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2008

Google Allows Hard Alcohol, Liqueur For Sale On AdWords — With Amended Ads Policy

December 11, 2008 0

New York — As part of Google’s unending effort to wring-out more ads dollars out of its online activities, and responding to “advertiser feedback received over the years,” Google AdWords now permits clients to produce search ads for hard alcohol and liqueurs across its content network in the United States.

According to the latest amendments made to the AdWords policies, which are reviewed from time to time, it will now be possible for alcohol manufacturers, to advertise their products in the U.S. through AdWords. This was not permitted until now.

“This fall, we altered our policy on advertising beer products, for the first time allowing advertisements of its sale in the U.S. via AdWords. And now in addition to allowing the advertisements for the sale of beer, Google Adwords is now also allowing the advertisement of hard alcohol and other liqueurs targeting the U.S. audience,” said Amanda Kelly of Google’s AdWords team in a blog post.

But, there are of course some considerations which alcohol advertisers must follow. Hard alcohol and liqueur advertisers face steeper regulations. And this includes:

In contrast with beer ads, “ads that directly promote the sale of hard alcohol and liqueurs are still not permissible” instead, less direct branding efforts are encouraged.

To present an example of this new policy, Amanda Kelly of the Inside AdWords crew writes:

To abide by the updated hard alcohol and liqueurs policy, advertisers must promote the content about hard alcohol and liqueurs that their websites contain, such as recipes and brand messages. Ads that directly promote the sale of hard alcohol and liqueurs are still not permissible through our program. In contrast, advertisements for beer may directly promote its sale.

According to Google’s ad policy regarding alcohol, all such ads are marked as non-family safe, which affects how the ad is delivered.

For example, as mentioned in the hard alcohol and liqueurs policy, advertisers might market to individuals searching for helpful and relevant alcohol-related knowledge by promoting holiday cocktail ideas or the caloric content of popular spiked beverages. Under the beer policy, you might state a specific sales promotion for great winter ale.

Google started allowing ads for beer, wine, and champagne in October. While beer manufacturers have been allowed to directly advertise the sale of their products, however, direct sale of alcohol ads still seem to be no problem when it comes to Google Checkout.

Concerns about falling ad spend rates through 2009 have driven Google to avail a number of new opportunities to AdWords advertisers. As a result, it is certainly evident, that it will also help AdWords to generate some much needed revenue.

Certainly, this marks a very positive development for advertisers who should take advantage of the holiday search traffic on Google relating to alcohol and other holiday liquors. These regulations currently apply only to U.S.-based advertisers.

In the next couple of weeks Adwords also aims to expand this new policy to cover other countries, keeping in mind the local rules and regulations regarding alcohol.