Google has recently announced in emails to advertisers, that they will be submitting paused adverts to editorial review as well as active adverts, from September 6th:
This is a change in the policy that they’ve been pursuing for the last few years. Back in 2004 you could put together a campaign for a future date, have it reviewed ahead of the date, and it’d launch with everything reviewed – perfect for Valentine’s day or preparing for online promotions. Then the policy evolved to only allowing active adverts in active campaigns to be checked – which was sometimes painful, especially when trademarks were involved in advert copy, as you sometimes discovered well after the event that you had a trademark issue.
This policy change should be beneficial for both Google and advertisers. Right now, many retailers will be putting together Christmas advertising, and smoking cessation and slimming organisations will be looking to New Year advertising. They can now create their campaigns and have the AdWords advert review completed during what is Google’s busiest time of year for editorial reviews, during lulls in normal immediate advertising changes.
I can’t see any real downside to this announcement from Google, and welcome the opportunity for advertisers and their agencies to be able to prepare for events, and clear possible problems in their accounts, ahead of time. However, if you have paused adverts, now would be a good moment to check that they conform to all existing Google advertising policies. Get those accounts tidied up before these reviews start!
