Last week, Google announced an update to a policy for its advertising platform, Google Ads, that will affect those who advertise in the UK.
In an email sent to advertisers who use Google Ads, the search giant explained that the updates to its policy would be published on August 30th, with the enforcement of the changes coming into effect a week later. The email also outlined the changes it would be making to the policy.
The policy in question relates to Google Ads Financial Products and Services, with the changes concerning new requirements to verify advertisers of financial services who target the UK.
What are the changes?
The policy update means that in the UK, any advertiser of financial services of any kind – both services regulated by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and those that are not regulated – will have to receive verification from Google itself before they can show any ads.
In order to be verified, an advertiser must be able to show Google that they’re authorised by the FCA, or that they qualify for an exemption.
To make the process easier for advertisers, Google has listed categories of ads that don’t fall under ‘financial services’ for the policy, which are:
– products that fall under the policy for ‘debt services’
– products that fall under the policy for ‘complex speculative financial products’ (ads under this category will be able to run in the UK providing they meet the policy’s requirements and are verified if Google requests it)
– gambling
– products that fall under the polices for ‘binary options’, ‘credit repair’ and ‘cryptocurrencies’
Advertisers that fail to complete the verification process in full before the enforcement deadline of September 6th will not be able to show any kind of financial service ad in the UK, and their accounts will be paused.
Any advertisers found to be in violation of the policy won’t have their account immediately suspended, however. Instead, Google will issue a warning, which will be sent a minimum of seven days before an account is suspended.
Google is encouraging all advertisers to review the policy and confirm whether their ads fall under it, and if they do, to ensure they complete the verification process or remove the related ads prior to the September deadline.
Google Ads is one of many online platforms that can be used to advertise your products and services online. If you’d like to have a chat about advertising your business on the web via platforms like Google and Facebook, speak to us at Engage Web today.
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