Stay ahead of the game

Sign up for our newsletter to receive the latest digital marketing strategies and insights for the month ahead, delivered straight to your inbox!

    The Google Ads Policy Checklist You Need To Read

    Ad PlatformsAdvertising PoliciesGoogle AdsPPC

    Getting started with Google Ads, or even ads in general can be a little daunting if you’re not familiar with or well-versed in the digital advertising world. We’ve made sure to go over all of the must-haves and must-dos for everything Google Ads-related and put them all into a concise checklist. 

    If you’re unsure whether your ads are up to Google Ads policy, then read on and follow our checklist to find out!

    Table of Contents

    Open Google agency account

    Google Ads 

    1. Create a Google Ads account from overseas IP

    Website Checklist

    1. No invalid domain, invalid back button, or invalid in popular browsers

    2. High-quality images with no watermark or copyright issues

    3. Domain consistent with landing page

    4. Usage of special characters

      • E.g., F?€€gc

    5. No fake reviews or sales volume

    6. Must have ‘Contact Us

      • This includes email (with the same domain of the website), phone, and company address (Real address = company information in GMC, secondary: warehouse address). PS: for customer survey from Google
      • ‘Contact Us’ must have a contact form for users to submit their questions

    7. No products with significantly negative reviews

    8. All products should be discoverable by browsing the website

    9. Ensure there are no errors in language and grammar

    10. Must include shipping policy

      • Shipping policy should include how to track orders, costs, and duration (all information must be real and trustworthy)

    11. Must include return policy 

      • Return policy should include: terms and conditions, period, guarantee(s)

    12. Must include a privacy policy 

      • The policy should cover email, address, phone numbers, and personal information

    13. Does not contain any unnecessary plugins on the website 

    14. Must support all advertised payment methods 

      • E.g., if you do not accept Visa, do not include their logo

    15. Checkout price must be consistent with the advertised price 

    16. Social linkage 

      • E.g., the official company FB page

    17. In addition, please make sure to have the aforementioned information be shared from your website in a text format and avoid sharing those in the form of a link, as this would cause an issue in getting the information identified by the system.

    18. Please make sure that users will not be routed to another window or tab whenever they click your information, as this may also be identified by our system as an error.

    19. The payment method must be displayed on the homepage and consistent with all icons when checking out.

    Checklist for if the Ad Account gets suspended

    1. Submit appeal (non-shopping campaigns existing, disconnect the GMC first, then keep other campaigns running)

    Don't try to request too many reviews of the GMC; the system will record the account review history.

    GMC

    1. Create GMC from overseas IP

    2. Use a VPN of the country where the GMC was opened when operating the GMC

    3. Feed and Website information to be aligned

      • No fake sales prices or discrepancies between GMC 
      • Website prices + Product features (images) must be real and original

    4. Check the vertical / industry whitelist 

    5. Contact/address/company information should be consistent on the google website claim (domain verification)

    Checklist If the GMC Gets Suspended

    1. Submit appeal (need to know more in the future) 

    Take Into Consideration

    For the same company and URL, the system will record all the ad accounts and GMCs belonging to the same company. 

    If the existing GMC is suspended, it’s a negative influence on the newly created ads account and GMC, regardless of the location of where the account was created. The policy team of GMC is the same. 

    If the original GMC and ads account is suspended, its possible to reopen the GMC and ads account under APAC. If you are able to get the APAC account running, you’ll need to check whether the spending will be counted under APAC MCC.

    Don’t try to request too many reviews of the GMC; the system will record the account review history. GMC must be opened in foreign countries and managed in those countries (without any login from mainland China or Hong Kong- VPNs won’t help.

    Share this article
    Back to top