How To Avoid Adwords Account Suspension

Common Reasons For Account Suspension On Google Adwords

Few people plan or expect to experience an AdWords suspension; however, these suspensions can happen at any time. There are a number of common website-related suspensions that we see our clients experience, and below we’ll breakdown a few of these most common suspensions, and how to avoid them.

Shipping

Warning states:
“Account warned for violation of feed specification: inaccurate shipping costs (due to inconsistent shipping costs between the feed and the landing page”)

Here’s what’s going on:
Your landing page likely offers a number of shipping options, but the lowest charge is not allowed to exceed the data feed value supplied. If you’re not able to have identical values, then an over-estimation should be placed in your data feed.

Availability

Have you seen this:
“Your product listings are currently at risk of suspension because Google Shopping doesn’t allow product listings with inaccurate availability status”?

Here’s what’s going on:
If you provide regular updates to your data feed, then, this likely will eliminate the occurrence of incorrect status.

Images

What about this warning:
“Account warned for violation of feed specification: inappropriate images”?

Have you ever experienced that warning?
By “inappropriate images” what Google is referring to is any image being used that doesn’t depict the product advertised. Your images might also be inappropriate if they’re compromised by logos, borders, watermarks or promotional text.

Note: Adult images should be supplied along with the adult site selection.

Purchasing

Here’s the warning: 
“Your product listings are currently at risk of suspension because Google Shopping doesn’t allow product listings with generic or dysfunctional landing pages.”

Here’s the background:
You can’t restrict access to your website, regardless of user location, device, language or any other circumstance. Every visitor must be able to view and interact with your site. Keep in mind, this doesn’t mean that you have to ship or accept sales from outside your chosen target country.

Also, an add to basket button is required and has to be visible and actionable.

Currency

Seen this warning:
“Your product listings are currently at risk of suspension because Google Shopping doesn’t allow product listings with inappropriate currency”?

Here’s a question for you:
Does your site use geolocation to alter the price and currency according to your visitors’ IP? If you have to do this, and your site supports this, the preferred strategy Is to pass in a parameter to specify the currency. This URL can then be supplied directly to the appropriate target country.

Returns and Refunds

How about this one:
“Your Merchant Center account is in violation of the following polices: Return and Refund Policy.”

Uh-oh, what do you do: 
Well, you need to make sure you offer up a complete and easy-to-understand refund policy that helps customers know how to handle their refunds. We believe that it’s best if you make this page globally visible (it goes will in your footer, alongside your privacy policy).

Fraudulent Items

Be prepared for this:
Google’s pretty wary of counterfeit products, so if you submit designer items at a lower price, you might start raising eyebrows. If Google’s wrong to think you’re selling fraudulent items, you’ll need to contact Google to prove that the products are authentic.

Giving Some Love To Your Landing Page

Here’s a rundown of things to look out for when it comes to your landing pages and possible AdWords violations:

• Redirects – When someone clicks on your product with a search result, it has to show up with the item’s landing page. You can’t set up a redirect to an alternative URL.
• Back button ¬ You can’t deactivate a browser’s back button. If you do, you risk suspension.
• Pop-ups – Pop-ups in general are OK, so long as they don’t interfere with the buying process. These pop-ups should be in the upper right corner (think live chat).

The List Can Go On And On

The potential violations we’ve listed above are by no means the only potential violations you might face. These are just among the most common violations we come across on a regular basis. Want to learn how you can protect your AdWords account from suspension?

OperationROI can help. Allow our team to conduct a thorough AdWords audit on your account so we can help you avoid and prevent any types of obstructions to your advertising efforts. Contact us today at 1-888-277-5429 – or by filling out our contact form – to learn more about how we can help you and your AdWords account flourish with confidence.

Adwords Account Suspended? Contact Us Today!