Google Ads will begin issuing three strike warnings for repeat violators of its ad policies starting in September 2021
The company said earlier this month that it will begin notifying Ads advertisers of policy violations by sending them a message with actions they can take to comply, including removing the ad. Strikes will expire after 90 days. On July 20, 2021 Google made the announcement, “Starting September 2021, warnings and strikes will be issued for violations of our Enabling Dishonest Behavior, Unapproved Substances and Dangerous Products or Services policies—this includes ads promoting deceptive behavior or products such as the creation of false documents, hacking services, and spyware, as well as tobacco, drugs and weapons, among other types of content.” There has been a prohibition of these types of ads for some time now, but The punishment system is new. Zeller Media has successfully worked with google to avoid any punishment and remove strikes when needed.
Google has four types of strikes that advertisers can receive:
Warning Strike: This is the first instance of ad content policy violation. The advertiser will be notified and no punishments will be given and the relevant ad will be removed
Strike 1: Violation of a policy for which you’ve received one warning within 90 days. When this happens the account will be placed on a temporary hold for three days during which time ads won't run.
Strike 2: Violation of a policy for which you’ve received a warning and a strike within 90 days. When this happens the offending ad account will be on temporary hold for 7 days. During this time, ads will not be able to run. This is the final warning that an account will receive.
Strike 3: Violation of a policy for which you’ve received two previous strikes within 90 days. Accounts will be suspended after three strikes.
If an account violates a policy, the account admin will receive an email informing them of the violation. After a warning, administrators will be required to correct the policy infringements and contact Google to be able to new run ads
Without the proper experience, warnings and strikes can be very time consuming to remove or fix. It can take a few hours if not days of back and forth between you and google. If you receive more than one warning or violation, it will be much harder to explain your case and sometimes impossible to get them removed from your account. Zeller Media understands this process and works with google to avoid any warnings and strikes.
We can help you by removing warnings and strikes from your account while using Google’s new policies. We want to make sure that you are up to date on all of the changes so that you don’t have any interruption in your business.
This initiative by google is not an empty threat, it is also not going away any time soon. It is only getting stronger. We can help you get your account back in order, so that you can continue bringing in revenue without interruption and prevent being suspended.
Google is taking a clear and actionable approach to advertising when implementing their new policy. They are not going to be willing to accept “bad” ads. It is in their best interest to only allow for the most legitimate and upstanding businesses on google.
Our paid search agency will help you understand what you need to do, if anything, in order to address your violation and get it removed from your account.
It is likely that this type of strike system will begin to be enforced across other policies. In order to stay ahead of regulation, it is important that you update your advertisement practices now so that you can avoid future penalties.
Zeller Media will act as a liaison between you and Google in order to work through the issue and get your ads running again. Don't let your legitimate ad content get suspended because of a warning or strike. Contact us for additional information and help with this issue. We know how to avoid the strikes, and if strikes happen, we can get it resolved because we have dedicated account reps from Google.
