No one likes logging in to their SEM account to discover that there are editorial issues in need of attention. In order to help you avoid stumbling onto this common situation in adCenter, today we’re going to take a look at some of the most common reasons for keywords and ads to be disapproved and how you can fix them.
THE PROBLEM: Ad Title/Description exceeds maximum character length
For ad titles, the maximum character limit is 25 characters, for ad text it’s 70 – both of those limits include spaces and punctuation. This rejection is fairly common when transferring ads from PPC campaigns being run on other search engines because ad descriptions are typically separated into two lines in other engines’ formats, resulting in an extra character from the space between the lines when the file is converted into the adCenter format.
THE SOLUTION: Check character lengths using an Excel formula
The phrase “Excel formula” has been known to strike fear into the hearts of novice Excel users everywhere, but fear not, dear advertiser! The length formula is one of the most simple and easy to implement.
Step 1: Open your ads file and click on the column to the right of whichever column you want to check the character length of. In the screen shot below, I’m going to check the length of the ad title in column E, so I’ve clicked on the column header for F:
Step 2: Right click on F and select “Insert”… a new column will appear, which now becomes F:
Step 3: In the 2nd row down, right next to the ad title, type in “=LEN(E2)”… without the quotation marks:
Step 4: Now tab out of that cell and you’ll see that Excel has calculated the length of your ad title, which is housed in cell E2:
Step 5: Our ad title character length is 29, which means we need to revise it down to 25 in order to meet the editorial guidelines. Revise your ad title, tab out of the cell and the formula will refresh to show your new character length.
If you have more than one ad running (and you should), you don’t need to manually enter the formula for each cell adjacent to your ad title. Simply click on the cell with the formula applied to it to highlight it, in this example, it’s cell F2. You’ll notice there’s a small black box in the lower right hand corner of the bold black outline of the cell. Hover your mouse over that box and it will become a plus sign. Once it does, click and hold the mouse and drag that black box down the column until you reach the last ad title you want to apply the formula to. Release the click and you’ll find the formula has populated all the way down for all of your ad titles.
These same steps apply for checking any character lengths… all you need to change is the value for the length formula. In the above example, we were checking the length in cell E2. If you were checking ad description (70 characters max), you would insert your new column by clicking on column H, right clicking and selecting “Insert” and then using the length formula “=LEN(G2)” so that the formula would reference the text in cell G2.
NOTE: Be sure to remove these length columns once you’ve made your changes and are ready to re-upload these ads or else the system won’t recognize the format of the upload sheet.
THE PROBLEM: Landing page not relevant
This rejection is applied following the review of the relevancy between the ad, keyword and landing page. Take a close look at your ads and keywords and consider where they're leading the searcher. Often, a specific keyword placed with a generic ad and landing page could be deemed irrelevant because the searched term isn't prominent.
THE SOLUTION: Adjust destination URLs to ensure ads and keywords point to the most appropriate page
In most cases you can improve your landing page relevancy by simply adjusting the destination URL to point to a more specific landing page.
Let’s say I’m looking for a realtor who specializes in corporate relocations. If I search for “realtor corporate relocations”, I expect that clicking on any ad that appears as a result of this search will bring me to a page about that particular realtor’s experience with corporate relocations. If I’m brought to her page of listings, that’s not a very good experience for me as a searcher. To avoid situations like this, or editorial policy ensures that every keyword and ad combination is matched up with a landing page that’s specifically relevant to what’s being searched on. If that realtor tried to match up her corporate relocation keywords with her listings page, she would find those keywords rejected for relevancy… and if she were reading this blog, she’d know that her corporate relocation page would be the better choice for those keywords and ads.
If you feel that your ads, keywords, and landing pages are cohesive and will lead the searcher to their most probable intent, then these rejections should be appealed. Simply contact our Support Team, available seven days each week from 6 A.M. to 6 P.M. Pacific Time.
THE PROBLEM: Destination URL errors
Have you recently ended a special offer or promotion, discontinued a product, or changed its location on your web site? Don't forget to adjust the destination URLs in your online advertising campaigns! Nothing will bring an editorial disapproval quicker than broken or non-functioning links… ads that lead to “File Not Found” pages are not only a poor experience for searchers, but also a waste of money for you.
THE SOLUTION: Make sure all the destination URLs in your search campaigns point to live pages
This one is pretty self-explanatory. If you have dead links, you’re going to find dead ads and keywords if they’re associated with those dead links.
In closing, our editorial policies are available for your review online. AdCenter rejection reasons and steps to resolution are explained in further detail by clicking Help at the bottom of any page in adCenter.
Keep in mind that although rejections can be frustrating, the goal of our editorial policies is two-fold: to ensure that searchers have the best experience possible and to alert our advertisers of pitfalls that can derail their search marketing efforts. If not for the editorial review process, spelling errors, broken links and irrelevant landing pages could cost you hundreds or even thousands of dollars in clicks that don’t help you bring in new business.
If you have any questions or comments, please visit the adCenter Forum.