Google Ads Policies: Ep. 3: Editorial Policies

Welcome to Legal Marketing 101. I'm Toby Rosen. Welcome back to Episode 3 in our Google Ads policies series, where we are talking about editorial policies. In Episode 2, we talked about advertising policies, but today we're specifically looking into the editorial policies that govern ad content on and off of the Google Ads platform. So let's dig in right away.

Google Ads editorial policies play a really pivotal role in shaping the quality and integrity of ad content across the platform and in a few other corners of the internet. For lawyers and small law firms like us, understanding and adhering to these editorial guidelines is really essential for crafting compelling ads that resonate with the target audience that we're trying to reach, but also maintain compliance with Google standards. The editorial policies encompass a range of guidelines and best practices that are designed to ensure that ad content is clear, accurate and relevant to user search queries and their intent, and these policies govern aspects like language usage, punctuation, capitalization and formatting to help uphold consistency and readability across ad campaigns and across the platform as a whole. I've added a link to this policy in the show notes, because it's really not that fun to read out loud and there are a bunch of bits and pieces that I think you all should really be aware of and in the realm of legal advertising, accuracy and truthfulness are paramount considerations when we're creating ad content for Google Ads campaigns and creating really any kind of content. So we, the lawyers and small law firms, we have to prioritize transparency, honesty and compliance with these regulatory standards to maintain credibility and trust with our target audience. Adherence to accuracy and truthfulness in advertising isn't just an ethical and legal requirement that we all have to follow. It is an imperative. The regulatory scrutiny, legal liability and reputational damage that lawyers are exposed to if they're caught in a lie is extremely detrimental to the firm's credibility and it will certainly erode client trust. And when it comes to marketing, all of that is going to really start to add up for you.

So when it comes to Google's editorial and misrepresentation guidelines, they're actually not that specific about what we should be doing. They go into a lot more detail about what we shouldn't be doing and then we're left to read between the lines a little bit. But we can leverage a variety of best practices to create more engaging ad content that resonates with a target audience, while maintaining compliance with policy guidelines. And it's really not that hard to craft compelling ad copy and to stay compliant, but it does require a slightly strategic approach and it definitely requires some attention to detail. So one of the key best practices that I want to talk about is to focus on clarity and conciseness in all of our ad messaging. Clear and concise ad copy helps convey key messages effectively and it captures users' attention with the limited space and time available. So avoiding jargon, complex language or excessive details ensures that ad content is accessible and understandable to a wide audience. In essence, don't talk like a lawyer all the time. An easy way to think about this is by thinking about your client's story and simplifying things down to the questions that your potential client might be asking when they search for you, and then put that in your ad copy. It's absolutely a best practice to tailor ad copy to align with user search intent and preferences. Most PPC people will tell you that this is the time to conduct more keyword research and do behavioral analysis on your users, but you should already have some understanding of how to connect with these users, because they're the ones coming into your office, sitting down across the desk from you and asking you these questions every single day. So when you're working with your Google Ads Manager, you can help communicate the needs, concerns and motivations of your clients, because you're hearing them every day. If your PPC manager is smart, they'll combine that with the data that they have and then they'll use it to create ads that are compliant but, most importantly, effective.

But let's not forget Google isn't just looking at the ads that you put in the platform. They're looking at your landing pages too. They're looking at how those pages actually look, what the functions of the page are and whether or not it aligns with your ad and the keyword and complies with Google's policies. Google does this because when you run ads on Google, you are, in the eyes of some or many users, getting Google's stamp of approval in an even more concrete way than when you get a number one ranking organically. When you have a page appear on Google, whether it is organic or through Google Ads, it is, in effect, a component of a user's experience on Google, and Google knows about this and cares about this. So they're going to review your landing pages and, while it is pretty rare, they may even review the elements connected to your landing pages, like code or email platforms or the products you're selling that kind of thing. This depends a lot on your industry, your page and what you're selling, but Google's guidelines give them a massive amount of leeway to decide what they like and what they don't like.

If you're wondering which email platform you should be using and you've already listened to all of our email marketing episodes then you need to know about Email Tool Tester. Email Tool Tester is the place to get started with email marketing, with its reviews of email marketing services like Mailer Lite, getresponse, convertkit, an active campaign and many more. Check out the link in the show notes to download their free ebook, just For you, the Email Marketing Crash Course. That will help you hit the ground running with your email system or your newsletter, and it'll walk you through what you need to know when you're choosing an email marketing system. You can download the free ebook through the link in the show notes or visit emailtooltestercom and scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to get your ebook, so with an understanding of what the editorial policies are and why they matter and how being accurate and honest can put you on the right path with basically no effort.

Let's talk about copywriting, specifically, and let's talk about some of the big mistakes new marketers or amateur marketers which, I'm sorry to say, this includes most lawyers. Let's talk about some of the mistakes that these marketers often make, and first up is tone. Many legal marketers are way too professional in their tone and the ads end up looking overly lawyerly. This is something I've talked about in previous PPC episodes. It's a little leather books and mahogany and that kind of thing, and what you ultimately do there is you fail to connect with users, and if you're getting tired of me talking about it, well, buckle up, because I'm not going to stop, because client story is really the answer here. You know your clients. You know what their pain points are. All you really need to do is flip the question they asked and then tweak it until you get the response that you need. And, of course, you wanna avoid making mistakes like having misleading or exaggerated claims, because eventually you will be caught for this and the fallout will be worse than whatever clicks or attention you generated before you were caught. You do, however, wanna show users what the light at the end of the tunnel looks like and some specific credentials or credibility building.

Information can be very, very powerful here. Providing specific detail about your services can also be really powerful. For example, listing that you have $199 bankruptcy. That's powerful. This can also, though, act as a filter for people who aren't really qualified to be your clients. In the $199 bankruptcy scenario, everyone's qualified, but in other scenarios, you can show this in your advertising by stating your price. The key is really just to prioritize honesty and transparency, and you'll keep building trust and fostering positive relationships with your potential clients. There is one more episode in the Google Ads Policy Series, and then we will be moving on to some awesome new episodes about a couple of new things that we haven't talked about recently. If there's anything you'd like to hear about here on the podcast, please do feel free to reach out. That's it for Legal Marketing 101. Check out rosanadvertisingcom for more Thanks. What's that? What is Aaron Callan talking about?