Google’s October 2022 Overhaul of Paid Ad Policies
It's no wonder that everyone wants a piece of the competitive paid ad market; Google earned over 200 billion dollars of revenue in 2021, and it's not the only business to profit from online advertising. Businesses can drastically increase their brand awareness through paid advertising campaigns, and you cater ads to reach the ideal customers for your practice.
As a result of the highly-competitive nature of paid ads, its market constantly evolves with the development of new technology, consumer trends, and advertising standards. While keeping up with all of this can seem daunting, a good business owner will recognize that every shift in the market creates a new opportunity to generate new leads and revenue.
And Google created a major shift by tightening its paid ad policies in October 2022. Now all paid ad destinations must be high quality, easily accessible for users, and follow the Better Ads Standards set by the Coalition for Better Ads.
What has changed with these new guidelines
Better Ads Standards
The Better Ads Standards focus on improving user experience by reducing certain types of ads that many users hate. Most of the standards revolve around the delivery and form of an ad, such as avoiding the use of pop-ups and auto-playing videos with sound. You can find the full list of Better Ads Standards here.
However, one standard stands out from the rest: a 30% ad density limit on mobile web pages. Mobile device traffic accounts for more than 58% of all website traffic, so this stipulation can significantly impact your marketing campaign if you’re not careful. The ad density limit directly ties into Google’s emphasis on high-quality content.
High-Quality Content
The rule “content is king” still rings true despite the numerous changes to search engines in the past decade. Google ranks content according to the value it provides for users, but now the quality of a landing page also impacts your paid ads since Google can reject an ad if the destination has “insufficient original content”.
Some examples of insufficient original content include:
- Destination pages that have “excessive advertising” (like the 30% ad density limit)
- Unoriginal content that does not add any value to users
- Pages that are meant to send users to other destinations
Accessible Destinations
The last major requirement is that all ad destinations should be accessible from your main site. In the past, ads have led to isolated landing pages that users could not normally access through the website’s navigation. Even if an isolated page had quality content, it would create a confusing experience for users who could not navigate their way back to a previously visited page.
By punishing the practice of using isolated landing pages, Google hopes to create a more positive user experience. In addition, each destination also needs to be crawlable and relevant to the corresponding ad.
Why is Google updating its ad destination requirements?
Paid ads that lead to low-quality content also hurt users’ trust in digital advertising, which can prevent them from clicking on other ads in the future. Google would lose out on potential ad revenue, which is a major source of income for the company. That outcome would also hurt your business since you may lose potential customers due to a stigma surrounding bad ad experiences.
“We want consumers to have a good experience when they click on an ad, so ad destinations must offer unique value to users and be functional, useful, and easy to navigate.” - Google
As a result, Google only wants to showcase ads that lead to higher-quality pages and more positive user experiences. By tightening the policies and guidelines surrounding paid ads, Google hopes to continue generating more revenue and keep the market healthy.
What happens if my ads do not follow the new requirements?
According to Google’s ad policies, an ad that does not lead to a navigable, high-quality landing page will not be displayed until the issue is fixed. Changing an ad’s destination is relatively quick and simple, but you still need to wait for Google’s approval before you can show the ad again.
Google'sAdvertising Policy Help Guide says that you can typically expect an ad to go through review within a business day, but the review period can vary depending on the circumstances. During this time, you may lose out on potential customers and the corresponding revenue that an ad could’ve brought to your business.
A worse scenario is not having a landing page that fits Google’s requirements. In this case, you’ll have to wait even longer while you find a way to source valuable, quality content for a relevant page. This process will take longer and give your competition more time to snag potential customers away from your business.
What does this mean for my current ad campaign?
Einstein Industries has already known about the value of having quality landing pages for many years, and our clients should be set up with some premium landing pages for users who click on your ads. We also use Mega Menus to provide a clear and easy-to-use navigation experience that includes every landing page on a site.
If you’re not an Einstein client, you may not be set up with the high-quality landing pages and site navigation that you need to pass Google’s new requirements. Creating a quality landing page may take some time, but Einstein clients can choose to use syndicated pages from our library to create a temporary destination until your Premium SEO Content page is ready.
Do you need to update your paid ad destinations?
Contact Einstein Industries today to get in touch with our Paid Media experts and learn how to revamp your advertising campaign. Our team will look at your current advertisements, update them to fit Google’s new ad requirements, and use data-based strategies to improve your leads and revenue.
