Google came out with a new 3 strike ad policy on July 20th last month. This isn’t a surprise that Google added a new policy, but depending on your account it can be a pretty big hindrance. Today we will be going over this new strike policy, how to prepare for this policy and what type of accounts it will affect. Keep in mind this new policy will start taking action in September.
What’s The New Three Strike Policy
This is a new policy that is being set up for repeat offenders. Each strike that you receive will result in a different penalty. There are three specific areas that Google is choosing to place this system into.
These three areas are pretty obvious places to start this new policy to be applied to.
Explaining the Three Strike System
As stated before there are penalties you will receive for breaching these policies. The first time your ad is disapproved of for one of these policy violations. You will get a warning, this will only take down your ads until they are changed. If you continue to make the same violation, then you will start going down the three-strike system.
First Strike
After you receive a second violation of the same policy, and were warned within the last 90 days. You will gain your first strike. This strike results in a temporary hold on your account for 3 days. So you will not be able to run any ads in your account for that time. Once your hold is finished you will be able to run normal ads, but the ads that violated the policy will still remain paused.
Second Strike
If the same policy is broken within 90 days for the third time you will get your second strike. Once a second strike is given your account will be suspended again. This suspension period is now increased to seven days. One other thing to mention is you will need to submit a form that acknowledges the correction of the ad that was at fault.
Third & Final Strike
At this point in time, you really shouldn’t be hitting your fourth ad policy violation. However, if your account is flagged again within the last 90 days of the last violation of your second strike, then it will result in your third and final strike. This last strike will make your account suspension indefinite. We don’t currently have an idea of how long the indefinite suspension will be and won’t have a clue until this policy has actually started.
Ways to Prep For Google’s New Three Strike Ad Policy
You won’t need to start worrying about these ad policy changes until September. So let’s go over some ways to help you prepare yourself for these changes.
Review Outstanding Disapprovals
You can get in front of this by reviewing your account for outstanding disapproval ads. To double-check everything you should also clear any disapproved content that you have rather than worrying about it later on. The reason being is that Google plans to roll out this program to other policies in the future.
Activate New Test ASAP
Another proactive approach you can take is to test out new campaigns and ad copy before September rolls around. By testing out the new ad copy beforehand you will get feedback about your ad copy before getting strikes. Before publishing Google has a review process and confirms approval or disapproval. After getting the campaign approved you can keep it on pause until the launch date.
Never Create a Backup Account Now or After a Suspension
This isn’t a workaround, but more of a recommendation. If your account gets suspended for any disapprovals of these policies. Some people have the logic that if your account is suspended then why not create a new one right? Wrong, Google has thought about this a long time ago. Google already administers account suspensions when it notices a new account is made to try and bypass strikes or suspensions.