If you are in the pay per click space for payday loans, the market place just got a major shakeup.  Google has now banned AdWords ads for payday loans in the search results and on partner sites.

From the Google announcement:

we’re banning ads for payday loans and some related products from our ads systems. We will no longer allow ads for loans where repayment is due within 60 days of the date of issue. In the U.S., we are also banning ads for loans with an APR of 36% or higher. When reviewing our policies, research has shown that these loans can result in unaffordable payment and high default rates for users so we will be updating our policies globally to reflect that.

Google notes that these changes do not affect other types of loans, including mortgages, car loans, student loans, commmercial loans, or credit cards (revolving lines of credit).

This is targeting specific types of ads, so we could see some creative ways advertisers will try and work around the new changes once it goes into effect.  We could also see some advertisers attempt to bait and switch, with landing pages offering ones that meet the requirements, but then offering ones against the guidelines on the site.

The changes will go into effect on July 13, 2016.

This is interesting that Google is targeting payday loans, for what many consider is moral grounds.  But Google does have a history of preventing AdWords ads on a wide variety of other products and services that many view as being for moral reasons, such as guns and ammunition, drug paraphernalia, and services like fake term papers.

Here are the other types of products and services that are also not permitted to advertise on Google AdWords.

• Counterfeit goods
• Dangerous products and services
  • Recreational drugs (chemical or herbal); psychoactive substances; equipment to facilitate drug use; weapons, ammunition, explosive materials and fireworks; instructions for making explosives or other harmful products; tobacco products
• Products or services that enable dishonest behavior
  • Hacking software or instructions; services designed to artificially inflate ad or website traffic; fake documents; academic cheating services
• Offensive or inappropriate content
  • hatred; violence; harassment; racism; sexual, religious, or political intolerance, or organizations with such views
  • content that’s likely to shock or disgust
  • content that’s exploitative or appears to unfairly capitalize at the expense of others

It also means that the organic search results for those terms are going to become even more competitive, if that is even possible.  And I suspect we will see more black hat tactics in the payday loans market area as a result, since there are so many companies who will no longer be able to “buy their way” into the search results through AdWords.

Bing Ads still allows ads to run for payday loans, so those ads will likely rise in costs as well, as companies move their pay per click budget.  However, volume can still be a challenge for some search results, but with the number of searches for payday loan related terms, there could be a great number of impressions available.

Google does say they will “continue to review the effectiveness of this policy, but our hope is that fewer people will be exposed to misleading or harmful products.”  Does this mean there is the possibility they could roll it back?  Hard to say, but it is a pretty bold move to then go back on.