The new month is here, so let’s recap the most important news from last month.

Google News – May 2022

Google To Tighten Ads Rules

Google Ads is enforcing a new set of rules for advertisers. Starting from June 2022, there will be a new strike-based system of procedures for repeat violations.

It concerns not all, just some rules, e.g., clickbait, bail bond services, compensated sexual acts, etc. You can find the whole list here.

Accounts that receive a first strike will be put on a 3-day temporary hold. When the second strike comes for violating the same rule, there will be a 7-day temporary hold. On the third strike, the account will be suspended.

Find out more about the new strike-based system.

Source: Advertising Policies Help

Google Ads With a new Ad User Interface

At beginning of May, Google has updated the ad creation interface in Google Ads. This is nothing ground-breaking, just a few cosmetic details. But still, the new interface looks fresher and cleaner.

There are bigger boxes and they are outlined as well with larger spacing and bold headlines.

Do you see the new, updated design? Do you prefer creating ads in the web interface or using the Google Ads Editor?

Source: SEO Roundtable

Google Ads Safety Report

As every year, Google has published its annual Ads Safety Report, where they show statistics about ads and ad accounts concerning ads safety.

During last year, Google blocked or removed over 3.4 billion ads for violating ads policies, restricted over 5.7 billion ads and suspended over 5.6 billion ad accounts.

Suspended ad account number has risen compared to 2020 mainly because of COVID and advertisers trying to take advantage of the pandemic. The main reasons of suspension were:

• Abusing the ad network
• adult content
• trademark

Find out more here or read the Ads Safe report here.

Source: Google & Commerce blog

Google Is Testing a New Format in Search

Some users noticed a new image type ad in Search. It shows big product images in a carousel with product name, price and reviews.

It’s a very distinctive feature, it reminded us of carousels on Facebook. We think it’s a new type of ad format for Performance Max campaigns. There’s no official statement from Google, thought.

Check out the new ad type here.

Source: SEO Roundtable

Newly Simplified Display Campaigns

Google is improving standard display campaigns by adding smart functionalities from smart display campaigns. The goal here is to simplify creating and managing of display campaigns. 

That’s why, starting from 1st of August 2022, smart display campaigns will be migrated to standard display campaigns. This means, there will be only one type of display campaign. There’s no need to worry, no action is needed, Google will take care of everything – the migration will be automatic and there shouldn’t be any drop in performance.

Find out more about display campaigns here.

Source: Google Ads Help

Google Introducing a New Tool for Users

Google introduced a new tool for its user, which gives them more control over the ads they see.

Users will have several functionalities at their disposal like blocking or reporting ads, more info about the advertisers or why the ad was showed to them.

In a new interface called “My Ad Center” user will be able to personalize the ads they see, turn on/off ad categories or restrict ads on specific topics.

Find out more here.

Source: Techcrunch.com

Google Testing a New Ad Layout

Google is testing a new grid layout for ads on mobile and desktop. More and more users are seeing this.

This new layout could harm organic search results, since they cover a significant part of the screen even after scrolling down.

Is Google silently trying to kill organic search and make users to pay for their websites to be visible in Search?

Source: SEO Roundtable

Performance Max Exciting Updates

Google announce during their conference some exciting news concerning Performance Max (or PMax) campaigns, which should be live later this year and some next year. Some of them are:

• In-store goals – optimizing PMax for in-store visits brick-and-mortar stores
• Optimization score – as know from other campaigns with suggestions
• Additional insights – more information about users, audiences and auction insights
• Burst campaigns – in conjunction with in-store goals to boost seasonal in-person traffic
• PMax for Hotels – images, descriptions and video will be auto-generated with the ability to review and edit these property assets

You can find the whole list here.

Source: Search Engine Land