Google Publisher Policies and Google Publisher Restrictions were created to clearly determine what rules must be followed by publishers wanting to monetize their content with Google ad code, meaning with the use of one of Google’s monetization products: AdSense, AdMob, or Ad Manager. As Google itself states:
Maintaining trust in the ads ecosystem requires setting limits on what we will
monetize.
So far, all the principles have been stored separately in each of the mentioned above products’ Help Centers. However, since the rules are no different regardless of the chosen solution, Google decided to create one Publisher Policies Help Center, which is currently under construction. But that’s not the only change that was introduced this year!
2021 policies’ update
In the second half of this year, Google has introduced a few changes in terms of its policies. Some of those relate to the rules’ classification, others raise new standards to follow, and some are just associated with the cooperation course itself. Let’s dive into the most significant changes in Publisher Policies of 2021:
- The policies, defining what to do in order to monetize content with Google ad code, used to be composed of a single list of all applicable rules. Now those are split into four groups based upon what a given principle refers to:
- Content policies → specify what type of content is prohibited.
- Behavioral policies → determine which monetization-related actions are non-acceptable.
- Privacy-related policies → establish how publishers shall deal with users’ data.
- Requirements and other standards → demonstrate other ad-related regulations to comply with, as well as which territories are excluded from the use of Google products.
- A new policy was added to the “Requirements and other standards” group ⎼ compliance with Better Ads Standards. The standards were developed by Coalition for Better Ads with the aim of adjusting online advertising to the internet users’ expectations.
- There was also one behavioral policy added ⎼ forbidding making dishonest declarations in order to be eligible to use Google monetization products.
Why the changes?
All publishers have to obey the same rules, no matter which Google product they use. Therefore, it’s pointless to collect and present those separately. One Help Center will simply facilitate the understanding of Google’s policies. Every change in Publisher Policies is a response to evolutions happening in the digital world. Google experts try to adapt the requirements to the current situation. This way, the company seeks to ensure security within the internet sphere it has any control of ⎼ which are websites containing Google ad code. All changes to the policies can be monitored in the change log.