Helping an E-Commerce Client With Disapproved Google Ads

Our first step was to do a complete audit of their Google Ads account and website. We needed to know exactly what was causing them to get shut down.

While our primary goal was to get their ad account enabled, we also pulled some data to find out how their old campaigns were performing. These would serve as our benchmarks going forward.

Once we started digging around, we found over 90 ads were disapproved for “Enabling Dishonest Behavior.” Take a look at some of the examples below:

Our next step was combing through the client’s data. They described their paid ads as being successful before Google shut down their account. It was true their ads were gaining traction but we knew how to fine-tune them for unprecedented growth.

Before working with us they had spent over $600,000 across 50+ ad campaigns. Below was their performance:

These metrics seemed on point for your average e-commerce campaign. They didn’t seem far-fetched.

Our client was getting the best conversion rates and return on their branded keywords, close to an average of 2.70 or 270% Return on Ad Spend (ROAS).

If you have seen our webinars in the past you know when performing audits we always go through campaign settings and account structure.

While this campaign looked decent, we found Search Partners enabled on all campaigns. These are websites that partner with Google to show ads and free product listings to extend your reach across the web.

Take a look below and you can see how 44 out of 57 campaigns had Search Partners enabled and some even had Display Partners.

Here’s the thing: Search and Display partners typically lead to a lower cost-per-click or CPC. The problem is an advertiser is receiving less qualified traffic.

We understand why any client would be interested in these two platforms. Google frames them as a way to save money while getting in front of thousands of prospective customers.

Sounds amazing, right?

Wrong.

The power of search is completely gone. Now your budget is split between three different platforms:

• Google Search
• Google Search Partners
• Google Display Partners

Even though you think you’re saving a few bucks, you’re actually spending more money than you need to on low-quality traffic. It’s doubtful this traffic will convert at the levels you want.

Let’s take a look a how we enabled their account and increased their conversion rate.

Getting their account back on would be difficult.

It’s important to note that often when your Google account is disabled or suspended you may never get it reinstated.

But, we couldn’t help them get more sales until everything was turned back on.

Disapproved Ads

After reviewing the client’s site, our PPC team knew they weren’t breaking any of Google’s Policies. Instead, there was a miscommunication between their ad copy and Google.

This client specializes in creating novelty or replacement diplomas. While shoppers understand that these products are fun imitations, Google crawled the ads and flagged the client for selling real diplomas.

We knew it was all a big misunderstanding so we took the standard approach and reached out directly to Google Support. Our standard review request included documentation showing the client only sold novelty diplomas.

Our documentation included a screenshot of a Disclaimer Page we built on their website, as well as disclaimers that appear on each product page.

We heard back from Google after a week, which was encouraging because it sometimes takes up to 14 days to hear back from them.

Their email wasn’t the best news but it gave us some really good insight on how to fix the issue.

Basically, Google did an internal review of the client’s ads. They also appealed the ads in the account interface, but that was only partially successful.

Google found that the client talked about diplomas being “realistic” and “authentic” in its ad copy. They said it wasn’t clear that the diplomas were novelties or replacements, which appeared to be a violation of their policy on selling false documents.

That means we had to go back and remove any ad copy that referred to the diplomas being “realistic” and “authentic.”

After updating the copy we got approved within the first round of review. Check out the differences between their disapproved and approved ads below.

Now with everything back up and running, we could focus on improving their conversation rate.

As mentioned above, we wanted the most qualified traffic for this client. So, in HOTH PPC fashion we unchecked both the Search Partner and Display Partner settings.

We decided to focus our efforts solely on people using the almighty Google Search. First, we had to optimize their keywords to match their brand.

This client was very specific about bringing in NEW customers or NEW users that never heard of their company.

So to do that, we focused on high intent keywords like “buy a diploma” and “buy college diploma.” You can see below some of the branded keywords we used in their campaigns.

How would focusing their campaigns and optimizing their keywords affect overall traffic? It would drive in new users who were looking for a specific solution to their current problem.

Even though we narrowed the number of people seeing these ads, we knew each ad would be served to people ready to order a novelty diploma.

Our strategy was also to conduct split testing of ads, locations, keywords, and site destinations.

For this client, we started off by sending traffic to the homepage, which led to not the best results in the first month.

Below you can see more details about how their campaign was converting.

We had a little movement after the first month but nothing to brag about. Remember, it often takes some time to properly optimize a campaign.

Next, we decided to change the ad destinations from the client’s homepage to individual product pages. This simple change delivered impressive results. Take a look below:

Even with the CPC almost tripling after four months, the HOTH PPC team surpassed their original branded ads. Their average conversion rate jumped from 1.96% to 10.03%, which is an increase of 412%.

And we did all of this while also bringing in new customers.

How? We removed all irrelevant traffic sources, tested out multiple destinations, and focused on high-intent keywords. We never chase the lowest cost-per-click.