Personal Injury Attorneys who use Google Ads PPC campaigns received a message from Google AdWords on March 6, 2024 titled “Access to Customer Match will be suspended for your account in the next 7 days”.
At first glance, the message appears scary. It says:
Your access to Customer Match will be suspended within the next 7 days because your Google Ads account ***-***-**** violated Customer Match policy.
View more information about the policy violation, and submit an appeal in the next 7 days and we’ll review your account.
The Google Ads Team
Screenshot:
Most Attorneys can not use Customer Match.
No need to panic, your account is not being suspended. Personal Injury Attorneys are not allowed to use Google Ads’ “Customer Match” feature. The rest of the account will continue to work fine.
The email is vague and misleading. It tells attorneys they violated the customer match policy and that they can submit an appeal. This is incorrect. Attorneys can not appeal this.
The correct answer: On Google’s page “Personalized Advertising“, they state: “We understand that users don’t want to see ads that exploit their personal struggles, difficulties, and hardships, so we don’t allow personalized advertising based on these hardships. Such personal hardships include health conditions, treatments, procedures, personal failings, struggles, or traumatic personal experiences. You also can’t impose negativity on the user.”
Basically:
- Personal Injury Attorneys may not use “Customer Match” because they do not allow advertising for “personalized health content”.
- Family Attorneys may not use “Customer Match” because they do not allow advertising for “Personal hardships with family, friends, or other interpersonal relationships”
- Bankruptcy Attorneys may not use “Customer Match” because they classify bankruptcy as “personal financial distress”.
We recently wrote about why many attorneys may not use Google Ads Remarketing. It’s basically the same reasons.
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