All email marketing companies probably use online advertising, and a big player in this is Google. Experience would support the suggestion that their pronouncement are best not taken literally. They make them in their own interests. That’s not a criticism as they are a business and, I’m told, a very successful one. However, you might not have to make massive changes to comply.

The recent statement of intent regarding Google ads, particularly the three strikes and out (seemingly based on baseball), has been heralded as a significant step towards policing the Internet. Perhaps it is. But is it the major change of policy that many commentators, and Google, suggest?

Google provides an advertising help page, https://support.google.com/adspolicy/topic/6021648?hl=en-GB&ref_topic=1626336 which lists all their ad policies over recent times. In many ways, this is just the next step in their processes. On the plus side, Google wants advertising to continue at its current level and blocking advertisers doesn’t do a lot for their revenue. Their systems reflect their concerns in this regard.

Come September this year, they will instigate a warning system when their bots identify an advert which is a possible breach of their requirements. One would assume that this warning will include details of the specific problem. It might even have a link to an explanatory landing page, or a simple search via, ironically, Google will probably provide the answer. You’ve used a number of Google products, so will want to ensure continuation of your normal email marketing processes.

We’ve had similar warnings before from Google which suggested they were likely to overturn systems based on years of experience, and companies have been concerned. However, almost universally, it’s not been as bad as suggested. We’ve worked on, more or less without change.

If you’re likely to be banned by Google, you are probably already aware because of your particular products and methods of advertising. For the rest of us, it’s a matter of carrying on as before but checking, just in case. If the warning comes, then change your systems to take it into consideration. You don’t want your source of subscribers to email marketing lists interrupted.