Anyone who wants to advertise on Google’s search engine in the future or generate new ads should first familiarize themselves with the online giant’s new guidelines. Companies that previously attracted users’ attention via clickbait must now change their tactics.
Clickbait was once used to generate clicks and traffic. Exciting headlines and disturbing images were meant to lure users to a company’s site or get them to perform a certain action. The update to Google’s guidelines comes into effect in July. In addition to the update, Google had also given a few examples of what will then be considered a violation. The search engine distinguishes between two categories that will no longer be accepted: these include all clickbait tactics, such as texts, images, or ads in which negative things such as death, accidents, illness, or arrest are used in an attempt to attract as many users as possible. Ad versions such as revealing secrets, scandals, and other information to harm products or services are no longer allowed, nor is trickery the use of phrases such as “you’ll never believe this” or “click here to find out”, photos intended to shock (police photos, highly-enlarged photos, accidents, disasters), and before-and-after photos.
The second category includes ad versions aimed at coercing users to buy (or not to buy) products or services, or ads depicting suffering, pain, and other negative feelings. Of course, these examples represent only a small amount of clickbait ads that are now no longer allowed by Google.
Advertisers now need to adjust their methods, but the change also does have its advantages. Users are offered more serious content, which shows among other things how important integrity is to Google. Google definitely takes notice of the advertising market, and the company works to ensure a more user-friendly ad experience.
