PPC
5 Key Reasons to Verify Your Account Early
Billions of people use Google every day to find new businesses, answers to questions, or helpful solutions to their problems—and Google Ads is a valuable part of that exchange for searchers and businesses alike.
Unfortunately, some bad actors have tried to take advantage of this mutual trust by attempting to fraudulently advertise as their competitors or pose as other businesses online. These scammers take advantage of your potential customers and can erode the trust of your brand. It’s been estimated that up to 20% of digital ads end up being fraudulent or scams, and 49% of advertisers report ad fraud as a major concern when implementing tactics like search ads.
To prevent this kind of deception online, Google announced in 2020 that it would begin to require its advertisers to verify their identities to continue using Google Ads. But, the vast majority of advertisers on Google haven’t verified their accounts—in large part due to Google not requiring them or inviting them to verify their identity yet.
To help more advertisers get started verifying their identity, Google recently announced that some accounts can begin to submit their advertiser verification early. We’re going to share five reasons you should complete that early verification–and why it’s so important.
What is Google advertiser verification?
Google first introduced advertiser verification for those purchasing political ads in 2018. But they expanded it in 2020 to increase transparency. Here’s what Google had to say about it:
“[Advertiser verification] will make it easier for people to understand who the advertiser is behind the ads they see from Google and help them make more informed decisions when using our advertising controls. It will also help support the health of the digital advertising ecosystem by detecting bad actors and limiting their attempts to misrepresent themselves.”
Since this announcement in 2020, many advertisers have been invited to verify their identity in their Google Ads account—usually via email or notification—and then given 30 days to begin the process. For most advertisers, the process is easy and straightforward and might only require a few minutes to complete.
Completing the Google Ads advertiser verification process early is more than just getting ahead of some necessary paperwork. Over the past year, Google has been quietly rolling out some additional perks, features, and benefits to its verified advertisers. We’ll cover those, along with some additional benefits of early verification, next.
5 reasons to complete your Google advertiser verification ASAP
Here are five key benefits to finishing your Google Ads account verification early.
1. Increased trust and credibility for your Google Ads
Google’s advertiser verification program is designed to highlight authentic brands and weed out any imposters from the SERP. Skeptical searchers are likely to avoid ads they’re unfamiliar with or deals that might be “too good to be true”—even when they’re authentic. By verifying your ads with Google, your ads will automatically appear with a disclosure anytime they appear where users can quickly and easily verify your authenticity and location and view other ads you’re running on Google.
On the SERP, advertisers can view your advertiser verification information by clicking on the 3-dot icon (or info icon on mobile). Ads on YouTube or the Google Display Network also have similar disclosures and transparency for verified advertisers.
2. Exclusive verified badges on your ads (freeing up branded headlines)
Twitter isn’t the only blue badge in town anymore. As Google allows more advertisers to verify their identity, they’re also proudly highlighting the advertisers that have completed the verification process with a shiny new badge next to their ads. Google has been testing both a blue and a gold check badge next to different verified advertisers on the SERP.
These verification badges have the potential to be huge for advertisers looking to differentiate themselves from others on the SERP, particularly any competitors looking to capitalize on their strong brand reputation. These badges are unique to verified accounts and could directly impact ad performance and improve click-through rates.
Not only are these badges a nice addition to your PPC ads, but they may allow advertisers to replace some of their current ad headlines that reassure searchers with the common “BRAND official site” and similar messages. Although these headlines often help an ad’s performance, they’re not the most compelling message. I’m sure most advertisers would appreciate not having to use one of their headlines to simply assure searchers of their ad’s authenticity.
3. Highlight your brand with the business name asset (only available to verified advertisers)
In late 2022, Google announced some exclusive ad features for verified advertisers. Among these features is the brand new business name asset, which allows you to prominently display your business name above your ad.
This new asset allows you to assert your ads’ authenticity and promote your brand. Google can dynamically pull this information from your website or you can provide your own Business Name asset at the campaign level within Google Ads. Google’s business name assets must:
- Be a maximum of 25 characters.
- Strictly match either the domain name or legal name of the business submitted during the verification process.
- Be prominently displayed on the ad’s landing page.
4. Customized logo assets for verified advertisers
A sister to the new business name asset, the logo asset is also an exclusive feature for verified advertisers. The business logo asset allows verified advertisers to include a customized logo icon to the left of their ads. This effectively allows your PPC ad to serve a favicon much like the organic results.
All ads without a logo asset will simply serve the same blue globe icon as a placeholder.
An example of two ads: one with and one without unique business name and logo assets.
Much like other Google ad assets (formerly known as extensions), these new features can be created directly within your Google Ads account once you’ve completed the advertiser verification process. Within Google Ads, verified advertisers will notice the business name and business logo assets appear as menu options under “Ads & assets.”
Remember, Google’s new business logo assets must:
- Match the advertised business and be consistent for a given domain name.
- Be a square (1×1) aspect ratio.
- Be between 128×128 (minimum) and 1200×1200 (maximum) resolution.
- Be compatible with both light and dark mode.
Lastly, Google may render your logo in either a square or circular asset on the SERP alongside your ad. Be sure that any important content in your small business logo is centered to prevent your logo from being cut off when it appears on the SERP.
5. Priority support from Google Ads
Google policies can be difficult to manage, and even the most diligent PPC account manager will have their Google Ads disapproved from time to time. Google uses several automated systems to check ads for compliance and it can be overzealous at times in disapproving or even suspending a PPC account. It can be devasting news to discover that Google has suspended your account erroneously.
Unfortunately, Google Ad’s support systems can be underwhelming for advertisers who are looking to fix these errors and get their ads back online quickly. For example, Google’s automated support advises that advertisers “can expect a response within five business days, though sometimes it can take a bit longer.” Yikes.
However, verified advertisers might get a lucky break from this week-long support queue. Recently, Google announced that some advertisers may be eligible to prioritize their appeals upon account verification completion.
This new prioritized appeal allows advertisers to solve their issues faster and get their ads back online with less downtime – ultimately saving their businesses countless dollars in lost revenue and days of anxiety and headache from Google’s support team.
Verify your Google Ads account now
Google’s advertiser verification program is designed to be a win for both searchers and advertisers alike. As Google continues to roll out the option to more accounts, be proactive in verifying your account to ensure that your campaigns benefit from the increased trust in your ads as well as exclusive new features and priority support from Google Ads.
Here are those five reasons you should complete your Google advertising verification now:
- Increased trust and credibility for your Google Ads
- Exclusive verified badges on your ads (freeing up branded headlines)
- Highlight your brand with the business name asset
- Customized logo assets for verified advertisers
- Priority support from Google Ads
To start your Google Ads account verification, follow the prompts in Google’s account verification guide here.
