We wanted to let you know about some changes to Google’s advertising policy in relation to financial services.
In August this year, the Google Ads financial products and services policy was updated to introduce a new verification requirement for advertisers in the UK. Advertisers that have not completed the updated verification process will no longer be allowed to show financial services ads in the UK, including showing ads to UK users who appear to be seeking financial services.
If you are a financial services provider, and still want your ads to show you will need to be verified by Google. The verification process includes having to demonstrate that you are authorised by the UK Financial Conduct Authority, or quality for one of the exemptions found here.
Google have also stated:
- Ads related to the following categories will not be considered financial services for the purposes of this policy, but are still required to comply with all other Google Ads policies:
- Products in scope of our Debt services policy
- Products in scope of our Complex speculative financial products policy: contracts for difference, rolling spot forex, financial spread betting. Ads for this category will be able to target UK users seeking financial services as long as they meet the requirements of our Complex speculative financial products policy and complete verification, if requested by Google.
- Gambling
- Products in scope of our Cryptocurrencies, Credit repair, and Binary options policies
Next steps:
If you have a Google Ads account and are running financial services related averts you will receive an email from Google asking you to complete the verification process. From the date of this email, you will have 30 days to complete the verification. You may also see a notification at the top of your Google Ads account to start the verification process.
Follow the steps, which include uploading photo ID and certificate of incorporation of the business and Google will let you know if your verification has been successful a few days later.
Please also note that the authorised representative for the business must be the same name as the authorised bill payer in the billing settings in Google Ads.
You can find out more about the verification process here.