How to continue earning money safely with the new restrictions implemented by Google for their new Chrome 64 browser with consideration for the Better Ads Standards.
Google has a new policy for misleading ads
In this helpful guide, we will outline the new ad experience policy by Google and the Coalition for Better Ads, and how it affects you as a PlugRush publisher.
Please note that this is our interpretation of the policy from Google and the Coalition for Better Ads. It is not endorsed or confirmed by them.
What is happening?
- On 01/23/2018, Google will begin blocking some advertising methods, f.ex. most popups, which they consider to be an abusive ad experience. They’ve briefly described what this means here: [Abusive experiences as described by Google](https://support.google.com/webtools/answer/7347327 “Abusive Ad Experiences”)
- On 02/15/2018, Google will begin activating their adblocker on websites that don’t meet the requirements of the [Better Ads Standards](https://www.betterads.org/standards/ “Better Ads Standards”).
What does “abusive ad experience” mean?
Based on [Google’s list of Abusive Experiences](https://support.google.com/webtools/answer/7347327 “Abusive Ad Experiences”) here and the [Better Ads Standards here](https://www.betterads.org/standards/ “Better Ads Standards”), we have come to the conclusion that the following types of ads would be considered as misleading or abusive by them.
For Desktop
- Pop-ups
- Prestitial ads with countdown
- Auto-playing video ads with sound
- Large sticky ads
For Mobile
- Pop-ups
- Prestitial ads
- Ads that take up over 30% of the screen vertically
- Auto-playing video ads with sound
- Postitial ads with countdown
- Full screen scrollovers
- Large sticky ads
Additionally for both Desktop & Mobile
- Automatic re-routing of visitors without user interaction
- Ads resembling system or site warnings, also error messages
- Ads showing fake messages or notifications
- Ads depicting features that do not work
- Ads showing a close button that doesn’t work
- Ads showing a fake play button
- Animated ads that rapidly flash
What you should do as a publisher
As a PlugRush publisher, we recommend you register your website in Google Web Tools and monitor it under the ‘Ad Experience Report’ and ‘Abusive Experiences’ sections [here](https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/ad-experience-unverified?hl=en “Google Web Tools for Abusive Ad Experiences”). If you receive a notification from Google that you’ve been marked under their Ad Experience Report or their Abusive Experiences, you should remove infringing ad formats and re-submit your website for review. You can get more instructions on how to do this directly from Google [here](https://support.google.com/webtools/answer/7305902?hl=en “Request Review from Google”).
Wait for Google… don’t be proactive
Based on Google’s information about [their ad filtering procedure](https://support.google.com/webtools/answer/7308033?hl=en “Google Chrome 64 Ad Filtering”), if your website is labeled as failing by them, you will have 30 days to correct the ad experiences they may deem as misleading or abusive on your website. For most publishers, this will be enough time to make the needed changes before Google actually begins filtering ads. We recommend against proactively submitting your website to Google for review. Please strongly consider waiting until they notify you about a failing status.
Use native ads and banners
If you’re worried that pops may cause your website to be flagged as failing by Google, you can disable this ad format at any time under the [websites index of your account](https://admin.plugrush.com/websites “PlugRush Websites Index”). We would encourage you to instead utilize more display ad formats, namely native ads and banners. You can read more about how to do this in our [Publisher Guide](https://www.plugrush.com/guides/how-to-get-started-as-a-publisher “PlugRush Publisher Guide”).
What we’re doing to protect our publishers
In an effort to protect our publishers against penalties from Google, we’re developing new ad formats that we interpret to be Google-compliant, and we’re also actively rejecting any advertisements submitted to us by advertisers that could be deemed misleading or abusive based on the information we have from Google and the Coalition for Better Ads.
Contact us, if your site gets flagged
If your website is flagged as failing by Google, please [inform our support team](https://www.plugrush.com/support/live “Support Team”) and we’ll do our absolute best to assist you in making your site compliant.
