Top 5 Mistakes to Avoid During Google Ads Business Operations Verification
Updated: Aug 20
After you create a Google ads account, generally within a few weeks, Google will ask you for Advertiser identity and Business Operations Verification (BOV). Your account will sometimes be paused till you complete the verification. And if it is not completed within the given deadline, your account might be suspended permanently.
Also, it is very much important to complete this verification as early as possible because if you delay, your chances of getting verified gets reduced.
The complexity of the google ads advertiser verification depends on the type of business you run and in this post, we would highlight some common mistakes that advertisers make in completing the Googls Ads Business Operations Verification leading to failure.
1. Mistakes in Payment Profile- Individual and organisation
New advertisers sometimes do not take the BOV factor into account while creating a new account. They might create an individual account payment profile even if they are a registered business or vice versa. Pro Tips:
If you are a registered business or organisation, you must create your payment profile in the name of your organisation.
Make sure the payment method added is of your organisation and enter the billing country and currency same as the place of your business.
2. Having multiple domains in same account during verification
We usually come across these common questions which many of our clients ask after they have failed the verification process :
1. We have two or more domains and which domain should we use for Business Operations Verification (BOV)?
2. Can a single business with its documents be used to verify two different google ads accounts or websites?
Here the answer is pretty straightforward. As per Google Ads policy, only one account is allowed per business/ website/ domain/ person/ organisation/ payment.
Hence we do not recommend using multiple website domains for advertising from same account or create different accounts for the same business as it will most likely lead to permanent suspension for violating circumventing systems policy.
Even if you have somehow survived running your account till the verification stage, it will always haunt you as these type of accounts have to be managed very carefully and need the support of an experienced marketing agency and dedicated account manager from google team.
More about suspensions on some other post.
3. No clear description of business model.
“Never underestimate the power of Google’s AI” Many advertisers do not consider explaining their business model precisely thinking that google would accept anything. If you are vague in describing your business model both in the BOV form and in your website, your verification would most likely lead to failure.
Pro Tips:
Your BOV form answers for business description should be clear and concise and framed in a structured manner for google’s algorithm to understand.
Include bulleted points to help google’s AI understand better.
The answer should match the content of your website.
Consider adding clear “ About Us” section or “ Who we are?” And “What we do?” sections on your website.
Do not apply for verification till your website is completely updated.
4. Mistakes in explaining business relationships and brand representation.
This is one of the biggest factors for most verification failures. Many advertisers are confused and are not able to explain the business relationships with other third parties properly while filling up the BOV form.
If there is an external advertising agency involved, the relationship has to be clearly defined.
I will post another article explaining the BOV requirements for Agency- Client google ads Accounts.
Another common mistake is brand relationship misrepresentation.
For example, some advertisers display third party brands on their website in such a manner that it confuses website visitors about brand ownership of goods or services provided. This results not in verification failures but also account suspension due to violation of google’s misleading/ misrepresentation policy.
The below example shows a website confusing users with actual brand ownership. The header section shows a prominent brand wheras the "About Us" section tells a different story.
About Section:
Some of the important questions you will need to answer in the BOV form include: 1. Are you the first party who directly provide the goods or services? 2. Who will be held responsible for the goods and services delivered? 3. Are you an authorised reseller, affiliate marketer or marketing agency? 4. Who handles the logistics? Etc. Note that every relationship has to be validated with supporting documents which you will have to upload in the BOV form. Pro Tips:
Identify all the internal and external stakeholders for your business.
Define the business relationships with each relevant stakeholder.
Keep your answers simple and be honest. This will save a lot of hassle in future.
The relationships information submitted to Google should be aligned with the content on your website. For example, the terms and conditions page on your website.
Don’t display the name of other brands on your website in such a way that it misrepresents brand ownership.
Use third party brand logo on your website only if you are authorised to do so.
5. Irrelevant or unclear supporting documents.
Whichever selections you make while filling up the BOV form regarding your business relationships, they have to validated by supporting documents.
Google lists the following examples as supporting documents : Service agreements, invoices connecting both parties, government correspondence, email correspondence, or other business correspondence.
If you are an old and established business, providing the above supporting documents should not be a problem. However, the challenge comes for new businesses (particularly individual or unregistered businesses) where the business is not yet established.
Pro Tips:
Simply providing email correspondence or invoices would most likely lead to failure particularly for individual accounts.
We would recommend to attach a service agreement where the business name, location, goods or service provider, third party relationships, payment and refund policies are clearly outlined.
Third party service providers should preferably have a domain and the domain name should be included in the answers.
Bonus content for successful advertiser verification
Fanogram Digital has successfully completed Google Ads Business Operations Verification of hundreds of businesses in various niches.
Hence, as a bonus for reading this post this far, here are some exclusive tips based on our experience.
With all the new GDPR and privacy guidelines in place, we recommend to create a well defined privacy policy page (even though it is not mandatory in some countries).
Include the website link to your privacy policy in the BOV Form.
Do not collect sensitive information on your website unless it is absolutely necessary.
Your business verification should be done from the same country where your business is based. (Recall the “Who signs in to your google ads account? question on BOV form)
Even if you BOV is successful, that does not mean your account is verified forever. Do not change the content of your website relevant to your business identification and relationships after your verification is done. Your account can be suspended at any later stage if the information on your website do not match the information submitted in BOV form.
For other content, we do not recommend changes by more than 20%.
Be extra careful if you are attempting to get a restricted or prohibited business verified. Google already knows which types of websites and businesses are typically used for illegal purposes. For example, IP TV websites are usually suspended or paused for verification almost immediately because a lot of them violate the brand misrepresentation policy.
For businesses that require registration, certification or licences, you must provide the same.
Check out this video showing a live example of how to fill up the BOV form with complete guidance.
Fanogram Digital provides Google Ads Business Operations Verification Services at a nominal cost. If your account has already failed the verification or has been suspended due to this, you can contact us here or directly purchase the services from the author's fiverr profile by clicking here.
About the Author:
Sukanta Dutta is an expert in digital marketing industry specializing in performance marketing solutions. The author can be reached at mr.sukantadutta@gmail.com
Linkedin Profile : www.linkedin.com/in/sukanta-dutta
Fiverr Profile : https://www.fiverr.com/fanogram
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