When to Use and When to Not Use Proper Grammar in an Adwords Ad

Google Adword’s “Advertising Policies” require you to ensure that you write your ads in “logical sentence or phrase form” and observe correct spacing, spelling, and proper grammar in an Adwords ad.  If you look it up online, there are also some online marketers that tell you not to use proper grammar in ads. 

So now, you might want to know when to use and when to not use proper grammar in an Adwords ad.

According to Google’s policy, Adwords text need to be written in logical phrase or sentence form and should be grammatically correct.  Proper spacing between words and around punctuation also needs to be observed.  Except for commonly misspelled words or some spelling variations that are generally recognized by most readers, all words in Google ads need to be spelled correctly.  There are exceptions to commit grammar and spelling mistakes with Google ads, as follows.

When Not to Use Proper Grammar in an Adwords Ad

Google Adwords policy would be very specific in not allowing ad text with grammar violations such as improper use of word, wrong verb tense or subject-verb agreement, or even incorrect spelling.  Though, there are always exceptions to these Adwords ad rules.

There are acceptable “errors” or misspellings for a Google Adwords ad like commonly misspelled words such as “pix” for pictures, “lite” for light, “tonite” for tonight, and more.  Common abbreviations are also acceptable, unless those which are impossible to understand or do not make sense at all.  Proper contractions  of pronouns and apostrophes are also acceptable like “It’s” or “You’re”.  According to Google’s policy, you can also use phrases or words like “Get em now!” or “Runnin fast” or “Lovin it”, among many other variations.  Catchy puns are also allowed if such are written creatively to catch the attention of target users.

Avoiding Violations by Using Proper Grammar in an Adwords Ad

Knowing when to use and when to not use proper grammar in an Adwords ad helps you avoid committing any violations of Google Adwords policy.  Google does not allow any “gimmicky repetition” in an Adwords ad.  For example, you are not allowed to write an Ad this way: “Quick, quick, quick, quickest results!”.  Another violation is excessively or unnecessarily using punctuations letters, symbols, and numbers in your ads for gimmickry.

According to Google’s policy, you can use symbols or punctuations as part of your company’s name or to refer to a certain language or industry standards.  For example, to indicate conditions, you can use asterisks, like in Five-Star Hotel which can be written in a Google Ad as: “5*Hotel”.  Twenty four hours, seven days a week can be written in ads as numbers “24/7”, and so can number sequence like first as “1st” or second as “2nd” and so on and so forth.

According to Google’s Ad creative guidelines, excessive capitalization for giving emphasis and gimmickry is also not allowed.  For example, capitalizations like “FREE eBOOK” are not allowed in an Adwords ad. On the other hand, trademark capitalization is allowed like “SONY” or “ProFlowers”.  Inter-capitalization of commonly accepted words like “AdWords” is allowed.  Title cases are allowed like “We Offer What You Need”.  If you are to use a URL in an ad, you can capitalize appropriately after the first slash, as in www.itsurdomain.org/Promo4u.    Capitalization of acronyms and initials is also acceptable (say USD, UK, WHO, UN).  Coupon codes can also be capitalized, say “FREE4luckyU143”.

It takes practice to master when to use and when to not use proper grammar in an Adwords ad, and if you have to go through Google’s policy from time to time, by all means do so.  You never know which parts of the policy gets changed every now and then, and it will never hurt you to keep yourself updated all the time.