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Google Compliance Secrets [ask all your questions to an expert] (9)

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Last month, I came across a book called “Google Compliance Secrets: The Ultimate Marketing Playbook To Stay Google Compliant, Never Get Banned, And Access Hidden Google Ads Traffic Reserved Only For Trustworthy Advertisers”.

Needless to say, I was intrigued...



The book was published back in January 2021 by Dathen Fairley. Dathen has been helping companies advertise on Google without getting banned for more than 10 years now. You can buy it here: https://compliancesecrets.com/book

Below, you will find my notes about the book. Be aware, it is almost as long as a @jaybot Follow Along, and definitely more boring, unless like me you like legal and compliance stuff.

But one last thing before you dive deep in this review…

I just had a chat with Dathen to ask him if he would do a Q&A for STM, or a review of affiliate landers to give us tips on how we can improve them. And he replied that he would love to.

So if you have questions about Google Compliance, or if you have landers that you would like an opinion about, please reply below, or send me a PM if you want to stay anonymous. Same thing if you want to suggest a lander without revealing the domain or logo, you can send me a zip and I can host them. Questions can also extended to Facebook or other social networks compliance, as most of them took their guidelines from Google, and Dathen work on these too with his clients.

Google Compliance Secrets - Book Summary

Notes:

• These are guidelines from an independent consultant, not from Google. Some guidelines are conservative, and you may be able to run without abiding by them. As the author mentions, the goal is to maintain a risk profile low enough.
• If you are looking for how to run uncompliant ads, cloaking, save yourself time. You won’t find such information there. This book is about maximizing compliance with Google policy to be able to scale advertising on this platform.
• If you are in a hurry and don’t want to read the book, Dathen has made a 5-page cheatsheet about what you need to be compliant. You can find it here. I do recommend to read the book though, as it contains examples about what work or not, and lots more nuance.

Chapter 1 – Why People Get Banned From Google?

• Frustration amongst Google Advertisers, as warnings and bans come with very limited amount of information + difficult to get assistance from support.
• Most of the bans come from being a Risky Advertiser
  
  • Disregard safety of Google users on their website
  • Risk Google brand reputation
  
  
• The “Risk Meter”
  
  • Google has an internal risk meter for advertisers, like a point system. Every risky behavior adds points. Above a certain threshold, it becomes too risky for Google to continue showing your ads à ban
  • Some industries start with risk points (Ex: OTC drugs)
  
  
• Lack of business transparency
  
  • Most of the risk for Google comes from lack of business transparency. There are 3 main areas to consider that add risk: 1) Nature of your business, 2) Use of user personal information, 3) Interaction between website and user’s computer
  • Nature of your business: not explaining who you are, what your business is about, or faking to be someone else
    
    • Ex: Fake News Website
    
    
  • Use of personal information: not explaining what happens when someone gives you an email or a telephone.
    
    • Ex: Lead gen agencies, not disclosing you are reselling the leads à reduces the trust in Google brand
    
    
  • How the website interacts with visitor device, in particular when you need specific software installed
    
    • Ex: Tech support service who need to install remote-access software to debug. Even totally legit ones need to disclose what the software does, and make sure it is removed after use
    
    
  • SUMMARY: Do you generate a risk for:
    
    • Google user after he clicks on your ad
    • Google reputation
    • Google from a legal point of view
    
    
  
  

Chapter 2 – Who is Google Ads For?

• Google Ads is for Businesses that sell products/services. Businesses, not People. People tend to lack transparency and lack support service.
• Minimum business standards required:
  
  • Legitimate business, not necessarily registered (freelances / contractors can advertise too) but real.
  • Website showcasing you are a stable business owner serious about quality
  • Any legitimate business owner is comfortable disclosing phone, email and address
  
  
• Can be a problem for people working from home. Don’t use PO Box or Mailing Services as Google will detect it

Chapter 3 – Who Google Ads Isn’t For?

• Banned business models. See Ads Policy. Mainstream merchant processors are usually faster than Google to ban a business model
  
  • Scammers / Thieves
  • Adult Industry
  • Illegal Drugs (see legitscript.com to search if a product is banned in your country)
  • Get Rich Quick schemes: not scams, but get banned because the promises of riches increase the risk for Google too much
  • Get Thin Quick schemes: same thing. Unrealistic weight loss claims (too much / too fast) not allowed
  • Regulated Medical Ingredients / Drugs: if a component of a supplement is regulated, Google will require compliance with the regulation for that ingredient (Ex: supplement with DHEA)
  • Dangerous Weapons and Weapons Accessories
  • Business / People under FTC lawsuit
  
  

Chapter 4 – Innocent Mistakes Marketers Make That Get Them Banned Before Their First Click

• Offensive / spammy domains names: they appear in searches and can have a negative influence on people searching, even if they don’t click on the ad
• Website hosting:
  
  • Private Whois signals lack of transparency. It is a red flag for Google, which can think a previously banned advertiser is trying to get back on the platform (especially if the content looks similar to a previously banned account).
  • Hosting ownership Whois should be public and match the company billing
  
  
• One-page website
  
  • Works very well for direct sales, but lack of transparency
  • Attracts impulse buyers, who are likely to take decision fast, but have buyer remorse later and complain.
  • Google review guys tend to look for more information about business and disable the website if not found
  
  
• Previously banned domains
  
  • Difficult to spot. If your new domain keeps getting denied to run ads, while you have a good track record + legitimate business, check the web archive to see if the domain was previously use
  • Ideally you should buy only domains with no use, or parked domains
  
  
• Opening a Google Ads account before your website is compliant
  
  • Google tends to ban most of the accounts when they are first open (as lots of accounts are opened by scammers), so make sure your site is ready, otherwise Google might just ban you before you even spend a dollar.
  
  
• Using prepaid / virtual card
  
  • Better to use the checking account option than a virtual card
  
  
• Using virtual phone numbers
  
  • Virtual phones are not as verifiable as regular phones, so Google decided not to accept them. Use a landline or a regular cellphone.
  
  
• Links to ban businesses
  
  • Links pointing to an affiliate offer can get your account banned if the root domain of the advertiser has been banned, even if the offer landing page is 100% compliant.
  
  
• Giving access to your account to previously banned advertisers
  
  • Don’t let an employee that has previously been banned by Google access to a computer where your run Google. Don’t even let them use the same IP or internet connection. Very unfair, bet that’s the situation currently.
  
  

Chapter 5 – Understanding the Google Ads Policy Team

• Philosophy of the team
  
  • Useful to read their mission statement at the beginning here: https://support.google.com/adspolicy.../6008942?hl=en
  • It sounds great in theory, but reality is more “search and destroy advertisers we don’t like”
  • Employees belonging to this team are not sales people. They don’t have hard sales metrics to show on their annual evaluation. The only option they found is number of banned accounts / banned ads.
  • By defining “anyone who breach the policy” as a bad actor, they increased their policy enforcement track records and receive promotions
  • 2012-2020: 12 billion ads banned
  
  
• Two teams in charge of advertising policy. Each one has a different role, and you must understand the difference to be able to send an adequate reply
  
  • The Advertising Team
  • The Google Ads Policy Team
  
  
• The Advertising Team
  
  • In charge of banning accounts when the risk profile is too high for Google
  • Usually don’t mention a specific policy about an Ad, only Terms and Conditions or the “Untrustworthy promotions” policy
  • You know you are facing The Advertising Team when the only option you have is filling a form and support tells you they can’t help in any other way.
  
  
• The Google Ads Policy Team.
  
  • Can disapprove ads / websites / keywords, but NOT a mature Google Ads account
  • 3 roles
    
    • Publishers: website owners can flags ads appearing on their website that they don’t like. This may trigger a manual review and can get the ad disabled
    • Third-party: receive complaints from BBB, FTC, users and competitors’ complaints
    • Advertisers: mostly automatic analysis of ads
    
    
  • Usually citing a precise policy, while The Advertising Team generally refers to Google Terms and Conditions
  
  
• How to reply: carefully examine the message to see which team you are facing and tailor your reply.

Chapter 6 – The “Core Four” to a Google-Compliant Website

• #1 Website Structure: design / links / domain / core site info
• #2 Compliant Copywriting: sales copy (headline / body copy / video)
• #3 Landing Pages / Funnel
• #4 Ads

Chapter 7 – Core #1: Website Structure

• Best solution: “Hub content” structure (a homepage + specific set of pages) designed to give Google researchers / policy reviewers the info they want
• Huge issue for internet marketers
  
  • they neglect the home page because they have no interest in sending traffic there and prefer to send to a landing
  • BUT Google focuses on this page for its compliance assessment, to make sure you are a real business
  
  
• Points to have in mind:
  
  • 5-second rule: within 5 seconds, visitors must understand (or find) what you do and how you help people / businesses
  • Page Load Time + Website standards. See PageSpeed Insights
  • Video Load Time: Not a problem if video hosted on Youtube/Vimeo. Pay attention when hosting on your own server
  • Ease of Navigation
  • Robots.txt: don’t block Google from indexing. This adds risk points to your profile and Google could slap you with a “Untrustworthy promotions” ban
  
  
• Home Page guidelines
  
  • Good looking home page
  • Nice logo
  • 5-second rule
  • Navigation Links at the top of the page: products/services / about us / contact
  • Footer
    
    • paragraph disclaimer if required in the industry (health / finance)
    • business name / address / phone number
    
    
  • Avoid excessive claims on this page, as it is the most scrutinized. Keep bold claims for specific landers
  
  
• Other required pages or sections in the home page
  
  • About us
  • Pricing
  • FAQ
  • Product / Service Page
  • How it works
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  
  

Chapter 8 – Core #2: Compliant Copywriting

• Claims must not be 1) misleading 2) inaccurate 3) unsubstantiated
• For any claim that is not widely accepted as truth, you must
  
  • Qualify: restrict the audience the claim apply to
  • Ex: “Attention Business Owners / Internet Entrepreneurs / Women over 40”
  
  

• Quantify: precise numbers.
  
  • instead of “unlimited” à “30 leads a day”
  • instead of “lose 30 pounds in 30 days”, use “up to 30 pounds”
  
  
• Substantiate: site must realistically convey products benefits / transparent about risk involved. Google requires substantial information about claims made. Reference a credible unbiased third-party source.
• Disclose: listing out the parameter of the claim + source.
  
  • Ex for weight loss: a paragraph that states the study’s group size, how long the study was, the participants’ average weight loss…
  • Don’t use sources related to medical diagnoses or diseases as not allowed to promote these.
  
  

• Urgency sales techniques
  
  • Avoid using timer with a discount for a limited time, if the timer restarts when one refresh the page. You can have one, but when the timer expires, the user must pay the undiscounted price
  
  
• Credibility icons
  
  • Avoid celebrity statements unless you have written permission
  • Avoid use of logo/trademark without authorization
  
  
• Disclaimers
  
  • if required in the industry (health / finance)
  
  
• Testimonials
  
  • Each testimonial may require a disclaimer if it makes a claim about results obtained with your product (not one disclaimer for all testimonials, but one for each testimonial)
  • Avoid outrageous claims in testimonials, even if real, as they will likely increase your risk score
  
  
• Diseases
  
  • Avoid diseases words that may qualify your site as a cure for this disease
  
  

Chapter 9 – Core #3: How To Create Compliant Landing Pages

• Attach your lander without it being accessible from the content hub, especially if bolder claims are made on the landers, not to increase the website risk score
• 5-second rule
• Navigation can be in the footer, not necessarily on the top as the main page

Chapter 10 – Upsells Funnels

• 5-second rule
• Testimonials are allowed but must follow the same rules as on the main page
• Price must match what’s on the lander
• Technical points
  
  • SSL required on the whole funnel or you could be disabled
  • Don’t pass personal information (Ex: email) in the navigation bar without encrypting it
  
  

Chapter 11 – Core #4: How To Write Compliant Ads

• Largest part of the risk score, as can be seen on Google Ads Platform by millions of people
• Google looks for 3 elements
  
  • Clear product or service
  • Logo or business name
  • Website/domain (not tracking link)
  
  
• Clickbait is no longer allowed on Google
• Landing page must match the ads without the user having to optin to see the offer (be aware when doing lead generation)
• Avoid misleading claims (same rules as on the lander)
• Point your ad to your final lander not to a tracking tool

Chapter 12 – Google Ads Traffic Secret

• The less risky you are, the biggest share of traffic volume you will be granted.
  
  • Even if Google don’t ban you, it may restrict the amount of traffic you are granted. By improving your compliance, you will access to a larger share
  
  
• Quality Score
  
  • 40-60% depends of the expected CTR of an ad
  • 20-35% depends of the ad relevance
  
  
• Possible punitive actions for non-compliant marketers
  
  • Lower quality score (less than 5/10)
  • Low impression share
  • Low ad rank
  • Impression caps (at account level)
  • Ad disapproval
  • Site suspension
  • Account suspension
  
  
• Ad rank calculation presentation (same as what’s presented on Google site, won’t detail)

Chapter 13 – The Underground Google Ads Traffic Source Reserved

• Presentation of Google programmatic buying platform (Google Display and Video 360 Ad Exchange)

That's it! Now, hit that reply button with great questions.

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Wow nice, you really took the time to write a comprehensive summary! Now let me re-read it again to see if I can come up with any questions

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@jeremie great stuff man! Heck of a review!

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Holy shit!! I've been expecting this, but I'm still pleasantly surprised (not to mention impressed) by the amount of information.

And the offer to pass our questions to the author is extremely generous! Let me see if I could come up with any myself over the next couple of days...


Amy


Sent from my iPhone using STM Forums

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Thanks for this awesome share.

But at the same time, it just reconfirms my belief that most of the time only genuine businesses can run ads for a longer time without bans. For affiliates it's mostly an uphill battle of prepping things up and even then the ban hammer can strike. Though I think Google has a more stable system of maintaining compliance than Facebook, where they ban for ridiculous and even more ambiguous reasons which leave us scratching our heads.

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Not Long Enough

And definitely Not Boring Enough!

Fucking great read, man. I wish I were running google so I could ask a bunch of questions. When reading it, I got the feeling this is more feared towards their PPC search ads? It doesn't mention a lot about images (outside of the landing pages), so I'm curious about compliance tips for GDN as well.

As for softening angles/offers I was recently reading about how Golden Hippo offers are compliant everywhere, not only because they own the offer, but also because they work around the banned products/offers by changing the angle. For example, they have weight loss but it's not weight loss: it's gut biome probiotic angle, so it's OK.

Is using this sort of workaround for certain questionable niches OK on Google too?

Thanks again!

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I hired the author a few years ago to help me with GDN compliance, and never had any problems

This guy knows his stuff. Would vouch for him 1000%

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Too good man now I know why those accounts get banned

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I had to pause the Q&A, as I had too much on my plate. Now I am restarting and finishing the list of questions this week, so if you had no time to send them in July, please send me a PM before the end of the week, and I will add your questions.

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