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Google’s John Canfield announced that Google would begin requiring verification to be submitted by all advertisers utilizing the Google Ads platform. Canfield is a part of Google’s Product Management team and he is responsible for ads integrity on Google Ads.
This announcement marks a monumental change that will not only impact the PPC world, but also the entire Internet.
This discussion will delve into the details of Google’s new identification requirements for advertisers, including who is affected, when this change will take place and why Google is adding this additional step for Google Ads accounts.
Sometime in the near future, advertisers will begin receiving notification letters regarding the changes in advertising requirements. These notices will appear in the account owner’s email, as well as an alert within the Google Ads dashboard. The letters will ask that each Google Ads account owner provides details that verify their identity or the identity of their company.
The required verification documents will depend on the type and scope of the business. If you are a one-person business advertising your personal services, you may only be required to submit details of a government-issued ID or passport.
Traditional businesses and brands will need to submit details that verify the legitimacy of their company. W9 tax forms, IRS verification letters, and other business incorporation documents will be required.
Google will use these documents to verify the identity of the advertisers, as well as their location.
Once Google receives the required documents, it will reportedly take between 3-5 days to receive a response. If the right documents have been submitted, this response will likely be an approval letter. At which point, the advertiser can continue their normal PPC marketing activities unfettered.
If there was a problem or the incorrect documents are sent, Google will send a feedback request that may ask for additional information to be submitted.
It’s worth mentioning that each document will be reviewed by humans. This adds another layer of assurance that Google is properly vetting each advertiser using their service.
Yes. The verification process will have a 30-day grace period for existing advertisers. This means that you have a month to submit your documents and receive your positive approval from Google.
It is critical that you supply these documents as soon as you receive the letter. You may even want to start getting the necessary paperwork ready now. If you miss your 30-day window, Google will suspend your Google Ads account until your identity and location have been verified.
The last thing you want is for your PPC campaigns to be interrupted! Worse yet, if you fail to complete the verification process multiple times, Google may suspend your account entirely…
Ad agencies are about to have a good deal of homework. If you are managing the Google Ads accounts for several different clients, you’ll be tasked with handling this verification process for each client.
Google is concerned with the identity of the company behind the ad messages, not the agency managing those efforts. Verifying your ad agency with Google will not carry over to your clients.
Again, timing is going to be critical. You should begin immediately sending your clients’ resources like this one so that they understand the change and how it affects them. Then, you can request the necessary documents to ensure a smooth transition and uninterrupted advertising.
If you are using Google Ads, you will need to submit the necessary verification documents. This change is being issued across all of the Google Ad Networks. So, it doesn’t matter if you’re only using the Google Display Network, or only publishing ads on YouTube. Every Google Ads user is impacted.
The verification process is planned for 30 countries across the globe. However, Google is focusing on the United States first. Then, over the course of the next three years, it will spread the verification process globally.
Google Ads users in the US can expect to start seeing verification letters soon. That said, the roll out won’t happen all at once. It is planned in stages, which is designed to help the Google team manage and control the influx of verification documents. Google will prioritize some industries first based on the businesses that they feel need to be verified more urgently than others.
Some examples include:
Google plans to have the process completed by the summer of this year. Thus, some advertisers may not see verification letters for several weeks.
The reason that Google is pushing to have this verification process completed by the summer is because of a new feature planned to provide Google users with more control over the ad content they see on search pages, YouTube, Gmail and other Google-partnered sites.
Google provided the above clip to showcase how this feature will work. Google users can click the display URL to interact with a drop-down menu consisting of two options: ‘Why this ad?’ and ‘About the advertiser.’
The ‘Why this ad?’ option already exists. It allows users to see why a certain ad message has appeared. It also provides the option to turn off ads from that advertiser. This feature came around in 2018.
The ‘About the Advertiser’ is the new feature that Google is adding to this drop-down menu to provide further transparency into ad messages and the advertisers that create and publish these messages. As the clip shows, it will allow users to see who owns the ad and where they are located.
The goal is to give consumers more understanding over the ad messages they see and better control regarding the companies that can target them with ad messages.
The announcement didn’t come as much of a surprise to the majority of the PPC marketing community. Arguably, this verification process has been in the works since the 2016 presidential election. Since then, there have been several issues and factors influencing Google to evolve into a stricter PPC ad platform.
2018 Political Ads
Before 2018 presidential elections, Google Ads was also used as a platform by many advertisers for external parties to spread misinformation. By 2018, Google implemented a new verification process for political ads that would require election registration numbers and other candidate-specific info. This was designed to bar external forces from meddling in future elections.
With another presidential election looming in the United States, it’s the perfect timing for Google to ramp up its verification process and roll it out to all types of advertisers. Users will be able to see where any ad message is coming from and make informed decisions about the sources to trust.
The COVID-19 crisis created a worldwide panic. Many people flocked to Google to find information regarding the virus and what they could do to prevent it.
Unfortunately, this provided an opportunity for fraudulent advertisers to capitalize, which led to scams, fake treatments, misinformation and other schemes to profit on the shortage of vital medical supplies.
Google had already required certification from online pharmacies looking to use Google Ads to promote products and treatments. The new verification process will cast a wider net and ensure that anyone promoting treatments or important resources is properly vetted first.
Perhaps the most powerful force swaying Google towards a more trustworthy Internet is simple consumer sentiments. With the increasing number of headlines regarding data breaches, fake news, phishing scams and all other types of unscrupulous Internet misdeeds, consumers are more concerned and vigilant than ever about search results and data collection.
In short, Google is making this change because the Internet needs and wants it. People want to know why they are seeing certain results and who is responsible for those messages.
Google’s announcement shouldn’t be troublesome to any legitimate advertiser. It’s a smart decision that will benefit the entire Internet community by removing advertisers that misrepresent themselves or their products.
For 99.9% of Google Ads users, the verification process will cause no issues. It may be a minor inconvenience, but once you are verified, you won’t have to worry. It may even remove some of your ad competition!
Only the slightest minority will run into problems. These are the advertisers planning to conduct themselves fraudulently. Good riddance!
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