I had a campaign running for an online pharmacy (for a European country). I used words that didn't trigger the PharmacyChecker. The ads gave me a nice profit. Then I thought about it some more and started to fear I was breaking Adwords' TOS, and I could get banned. So I paused my campaign. What do you think, Would I really be in risk of getting banned if I'd start my campaign again?
Most likely. The one thing I always found with adwords is they are very subjective, if they don't like what you are doing, they will just ban you without question, even if you ARE within the terms of the TOS
your have to have a pharmaceutical license to sell meds with adwords now. if it is an affiliate site, try using "aff" or "affiliate" in the ad copy.
Yes, it's an affiliate site. If I add 'aff', would my ads be in compliance with the TOS? I want to be sure I don't risk my account.
but why break the rule. so google can come and say that your account has been terminated. then it would be too late.
You're right, but I'm more worried about the policy concerning pharmaceutical license. What got me worrying was the fact that I had no competition at all from any other online pharmacies. That is probably a clear indication that Google is very strict about not allowing European online pharmacies (or their affiliates) to advertise. I think I've seen the rule about adding "aff" or "affiliate" broken so may times that it's safe to assume Google is not so strict about it. Although I must admit I'm very new to this field so I don't know much; I didn't even know about this rule until you mentioned it. Do you know of a case where an affiliate was banned from Adwords because he neglected to add "aff" or "affiliate"?
remove the United States from your geotargeting and see what happens. United States has very strict pharma laws. this may be a cause. in regards to the neglected "aff". you will not get banned however your ad may get disappoved for not using this. this happened to me over a year ago. not using "aff" for branded products are not sought automatically. it is a metric looked for during editorial review.
Alright, thanks. I was geotargeting a European country. From the TOS:"Pharmacies advertising prescription drugs or using prescription drug keywords may only target the U.S. or Canada, and must be PharmacyChecker approved." So it seems that advertising prescription drugs for non-North American countries is not allowed at all. But I wasn't advertising prescription drugs, just a site that sells them. So I'm still not sure whether I was breaking TOS. I don't want to ask Google because they might conclude I've been breaking the rules and ban me. Just to be on the safe side, I decided not to restart my campaign and forget about it. Thanks for your help.
Like I said, I used words that didn't trigger the PharmacyChecker. For example, I noticed that the phrase in my language that translates to 'doctor online' was ok, while 'online doctor' was not.