The AdWords Ad­ver­tis­ing Guide­lines at a Glance

Unau­tho­rized content is un­der­stood to mean products, services, or in­for­ma­tion that may not be ad­ver­tised on the AdWords ad­ver­tis­ing network. Generally, ads that are not allowed include:

• Fake products: Google forbids all products which contain unau­tho­rized brand names or logos.
  
  
• Dangerous products: Drugs, mind-altering sub­stances, and drug para­pher­na­lia are con­sid­ered by Google to be dangerous products. AdWords ads con­tain­ing this type of content are not allowed and will be rejected during the approval process. The same goes for tobacco ad­ver­tis­ing. The AdWords ban is also placed on ads for weapons, am­mu­ni­tion, ex­plo­sives, or in­struc­tions for the man­u­fac­ture of these products.

• Products and services which promote dishonest actions: Ad­ver­tis­ing software used to hack computer systems or services that promise increased ad or web access are in conflict with the AdWords guide­lines. Also pro­hib­it­ed are ad­ver­tise­ments for coun­ter­feit documents or services, which are an aid to sci­en­tif­ic fraud.

Google also restricts all ads which contain offensive or in­ap­pro­pri­ate content. Ads for products and/or services which contain hate messages, violent or sexual content, religious or political in­tol­er­ance, as well as ad­ver­tise­ments for or­ga­ni­za­tions which advocate such views, are pro­hib­it­ed as well. In addition, the Google ad­ver­tis­ing network excludes content that is shocking, repulsive, or dis­turb­ing, has been created with ex­ploita­tive in­ten­tions, or is aimed at the ex­ploita­tion of others.

Google clas­si­fies as unau­tho­rized or pro­hib­it­ed practices all measures which involve a misuse of ad­ver­tis­ing networks, ir­re­spon­si­ble handling of user data, or mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the user, products, or services.

• Misuse of ad­ver­tis­ing networks: Usage is clas­si­fied as abusive by AdWords when content is ad­ver­tised that does not offer value to or even harms users. Examples of abusive usage are websites or apps that spread Malware, des­ti­na­tion pages that are only used for user for­ward­ing, or deception methods such as Cloaking. Also pro­hib­it­ed are actions aimed at avoiding the release process or gaining an unfair advantage during the ad­ver­tis­ing process.

• Ir­re­spon­si­ble handling of user data: According to the AdWords guide­lines, Google’s ad­ver­tis­ing partners are pro­hib­it­ed from abusing user data or gathering and using data without proper security. Google clas­si­fies data handling as abusive if the data is collected without consent, personal data is used to direct ad­ver­tis­ing to users, or ad­ver­tise­ments indicate the knowledge of personal data. For example, Google cites the gathering of credit card data from an unsafe website or ad­ver­tise­ment in order to determine the sexual ori­en­ta­tion or financial condition of a user as ir­re­spon­si­ble data handling.

• Mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tion: In order to prevent users from feeling misled by ad­ver­tise­ments, ad­ver­tis­ers are pro­hib­it­ed from con­ceal­ing relevant in­for­ma­tion about ad­ver­tised products and/or services or from con­ceal­ing their own identity. Vi­o­la­tions of the AdWords ad­ver­tis­ing guide­lines would include, for example, false in­for­ma­tion about payment terms or final costs, incorrect de­scrip­tions of products and/or services, the ad­ver­tis­ing of offers not available on the des­ti­na­tion page, or donation campaigns under false pretenses. The absence of relevant contact in­for­ma­tion or tax and licensing data is also regarded as a policy offense.

In addition to unau­tho­rized content, which in­vari­ably will lead to the rejection of an ad during the approval process, Google clas­si­fies certain other content as re­strict­ed. This includes content which is con­sid­ered sensitive from a legal or cultural point of view and is allowed to be ad­ver­tised with re­stric­tions in AdWords ads. Special reg­u­la­tions apply to adult content, alcoholic beverages, and ad­ver­tise­ments referring to copy­right­ed content, gambling, politics, or health-related products and/or services. Ad­ver­tis­ing these is re­strict­ed to certain user groups or locations, and must meet ad­di­tion­al re­quire­ments. It is also not com­pat­i­ble with all ad products and functions provided by Google on the AdWords network.

• Adult content: If an ad contains sexually sug­ges­tive content, nudity, is ad­ver­tised as a sex article, dating service, in­ter­na­tion­al match­mak­ing, or ad­ver­tis­es erotic en­ter­tain­ment, then the following re­stric­tions apply: The ad must comply with the laws or reg­u­la­tions of the countries in which the ad campaign takes places. Ad­dress­ing of minors is pro­hib­it­ed. Sexually explicit content (pornog­ra­phy) may not be ad­ver­tised with Google AdWords. The same goes for sexual services such as pros­ti­tu­tion or escort services. These re­stric­tions do, however, permit ad­ver­tis­ing for strip clubs, adult parties, porno­graph­ic film festivals, sex articles, and erotic magazines, as well as content which is sexually sug­ges­tive but contains no explicit text, photos, audio record­ings, or videos.
  
  
• Alcoholic beverages: Ad­ver­tise­ments for alcoholic beverages are re­strict­ed by Google using the following reg­u­la­tions: As a general rule, all ad­ver­tis­ing for alcoholic beverages must comply with the legal re­quire­ments and industry standards of the countries in which the ad campaign takes place. Ad­dress­ing users under the legally permitted minimum age for the con­sump­tion of alcoholic beverages is pro­hib­it­ed. Excessive alcohol con­sump­tion may not be portrayed pos­i­tive­ly. Drinking com­pe­ti­tions are not allowed to be ad­ver­tised with AdWords. In addition, AdWords ads are not to give the im­pres­sion that alcohol has a health-promoting effect or es­tab­lish­es an increased status in regard to social, pro­fes­sion­al, in­tel­lec­tu­al, sexual, or athletic sit­u­a­tions. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, ad­ver­tise­ments that show alcohol con­sump­tion at the wheel of a vehicle or while operating machinery violate the AdWords guide­lines.

• Copy­right­ed content: Ad­ver­tis­ing for copy­right­ed content is also re­strict­ed by Google. Ad­ver­tis­ers who wish to promote copy­right­ed content through AdWords must provide Google with evidence that they are either the copyright owners or have ap­pro­pri­ate au­tho­riza­tion.

• Gambling-related content: According to Google, an ad is related to gambling if it ad­ver­tis­es the following content: Offline and online games of chance as well as in­for­ma­tion about them; online games in which money or prizes can be won; and casino games – re­gard­less of the presence of money. AdWords ads which contain content of this kind must be approved by Google in advance, as well as comply with the legal re­quire­ments and industry standards of the countries in which the ad campaign takes place. In addition, the ap­plic­a­ble licensing reg­u­la­tions for gaming products and services must be observed. If an ad refers to a website with gambling-related content, this in­for­ma­tion must be provided for the promotion of re­spon­si­ble gambling. The targeting of gambling-related ad­ver­tise­ments to minors is pro­hib­it­ed.

• Health-related content: Health-related content is un­der­stood to mean any ad­ver­tise­ments that refer to medical products, services, pro­ce­dures, equipment, or tests. Re­spec­tive re­stric­tions apply to ads that advertise phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals, online and offline phar­ma­cies, products and services related to fertility and pregnancy, treat­ments to increase sexual per­for­mance, as well as ads for the re­cruit­ment of subjects for clinical trials. Re­stric­tions on health-related content vary by product or service, as well as the country in which the ads are to be run. Detailed in­for­ma­tion to determine permitted ad content regarding health and medicine can be found on the Google support website.

• Political content: Ad­ver­tis­ers who wish to use AdWords ads for political content must adhere to the legal guide­lines and reg­u­la­tions of the countries in which the ad campaign takes place.

• Trade­marks: If a trademark is used in an AdWords ad without au­tho­riza­tion, the trademark owner has the option to file a complaint against the ad­ver­tis­er. In such cases, Google manually checks for in­fringe­ment and restricts the use of the trademark in ad text. If trademark owners wish to allow in­di­vid­ual ad­ver­tis­ers to use their trademark, they can authorize the desired AdWords accounts through the trademark usage form. For ad campaigns in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, or Ireland, protected trade­marks may be used in ad­ver­tise­ments in com­pli­ance with the reseller and in­for­ma­tion­al site guide­lines.

In order to fa­cil­i­tate simple in­ter­ac­tion with search engine and display ad­ver­tis­ing for users, Google has set both editorial and technical re­quire­ments for the design of AdWords ads. These re­quire­ments ensure that users are only presented with ad­ver­tise­ments that are pro­fes­sion­al and un­am­bigu­ous, and only directed to relevant content. Vi­o­la­tions of these guide­lines are un­der­stood to include any vague phrasings or sen­sa­tion­al­is­tic uses of words, numbers, letters, or punc­tu­a­tion marks. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, ad­ver­tise­ments which do not represent the des­ti­na­tion page are also con­sid­ered vi­o­la­tions. If the linked website turns out to be a parked domain, is not finished, is broken, or cannot be displayed in popular browsers, it is assumed that Google will reject the ad.

If an ad­ver­tise­ment violates one or more of the AdWords guide­lines, ad­ver­tis­ers should expect the ad to be rejected during the approval process. A rejected AdWords ad will not be released until the guideline violation has been corrected. Fur­ther­more, violation of ad­ver­tis­ing guide­lines can result in Google placing an AdWords ban on an entire domain, com­plete­ly blocking it from placing any AdWords ads. If an AdWords account has committed several vi­o­la­tions, Google reserves the right to per­ma­nent­ly block it.