In addition to well-written ad copy, Ad Extensions are one of the best ways to entice potential customers to click on your ad. Among the collection of Extensions at advertisers’ disposal is Review Extensions – an opportunity to showcase positive reviews from third-party websites.
Within the Ads portion of SERPS , it can often be difficult to have yours stand out. Review Extensions supplement text ads with a star rating and brief snippet of your review. While five gold stars next to your ad certainly gives you a leg up over competitors, such an achievement does not always come easy.
Google has very strict guidelines for Review Extensions, which advertisers must meet in order for the feature to be included in their ads. Unfortunately for advertisers, this means several reasons for their Review Extension getting disapproved. A few of the guidelines for Review Extensions are discussed below.
“Use accurate and current reviews”
The review must be factually accurate and match the content from the review website being linked to. Google specifically requires that:
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The review’s content should be visible in the text on the source page.
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The tone and content of the review must match the original source.
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Reviews that mention periodic awards should also include the time period of the award.
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Ellipses (…) should be used to show missing words or phrases in the middle of the review.
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Reviews must reflect the overall content of the source page.
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Reviews should not be more than 12 months old.
“Use a credible, third-party source”
Here Google assesses the credibility of the website from which the review is derived. The following is prohibited per Google’s guidelines:
- Second-hand reporting (rather than directly linking to source)
- Individual customer reviews and testimonials
- Aggregate reviews and rankings from user review websites (however, you can show user review ratings with your ads by
using seller ratings
- Press releases created by the advertiser, no matter who distributes/republishes it
- Paid endorsements
- Websites
not accessible to the public (like sites that require signing up or signing in to see the review content)- Websites
that are not family safe- Reviews requiring extra clicks to view (such as in videos, audio, PDFs)
“Use unique, substantive reviews”
Google also prohibits duplicating content in both the ad copy and review. The following is specifically not allowed:
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Reviews of particular locations, stores, or franchises
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Mere descriptions of products or services (since reviews should highlight something special, such as an award or accolade)
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Review text that repeats the source’s or advertiser’s name or other content already in the ad
While the coveted Review Extension is sometimes tricky to attain, bolstering your ads with positive reviews will certainly increase the chances of a potential customer interacting with your ads.