Google Ads creates a unified advertiser verification program

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According to an email sent today by Google Ads to some advertisers, Google Ads will combine its advertising identification and business operations verification programs into a unified advertising verification program.

The Google Ads Unified Advertising verification process is similar to the current identity verification process – you must submit your legal business or individual name, along with any other supporting documentation. This information will be displayed in an advertising notice.

The email (see full, below) shared details on what will change.

New section: Information about your business. Google said it will ask advertisers questions (for example, the advertiser’s industry and billing country) about their ads and Google accounts, which will be shown in a new section, About your business. How come? This way Google can understand if you are a direct or indirect supplier of the advertised products or services.

Change the audit timeline. Advertisers must submit their responses about your business within 30 days. Otherwise, your account will be suspended. Additionally, Google said there will be an additional 30 days to complete all required verifications, which could be identification, business operations, or both.

Previously, advertisers were given 30 days to initiate identity verification and an additional 30 days to complete it. Previously, advertisers were given 21 days to complete activity verification and a 7-day notice period prior to account suspension.

Six reasons why Google might be pausing your account. Self:

You don’t answer questions about your Google Ads account and business. You are unable to complete or meet the identity or business operations verification requirements. Google suspects that your ads violate Google Ads policies. Google suspects that your advertising may cause physical or monetary harm to users. Google suspects that you are trying to circumvent the verification process. If your identity or advertising behavior has been identified as “unclear”.

Why do we care. Google began its push for greater transparency in political advertising in 2018. All of these changes are intended to let users clearly know who is behind the ads they are seeing and potentially clicking on. Hopefully, this will make the user experience safer (e.g. less fraudulent and fraudulent ads) and improve the Google Ads ecosystem.

Here is the full text of the email sent by Google Ads:

In March 2022, Google will consolidate existing advertiser identity verification programs and business operations into a unified advertiser verification program to provide a simplified and improved advertiser experience. Similar to the current approach, advertisers will be notified via email and a notification in their account when they have been selected for the advertiser verification program.

Under this program, advertisers will be asked to initiate the verification process within 30 days and will have an additional 30 days to complete all required verification requirements, which may include multiple steps, including verifying their identity, their own commercial operations or both.

As part of the unified advertiser verification program, the timing and enforcement actions will be reviewed, details of which are set out below.

What’s changing:

About your business: In the first step of the unified advertiser verification program, Google will ask advertisers some basic questions related to their Google Ads account and their business in a new “About your business” section. The questions will ask, for example, the advertiser’s industry and billing country and information to help Google understand whether it is a direct or indirect (third party) provider of the products or services advertised on the Google Ads platform. Advertisers will have 30 days to submit their responses. If advertisers have not submitted their responses by the end of day 30, their account will be suspended. Verification Timeline Updates: Answers upon completing questions about your business will determine verification requirements and direct advertisers to the next steps of additional verification, which may include verifying your identity, business operations, or both (see “Updates to Advertiser Selection Criteria” section below). Advertisers will be given 30 days to successfully complete these additional verifications. Failure to complete or fail to meet verification requirements within the specified time frame will result in account suspension. Please note that the break will only apply by the end of day 30 if advertisers have not completed or met the requirements. For identity verification: Previously, advertisers were given 30 days to initiate verification and an additional 30 days to successfully complete identity verification. For Business Operations Verification: Previously, advertisers were given 21 days to successfully complete Business Operations Verification and a 7-day notice period prior to account suspension. ‘questions and an additional 30 days to successfully complete all required verifications, which may include verifying their identity, their business operations, or both. Business Operations Verification Updates: To reduce administrative burden and provide a consistent and synchronized experience for our advertisers, we are aligning enforcement actions for all required verifications under the Advertiser Verification Program. As a result of this alignment, failure to complete or fail to meet business operations verification requirements (if required) will now result in an account suspension rather than an account suspension. This means that advertisers’ accounts will remain open, but their ads will not be able to run until they are able to successfully complete the program. Please note that the break will only apply by the end of day 30 if advertisers have not completed or met the requirements.

To re-serve ads, advertisers must successfully complete verification by submitting the required survey responses along with relevant documentation (if applicable).

Updates to Advertiser Selection Criteria: As part of the Unified Advertiser Verification Program, we are combining advertiser selection criteria for the current advertiser Identity Verification and Business Operations Verification Programs for a more harmonized experience, introducing additional criteria to provide a higher level of protection for our users and clarify when advertiser’s accounts can be suspended immediately. Details below. Additional Criteria: Google may require advertisers to complete the Advertiser Verification Program if, for example, they advertise brand-related queries or user queries in verticals of business or industries prone to abuse, fraud and scams (such as travel , customers or technical support services and financial services). Where an advertiser is asked to complete further verification, advertisers’ campaign performance may be impacted by advertising on certain limited Google queries. Successfully completing the required verifications will help improve campaign performance (as appropriate). Policy for immediate account suspension: In certain circumstances, we may immediately suspend advertisers’ accounts when the advertiser verification program is launched. Your account may be suspended immediately for the following reasons: If we suspect that your ads violate our Google Ads policies, including, for example, misleading representation, unreliable claims, unidentified activity, company name requirements, request for funds coordinated, sensitive and misleading events Practices. If we suspect that your advertising or business practices may cause physical or monetary harm to users. Non-exhaustive examples include: misrepresenting yourself in the ad content; offer financial products or services with false pretenses; or offering unauthorized customer support services on behalf of a third party.If we suspect that you are trying to circumvent our verification process.If your identity or advertising behavior has been identified as unclear.Transparency and disclosure: similar to current process followed in identity verification, as part of the identity verification process and / or business operations, advertisers will be required to submit their legal business or individual name along with supporting documentation for the unified verification program of the advertiser. With the information provided by advertisers, Google will display the advertiser’s name and position via an advertisement. Learn more about ad policies.

As part of Google’s ongoing transparency efforts, we will also make public information about your Google Ads accounts and advertising campaigns.

User Experience Enhancements: Advertisers will be able to initiate, track the status and progress of their verifications, and view reasons for failure (if applicable) in a new user interface on the Billing and Payment Settings tab in their Google Ads account. Advertisers can access this interface via prompts and notifications within the product.

These changes will not affect the scope or requirements of Google’s other verification programs. We will begin rolling out these updates to streamline the experience on March 31, 2022 with a gradual increase over two months.

Thanks for collaboration.

Search Engine Land News About the author

Danny Goodwin is Senior Editor of Search Engine Land. In addition to writing daily about SEO, PPC and more for Search Engine Land, Goodwin also manages the list of experts in Search Engine Land. He also helps plan our conference series, SMX – Search Marketing Expo. Prior to joining Search Engine Land, Goodwin was Executive Editor at Search Engine Journal, where he led editorial initiatives for the brand. He was also the editor of Search Engine Watch. He has spoken at many major research conferences and virtual events and has been sourced for his experience from a wide range of publications and podcasts.

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