What Are The New Updates In the UK’s Financial Policy Of Good Ads?

If you’re an advertiser planning on launching a service for the UK market with targeted ads, acquainting yourself with Google Ad’s Financial products and services is a must. This covers personal financial advice, cryptocurrencies, anything that has to do with investment and management, debt, credit repair services, etc. Everything comes with a set of rules from Google that limits the kind of promise you can include in your ad to protect the customers from false claims. Now, we have the latest financial verification update.

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So, let’s learn about the new financial policy of Google Ads.

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What Is The New Verification Update On Financial Service Ads?

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From 30th August 2021, Google will officially announce the Financial products and services policy. After getting the news, the advertisers will have 7 days before the effect of the new update takes place. Once Google starts enforcing its policy, advertisers who haven’t verified themselves will not be allowed to display their financial service ads to potential UK customers. Even the users who are specifically searching for financial services in the UK will not be getting your ad if you don’t follow their verification policy.

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To verify yourself, you would have to show Google proof of authorization from the UK Financial Conduct Authority(FCA). If not, you should at least fall under the exempted ones from Google to get verification. Who is exempted?

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• Third Parties: Even if FCA hasn’t authorized you, if you have authorization from a firm approved by FCA, you can be verified.
• Non-financial Advertisers: In this case, you don’t actually sell financial services yourself. However, the product you sell is closely related to it so you have a strong reason for wanting to reach financial advice seekers. This would mean something like owning an e-commerce platform.

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Not verifying yourself doesn’t mean your account will be suspended immediately. You will get a 7-day warning.

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In this verification policy, certain categories don’t come under financial services. The categories still have to be in compliance with other financial policies from Google Ads though.

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The categories exempted from verification are Gambling, credit repair, binary options, and cryptocurrencies. The products that come under debt services don’t count, and neither do financial products that are hard to categorize and fall under complex.

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How To Get Verified?

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You can either start your verification process using this form or have Google ask you to initiate the process. There are about 2 steps to the verification process. At this time, if you don’t meet all the requirements, your account will be held on pause.

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In the first step, you will be required to give your Google Ads account Customer ID, the details of your business, the name of the representative on the advertiser’s side, domain name, and registration number from UK FCA. If you are exempted, you will have to provide justification on why you should be exempted from UK FCA approval.

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The second step requires Advertisers to get their identity verified. This is only applicable if you have never gone through the advertiser identity verification procedure. Along with the FCA authorization document, you will need to submit documents verifying your identity. An email would be sent to you with the steps. Within 30 days, you will have to complete all the steps. You will also get a notification on your Google Ad account for verification.

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Remember, all the information you provide should all match each other. Any discrepancy will result in the account being paused.

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Final Thoughts

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Take a good look at all the rules of the new policy. You need to check whether your current ads or your future ad might fall under this. If they do, you should either get verified or get rid of the ads prior to 6th September.