On June 3rd, we shared a blog post which highlighted common disapprovals for content and style, disallowed content and privacy violations and suggestions on how to avoid disapprovals. Today, we will continue to highlight common disapprovals that Microsoft adCenter sees. We will focus on the trademark, pharmaceutical, gambling and adult categories. Additionally, we will offer suggestions to minimize disapprovals so that your ads can continue to deliver without interruption.

Trademark

The most common disapproval in the trademark category is advertisers using competitor brand terms in ad copy. In the US and Canada Microsoft adCenter does not investigate escalations of competitor brand terms used as keywords but does review cases of their usage in ad copy. To avoid disapprovals for trademark content when bidding on competitor keywords, ensure that your ad copy does not use dynamic keyword insertion.

Pharmaceutical

The policy for pharmaceuticals is simple: Websites that sell prescription drugs in the United States or Canada must be certified. The website cannot have links to other sites where prescription drugs can be purchased. Furthermore, there should be a logical connection between the keyword, ad and landing page. We often see disapprovals in this category related to advertisers who are not selling prescription drugs because of their keyword selection. Ensure that keywords and ads are relevant to the product/service offering and to the landing page. See example below:

Blog Example

Gambling

Microsoft adCenter does not allow advertisements for online gambling; however, advertisements for gambling products are allowed so long as online gambling is not accessible throughout the website, including sponsored links. For example, an advertisement for poker chips is allowed but “play poker online” is disallowed. Similar to common disapprovals for pharmaceuticals, we often see disapprovals for advertisers who are promoting gambling products because of their keyword selection. Follow the suggestion above in the pharmaceutical section and ensure that your keywords and ads represent the product offered on the landing page to minimize disapprovals.

Adult

Microsoft adCenter does not allow adult content unless the advertiser is opted into the Yahoo! and Microsoft Adult Advertisement Program. This distinction is unknown to some advertisers so the best way to avoid disapprovals is to avoid advertising adult content if you have not been accepted into the program.

Adult Advertisement Program: To avoid disapprovals, ensure that you only use adult keywords that are approved by Microsoft adCenter. Keywords cannot be non-adult or ambiguous. Additionally, ads and landing pages need to be clearly adult.

Non adult/General marketplace: Advertisements for mature content such as lingerie or novels can be considered non-adult if there is no adult content on the website. To reduce content disapprovals, confirm that keywords and ads are relevant to the product or service offering on the landing page. Do not bid on explicitly adult keywords if your ads and landing page are non-adult.

The categories of trademark, pharmaceutical, gambling and adult pose inherent risk, but advertisers who follow policy and incorporate the suggestions above can create a great user experience and enjoy a tremendous ROI. Remember, if you avoid disapprovals, ads go online faster, continue to serve without interruption and your time can be spent optimizing campaign performance instead of getting ads approved.

Note: There will be a blog post targeted to the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) market at a later date.