Upcoming AdWords policy changes to better protect people�s personal and financial information

AdWords should be a safe, fair, and trusted marketplace for both you and the users who click on your ads. That�s why many AdWords policies focus on transparency, user safety, and security.

On May 17th, we�ll be adding three requirements to our existing AdWords policies that cover disclosure and usage of personal information. These requirements will apply everywhere AdWords is available.

If your site requests payment, financial, or personal information from visitors, please review the new requirements and make any needed changes to avoid having your ads suspended.

1. Clear, accessible disclosure before visitors submit personal information
   Our existing policy requires you to clearly describe how any personal information you solicit will be used. Soon, we�ll require that your description must also be easily accessible before site visitors submit their details.
2. Option to discontinue direct communications
   In the same description of how personal information will be used, you�ll also be required to describe how people can opt out of future emails, phone calls, or other direct communications.
3. SSL when collecting payment and certain financial and personal information
   Many websites use what are known as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connections to encrypt sensitive information that travels between the user's browser and the website's servers. To help ensure user safety, AdWords policy will require all advertisers to use SSL when collecting payments and certain financial and personal information (like bank account and social security numbers).

For more details, check out the following resources:

• Specific personal and financial information governed by these policies
• Getting started with SSL

To stay current on all AdWords policy changes, please visit the AdWords Policy Change Log.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

More clarity in AdWords for advertisers affected by landing page policy

It�s easier to fix a problem when you know what it is. Today, we�re making it easier to know when you�re affected by a landing page or site policy problem, rather than a landing page quality problem. Before we look at the changes we�ve made in AdWords to make this more clear, let�s review the differences between policy and quality for landing pages.

What�s the difference between policy and quality for landing pages? The primary purpose of landing page policy is to make sure that the sites to which users are taken after clicking on ads are safe, trustworthy, and legal. Automated systems and trained specialists make policy enforcement decisions. When landing pages are suspected of violating AdWords policies, ads and keywords linked to them are disabled and not allowed to enter the AdWords auction.

Landing page quality, on the other hand, is important for ensuring that users have a positive experience on your site. It can affect your ad position and performance in the AdWords auction. And as with all factors in Quality Score, landing page quality is determined by automated systems.

What�s changing in the AdWords interface? Previously, if a destination URL wasn�t compliant with our landing page and site policy guidelines, the associated keywords would show a Quality Score of 1/10, a notice that ads were rarely showing, and an indication of poor landing page quality.

However, you wouldn't see anything explicitly mentioning a landing page policy violation. Now, if your keywords are affected by a landing page policy issue, here�s what you�ll see on the Keywords tab in the AdWords interface.

(click for full-size image)

Affected keywords will show "Site suspended" in the status column. And since affected keywords aren�t able to trigger ads, a Quality Score is no longer calculated or shown. If you switch to the Ads tab, any ads that aren�t serving as a result of the policy violation will show a status of �Suspended.�

These changes are visible for most landing page policy violations. For serious offenses, however, remember that we may immediately suspend an account.

We hope this makes it easier to see when you're affected by landing page policy issues and take corrective action.

Please visit the Help Center for more information about AdWords policies or landing page quality. You can also contact us about a specific AdWords policy issue affecting your account.

Posted by Lisa Shieh, Inside AdWords crew

Change to the AdWords advertising policy on alcohol

We�ve changed our AdWords advertising policy on alcohol to allow ads that promote the sale of hard alcohol and liquor. This is an extension of a policy change that we made in December 2008, which permitted ads that promote the branding of hard alcohol and liquor.

Since then, hard alcohol advertisers have been able to promote websites that offer information about their brand, their products, or drinks that can be made with their products. Now, they can also promote websites that sell hard alcohol online, direct users to retailers where their products are sold, or feature sales promotions.

To comply with the policy, the ad and website must abide by certain advertising restrictions, including (but not limited to) not targeting minors, not implying that drinking alcohol provides certain advantages, and not showing inappropriate content. They are also subject to any further restrictions in the countries that they target. For full details on the policy, please see the alcohol content guidelines.

We�re constantly evaluating our advertising policies to ensure that they continue to be effective, and we made the decision to change our policy on alcohol to help more advertisers use AdWords for the promotion of their products.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

Update to Canadian, UK and Ireland ad text trademark policy

Last year, in an effort to provide better ads and a higher quality experience for our users, we adjusted our trademark policy in the U.S. to allow some advertisers to use third party trademarks in their ad text even if they don�t own that trademark or have explicit approval from the trademark owner to use it.

These advertisers include resellers, sellers of component, replacement or compatible parts corresponding to the trademark and informational sites.

We believe that this change has helped both our users and advertisers by improving the usefulness of text ads on Google.com and across partner sites in the U.S. For example, resellers of jeans have been able to highlight the actual brands they sell in their ad text making their ads even more specific and relevant for users.

Today, we're announcing that starting September 14 we'll be extending this policy to Canada, the UK and Ireland.

Separately, today we've also announced an update to our policy to enable advertisers across Europe to select trademarks as keywords. This update will also occur on September 14 and brings Europe in line with the trademark policy that already exists in the U.S. and most of the world today.

Our aim is to provide as much useful information to users as possible so that they can make better informed decisions. We believe that these changes to the ad text policy in Canada, UK and Ireland and our keyword policy change across Europe fits perfectly with this aim.

For more detail on our updated trademark policy in Canada, the UK and Ireland, please visit the FAQ in our Help Center.

Posted by Dan Stokeley, Product Manager