Google Adwords Interruption May Be Coming for Business Lending and MCA This Week
Get ready for Google to probably misinterpret what you do come July 13th, the day that Google has decided to ban all consumer lenders that charge more than 36% APR or have terms less than 60 days, from paid search advertising. This is according to an announcement Google made back in May, as part of a campaign they’ve suddenly decided to undertake to stop profiting from payday lending.
Nevermind that Google is openly in the payday lending business themselves through their investment in LendUp, a short term lender they made a second massive investment in just a few months before they moved to ban everyone else. And nevermind of course that the CFPB has just extended their enforcement activity to middlemen, most notably by going after T3Leads and its owners for directing borrowers to questionable prospective lenders that pay top dollar, arguably in a similar banner to what Google does with its searchers and its paid payday search results.
Nevermind all that.
Here’s what you might mind. A Google Adwords specialist might have no idea what kind of financial activity you engage in and it could end up costing you. Eight months ago for example, the organic search results lumped merchant cash advance into cash advance, triggering a special box for merchant cash advance seekers that inadvertently (or maybe intentionally) referenced payday loans.
If your Google ads do get suspended this week, the semantics surrounding the term cash advance could create a challenge.
Google wrote that commercial loans are exempt from the ban and that should presumably mean all commercial finance products such as factoring and merchant cash advance. But if they screw up, and in all likelihood they probably will with some companies, be as clear as you can in explaining the commercial nature of your product and how it works.
Because if they don’t get it, you could be banned for life.
Last modified: July 12, 2016
Sean Murray is the President and Chief Editor of deBanked and the founder of the Broker Fair Conference. Connect with me on LinkedIn or follow me on twitter. You can view all future deBanked events here.
