In April 2013, Finance site MoneySupermarket.com saw its search ads pulled from Google's search results due to a ‘lack of transparency’ over its payday loan adverts. Google pulled all paid search ads run by MoneySupermarket.com as part of a crackdown on payday loan vendors that disregard AdWords’ policies. The ads were down for over 24 hours before the issues were rectified by MoneySupermarket. The move also saw MoneySupermarket ads for car and home insurance removed from the rankings for 24 hours.
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Brand: MoneySupermarket.com | Sector: Finance | Country: UK | Objective: Build brand enagagement, drive sales |Format: Google, search, AdWords
Google has previously made public its hard-line approach on payday loan vendors, claiming that they must be transparent with their offering or risk seeing their names disappear from the search rankings altogether (view extract from AdWord policy below).
It claimed that such vendors should make abundantly clear all of their fees and penalties for those who miss a payment. APR should also be clearly identified, as should legitimate and direct contact information.
In a statement released to The Drum, a Google spokesperson said: “We have a set of policies which govern what ads we do and do not allow on Google. We have strict policies for those advertising short term loans and make it very clear that advertisers need to comply with local regulations and be transparent about their fees, implications of non-payment and collection practices. If we discover sites that are breaking this policy we will take appropriate action.”
