3 Common AdWords Ad Disapprovals That Have Nothing To Do With The Advertiser

By: Navah Hopkins

The AdWords team provides plenty of information on their rules, policies, and guidelines for advertisers to follow, but sometimes an ad is disapproved for reasons unknown to the people running the ads. You can have your URLs, ad copy, and extensions setup well within the rules and still have the ad rejected. So what’s up with this? Well, it is actually becoming more common than you would think. This Business 2 Community article covers three common examples of disapprovals that are not the advertiser fault, but rather issues on Google’s end. Here are the examples:

1. Medical industry disapprovals – One of the most restrictive niches in terms of Google’s policies for AdWords is the medical/pharmaceutical field. Many times the crawlers will flag an ad because they incorrectly when in reality the ad does not violate any policies.
2. Bad URLs – Again, sometimes the crawlers make mistakes in parsing data from web pages. They are not 100% accurate in determining whether or not your landing page passes all guidelines. Every once in a while they will misinterpret your URL/landing page, and contact with the AdWords support team is needed to lift the disapproval.
3. Misleading behavior – While rare, sometimes a site can be hacked thus ruining your landing page. This will certainly cause Google to disapprove your ads and even suspend your account. Make sure to follow all best practices to ensure the security fo your site.

Those are just three examples of ways an ad can be shut down due to google’s error or other circumstances outside of the advertiser’s control. Make sure to check out the full post for specific examples and what was done to rectify the situation.

3 Simple Techniques to Insulate Your AdWords Scripts and Keep Them Running Smoothly

By: Russell Savage

Writing custom scripts for AdWords can be a lot of fun for the more technical folks, but things can often go wrong in the process. Issues that are out of your control. That’s why Russell has given us three techniques for safeguarding and enhancing our work with AdWords scripts. Here is an overview of his advice:

1. Finding slow code – The longer it takes a script to execute, the more time for error. Use the testing script provided to time your own scripts and find slow executing code.
2. API Retries – Sometimes calling an external API will fail, and it will need to be called again. Russell has provided a generic recall function to allow you to retry the call without messing up or adding more code.
3. Notify yourself when things go wrong – Use a small snippet of code to send yourself automatic email alerts when your code starts to fail!

I highly recommend checking out this article as Russell has done all the heavy lifting and provided three separate testing scripts for you to utilize to test and improve your own code.

6 Shocking Things Google Revealed About the Future of AdWords at SMX

By: Margot de Cunha

One of the highlights coming out of SMX Advanced in Seattle last week was the interview with Google’s VP of Product Management Jerry Dischler concerning the future of AdWords. Here are six key takeaways from his interview with Danny Sullivan and Ginny Marvin:

1. Tablet Conversions Have Surpassed Desktop – Interesting claim, but is it accurate?
2. Google Plans to Scale New Mobile Ad Formats for Multiple Industries – Enhanced text ads on mobile?
3. Google Will Re-Build and Modernize the AdWords Interface – No details but could be pretty cool
4.  Coming Death of the Keyword? – Alternative ways to target users without using keywords?
5. Remarketing Functionality Will Grow – New features for RLSA’s?
6. It Will Be Easier for Users to Buy Through the SERPs – More to be expected from the buy buttons?

There are some really cool things in the works for AdWords users, so make sure to get all the details regarding what’s is coming.

Google AdWords Cross-Account Campaign Management & More

By: Barry Schwartz

Next we have two quick announcements from Search Engine Roundtable – both of which I am very excited to see myself. the first announcement concerns one of my favorite Google products – the My Client Center (MCC) for managing all levels of all client accounts. The three updates per Google are as fgollows:

1. Cross Account Campaign Management – New campaigns view that allows you to make changes, apply filters, etc. to up to 20 accounts
2. Better reporting for MCC – Data updates more quickly and allows you to go back past 90 days!
3. Quick Account Jumper Tool – More detailed account drop down to navigate between client accounts

Definitely cool additions to MCC announced, check out the screenshots and additional information in the article.

Google Shopping Feed Specification & Product Taxonomy Updated

By: Barry Schwartz

The second announcement revolves around Google’s shopping experience via PPC. In the announcement, Google states that they have updated the Shopping feed specifications and the product taxonomy to better serve customers shopping through Google. Here are the updates:

• Google shopping feed specifications – expanded shipping requirements for several European countries, releasing stable numeric Google product category IDs
• Google shopping product taxonomy – more categories added to several verticals, reworked categories in some other verticals

Read the full post for all the details on the updates.