Advertising Policies – Sklik and AdWords

If you decide to advertise on Google or Seznam, that is, on the AdWords platform or Sklik, you must adhere to the advertising policies. Depending on what type of business or activity you are dealing with, you may experience some limitations.

The first step is to analyze the business and look for potential restrictions on the projects. Finding information about these limitations is usually not difficult; they are accessible on the blog and support sites of both AdWords and Sklik.

Depending on the project type, there are three scenarios:

  1. The project belongs to the majority, which is not restricted in advertising. This is the case with most e-commerce projects.
  2. The project is limited to targeting audiences or advertising on the content network. This is mainly about projects focusing on adult goods or an area that can be perceived as private or potentially delicate (e. g. health, politics, etc.)
  3. Projects that cannot be advertised on these platforms, such as weapons.

In this article we will introduce general principles and tell you the tips and tricks that will help us with the re-straints. Finally, let’s look at alternatives for those projects that cannot be advertised on these traditional plat-forms.

We will focus on the following areas:

  • Political content
  • Gambling
  • Sports nutrition

These are the verticals where we have experienced the most limitations.

Political content:

Political parties conduct campaigns to reach the maximum number of more or less relevant voters. As politics is a personal topic for each and every one of us, political marketing is somewhat problematic and something that Google is sensitive about.

90% of all Google AdWords and Google Analytics remarketing audiences will be disapproved, but it may occasionally happen that audience targeting passes through unobtrusive bot control. Seznam is more lenient in this respect, and the targeting of remarketing audiences and subsequent advertising is allowed.

Banner ads on the Google Content Network are allowed or allowed with restrictions. Rejection can be expected in cases where the campaign is attacking political opponents. However, when using for example a cartoon in-stead of a photo, the campaign is usually approved. Seznam as a Czech company carries out a careful inspection, and the problem of offensive campaigns is taken seriously. There is no exception that the banners that were approved in AdWords are disapproved in Sklik. Generally, the solution is to change the creative.

Gambling:

This category has a lot of pitfalls, and policy violations are constantly being challenged when trying to advertise. The basic requirement is to own an online gambling license to advertise on the Google Network.

Remarketing on Google will always be disapproved, and a license will not help. On the other hand, on Seznam is not any problem to apply remarketing to online gambling.

Under normal circumstances, banners on the Google content network are disapproved. But you can apply for an exception—a certificate that will allow advertising. You need to submit the Certification Form (see the disap-proved ad) to Google support with the license attached. Once you get a certificate, ads are generally approved. 

Seznam is again unlimited in this case.

YouTube ads (running from the AdWords platform) are approved once the certificate is received but view audi-ences cannot be used on the content network.

It is not possible to run ads in apps.

Sports nutrition:

Sports nutrition advertising means not only the time-consuming optimization of advertisements on the search network, but also the quality of the SEO of the target website. Why SEO? Google has created a list of substanc-es that it does not allow to be advertised. The actual sale of products containing them is not a problem in the Czech Republic, but it is a problem on the Google Network, because it is set according to American rules. If a Google bot encounters banned substances while scanning a site, it denies the ad.

Static and dynamic remarketing on the Google Network can work with restrictions. Why with restrictions? The product feed, connected to the merchant center, may contain references (e.g. in the product description) to prohibited substances. It may be necessary to optimize the feed before starting it.

In the Seznam network there is not a problem with either dynamic or static remarketing. However, you need to have the correct products that you want to advertise.

Banners for the Google and Seznam Content Networks will be approved without any problems in the case that the landing page does not mention a prohibited substance. The creative should, based on the new policies, include the text “dietary supplement.” If it does not include this, the chances of rejection increase sharply. It is not a rule, but we encounter it quite often.

Advertisements in search ads on the Google Network are once again disapproved due to the presence of banned substances on the landing page. The number of disapproved ads is in the order of tens and hundreds (depending on the total number) and can lead to a complete collapse of the account. This is a huge problem in the case of a performance e-shop and can fundamentally damage business clients. The key is therefore the selection of the target page or its optimization.

In the case of advertising of sports nutrition in search engines, Seznam isn’t as lenient as it is with other verticals. The ad must include the text “dietary supplement.” If, after inserting this ad text, ads are disapproved, the problem is probably with the registration of your products at the Ministry of Agriculture or the Ministry of Health.

In conclusion, a summary of several key points.

This article does not represent an exhaustive list of restrictions and their solutions, tips and tricks, or instructions on how to circumvent the restriction. Not only is there a whole range of such restrictions and this article is dedicated to the current areas we are lately engaged in, but any solutions or loopholes are often individual and differ from project to project.

Generally, it’s important to keep in mind that lists of ad network restrictions are easily traceable on the Internet and are always worth reading. Of all the problems you can expect with remarketing and banner ads, never forget to optimize the landing page and do not give up with the first restrictions.
Often just a minor change is enough, such as creating new banners, editing an ad or landing page, or creating a video instead of banners, and these small changes can help and your advertised can be approved.

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