Porsche cars have been in the hearts of car lovers for generations, and their mobile strategy was genius. According to convince and convert, the company created six Facebook Canvas ads, a new ad unit optimized for mobile, that acted as an immersive deep-dive into the specifics of six different models of the 911 when it was released. The strategy was an immediate hit, totaling 15MM impressions and 2MM video views. The company was also a finalist in the 2017 Shorty Awards.
Airbnb’s digital marketing strategy is focused on getting both travelers and hosts to the site. Their digital marketing strategy relies primarily on user-generated images and videos on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, how-to videos and posts geared towards owners, and popular city guides. Their Instagram campaign has humor and images of different travel locations around the world, making the page a travel forum as well as a service. The company also collaborated with Google and invested in Google search ads to make their offers more visually attractive.
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Do you want to take advantage of digital marketing at your company? Relevance Advisors has the expertise and know-how to help you succeed. Reach out today to learn more about the services we offer.
