What is Google’s Double Serving Ad Policy?
Google’s Double Serving Ad Policy was designed to monitor the landing pages of affiliates, partners and dealers to ensure that there is a good customer experience and added value from landing page to landing page – even when everyone involved is selling the same basic thing. Google has always been concerned with the best possible user experience, so this policy comes as no surprise. Everything is viewed from the eyes of a searcher that does not understand the relationships between Company A and their partners. If from the searcher’s view there are 5 ads on a page that all appear to be Company A and offer the same basic thing, it does not create the best user experience. In fact, it will likely create confusion.
Google’s solution is to link all of the impacted parties into one account behind the scenes. This means that only one ad from the group can serve at any one time. The winner will be based on Quality Score, bid and all of the other items in Google’s arsenal. If you are not enforcing an affiliate bidding policy, especially on brand, you could run into issues where your ad does not appear for critical search terms like your brand name.
There have also been instances where one company will register multiple domain names and just slightly tweak the look and feel of their landing pages and offers in an effort to capture the paid search results from competitors. This will also fall under the Double Serving Ad Policy’s domain.
Keep in mind that this is not a new policy. It is, however, being actively enforced. Typically, a complaint would need to come in to have Google’s Policy team review the experience and make a verdict on who is impacted. This complaint could come from a competitor or an actual searcher.
Who is affected?
The decision-making process lives solely with Google’s Policy team, and you cannot talk with them directly about the decision. More than likely, you would receive a call from your Google representative with the date you will be impacted, the affiliates or partners involved and a request to redesign the customer experience on all of your landing pages for a new review. No real specifics will be shared on what needs to be changed.
What can I do to make sure that this does not happen to me and/or my affiliate partners?
- Make sure that customer experiences are unique between all landing pages. Pay special attention to your corporate pages, and ensure there are differences in product or customer experience that are not copied on affiliate sites.
- Develop an affiliate policy and enforce it – If you do not have one in place currently, reach out to your AA|RF account team for direction. If you do have one in place and you need help enforcing the current policy, reach out to your AA|RF team for help with strategy.
My competitors are offenders. What can be done?
They can be reported to Google, and Google’s Policy Team will perform an official review. This could improve your search results if a decision is made in your favor, as the competitor would be less likely to appear in a variety of searches.
I have been contacted by Google and my account is scheduled to be linked. What can be done?
Remain calm. Google’s Policy team can be swayed by evidence if you have a strong case. Their decision can be overturned or an extension may be granted. Exceptions, although rare, are possible.
When reviewing requests for exemption, Google focuses on the preservation of a unique user experience for each site, and also take into account the following:
- Destination site for each ad offers different products or services AND each destination site has a different layout and design.
- Destination site for each ad features unique site content, features, and/or services that are highly significant to users and create a distinct user experience.
- Product overlaps for each ad's destination site are minor and don't affect user experience.
The following criteria are generally not considered for exceptions:
- Different target audience such as B2B, B2C, and gender.
- Different pricing for similar products. Exact same products cannot be advertised simultaneously on two sites based solely on price difference.
- Different branding of websites. Websites advertising similar products with different branding will be reviewed against user experience criteria.
- Accounts handled by various third parties such as agencies and SEO companies.
- Business structure - i.e. different divisions within same company or group.
Article by Michelle Kelly