Google bans payday loan advertising in its policy – so what should you do?
Payday loans and other short-term finance options, especially those with higher APR can be harder to promote for an affiliate marketer. It can feel like you’re playing a game of cards with the deck stacked against you.
Certain platforms other online marketing verticals use for promotion will outright refuse to allow you to advertise alternative finance products with them. A lot of online marketers used to other niches can rely heavily on PPC schemes to funnel traffic to their website. Without this avenue, they’re left trying to figure out what to do.
So, I’ll be showing you what you CAN and CAN’T do to promote your payday affiliate lead gen website in a way that is sustainable, even without PPC!
What exactly are the rules?
You’re a blogger and you want to increase your traffic to your site and get more clicks as a result. You’ve been following our 2-part guide on best practices, “How to increase affiliate marketing traffic & clicks” but you’ve come up against a wall when it comes to the rules for Google, Facebook, and other internet marketing promotional tools.
From Google’s website:
“We do not allow the promotion of: Personal loans which require repayment in full in 60 days or less from the date the loan is issued […]. This policy applies to advertisers who offer loans directly, lead generators and those who connect consumers with third-party lenders.”
So, that includes YOU, affiliate bloggers. This is a worldwide policy. And in the US, high APR (over 35%) loans are automatically banned as well.
“In the United States, we do not allow ads for personal loans where the Annual Percentage Rate (APR) is 36% or higher. Advertisers for personal loans in the United States must display their maximum APR, calculated consistently with the Truth in Lending Act (TILA). This policy applies to advertisers who make loans directly, lead generators, and those who connect consumers with third-party lenders.”
So, no payday loan AdWords spots. If you ignore this or try to game the system and get caught, they’ll sink your site and all your hard work (and MONEY) will go down the drain.
Facebook is another platform that bans loan ads.
“Adverts must not promote payday loans, paycheck advances or any other short-term loan intended to cover someone’s expenses until their next payday.”
There’s no arguing with that. And don’t forget, Instagram is owned by Facebook.
Twitter does seem to be more lenient in terms of what they allow in their ads, but as a rule, expect a social media platform to have some strict rules about what you can advertise, or imply. For example, you may not be allowed to imply that a payday loan could be taken out for a fun shopping spree.
Make sure you look up the rules in your state and the Federal laws while you’re doing this research.
So what is a poor affiliate marketer in this niche to do?
The answer is to create valuable content
It couldn’t be simpler. Content is not the same as an advert. Content is what search engines like Google and social media sites like Facebook feed on. You can’t be banned for writing a Facebook post that links to your blog (as long as it obeys content rules), even if your blog has affiliate links to payday lenders. Google itself will list your page in its SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), even though it contains affiliate links.
But you will be especially able to compete within these restrictions if you do just one thing.
Make each web page more valuable to the reader than to yourself.
The customer comes first
If you obsess over stuffing in affiliate links, it does two things that can kill your chances:
- It reduces the amount of useful information which puts off your site visitors
- It makes search engines value your site less – and you will slide right down the rankings
If you saw my post on the best keywords to use in the payday affiliate lead gen industry, then you will already be familiar with this concept.
Write from the heart about real situations that people can relate to. Provide guides to getting out of unexpected financial trouble. Offer reasons why they should choose one loan provider over another… it’s not rocket science.
Listen, no social media site or search engine is able to ban you for creating content, and this kind of content is actually doing good in the world. So, everybody wins.
Sign up to revJOLT‘s lead marketplace now and become an early adopter!