Two Reasons Google Ads Lead Form is Rejected

An Investigation on Why the Google Ads Lead Form in My Google Ad Got Rejected.

I just found out two reasons Google Ads lead form is rejected by Google. Before I get to the point, here is the story. [If you are in a hurry, skip to the last paragraph of this article.]

I know from my experience that Communication or rather the lack of it, is the Reason for most, if not all of the World's problems.

Google ads, is a case in example. :-)

We all know Google is making billions through its ads and its communication is impeccable.

But, wait, don't get into hasty conclusions. Enter Google ads.

I do not claim to be an expert in Google ads. But, we generally use it to promote our business. I assume you know more than a little aboug Google ads. Hence, there is no introduction offered here.

So, recently, we created a responsive search Google ad, with a lead form to try and capture some leads.

It was an ad to promote one of the largest wedding venues in Chennai.

What is a Google lead form?

A Google lead form is one of the extensions to a Google ad. Here, a prospect can fill in their contact details, to know more about the product/service on display.

Sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, and one-click calling are other extensions. Like these other extensions, lead forms are also shown directly under search ads.

For each campaign you need to create a lead form, if required. Of course, a lead form thus created could be used in multiple ad campaigns.

Filling the Google Ads Lead Form

Here, the lead form had a "Headline", the "Business name", a "Description".

I filled in all three.

Of the many listed, I chose three contact details, such as name, phone number and city, for the visitor to fill in. These are by default, pre-filled automatically.

Lead Form Qualifying Question

From my earlier experience of using Google lead forms, I found out the disadvantages of a plain form. Without a qualifying question, you generally tend to attract a lot of junk enquiries. I do not know the exact reason, though.

To avoid that I included a mandatory qualifying question, which will ensure that the visitor indeed posted the enquiry. He/she is forced to choose an answer from a dropdown, or fill in a text box with some information. I assumed that just the submit button without the qualifying question was the reason for the junk enquiries.

Most of them we called, would say, "What enquiry? I didn't post any enquiry. Call again and I will report you!". Paying money and inviting trouble :-)

While Google lead forms may appear to be a convenient solution for lead generation, there is a lesson here. It is that the quality of leads collected probably isn't as high as with a personalized post-click landing page. By having a well-designed personalized page experience, we can achieve the same results as Google lead form extensions can. Furthermore, a dedicated page gives prospects a more comprehensive introduction to the offer and your brand. It gives them relevant details to assist in making an informed decision.

Once I filled in all the requisite details, I saved the form. And waited. Google Ads responded after a little while with the message

Not eligible
Disapproved
Ad violates policy and can't run:
Unacceptable spacing

What Did I Miss Out On?

I clicked on "Read the policy". Here's the link to the lead form requirements. I went through it with a fine toothcomb and couldn't find anything untoward in my lead form content.

Now, I did not give any extra spacing or miss a space between words as given in the example in the policy. So, what was the real issue? It looks like Google ads wants us to find out the reasons, the hard way.

Google could have told us that there is a problem with the Headline. Or the qualifying question, or wherever. But, it chose to just limit the response to "Unacceptable spacing", that's all.

I started looking at each word and letter individually, to rule out any error. I checked for a spelling mistake or an extra space that I might have put in there. At the end of this exercise, I found that I was using an exclamation mark "!". Could that be the problem?

Assuming that the "!" could be the culprit, I removed that. And submitted the ad. After sometime, I found the ad was again "Not eligible".

Not finding anything untoward, I clicked on "Appeal" and disputed the decision.

Again no luck. Rejected again. Totally confused now, I assumed that the messaging was grammatically incorrect.

I wrote the head line "Top Wedding Hall 500 Guests", in order to adhere to the 30 character limit. So, I changed it to "Top Wedding Hall in Chennai" and submitted again.

Two Reasons Why Your Lead Form Could Be Rejected

Voila! The ad got through. So, these are the culprits. The insight here is that you cannot use the exclamation mark(!) and the statements you make in your ads, have to be grammatically correct.

And, finally my Google ads lead form finally got approved.

Revenge and its Consequences

REVENGE AND HOW IT HURTS US MORE

Why should I not take revenge?

Revenge seems to be a natural response to injustice that seems to target us. This is what we do and have been doing since inception. 

Did we think for a moment that why should we alone be targeted for good or bad, in a billion strong population?

Did we stop a moment an think why only a few hundreds or thousands are affected in a natural disaster and not all?

Did we pause to ponder that when millions are driving on the roads, why only a few are involved and get seriously hurt in accidents?

Why do people cause grievous hurt to themselves and others for no apparent reason?

To understand this, we need to understand that there are multiple levels of consciousness in nature.

Nature by its nature, cannot do us any harm by itself. It is designed to be protective of us. And, it is in constant communication with us telling us to do a certain thing or not to proceed with a certain thing. But, as with any case of modern communication, it is not enough that the transmitting cell is working. If the communication is to be complete, the receiver cell also has to be working 100%, otherwise the message is not received well at the receiver's end.

It is the same case with nature. Nature communicates with us in many ways, wanting to help us all irrespective of the goodness, badness or neutrality of our activities. That is the nature of nature or the cosmos; it is full of benevolence.

But, what happens is that based on our past and present actions, some of our antennae or receptors are blocked and/or faulty. In such cases, we are not in a position to receive messages from the cosmos. When this happens, we are prone to error and one such error cascades into a series of errors culminating ultimately in sorrow. This may be related to health, family, business and other activities.

To regain control of our life, now and beyond, we need to follow the nature of nature. We need to change ourselves to mimic nature. Nature is not partial. Whatever is in nature is for everyone of us. Nature does not hurt anyone. Whatever is in nature is for the benefit of not just humanity, but for all beings in nature.

What happens when we take revenge?

Revenge is an action that is against nature. In fact, any reaction is an unnatural action. We can be pro-active, but not reactive. Reaction is a destructive mechanism. So, reaction is better avoided. Let action pass through us as if it did not happen. Or, it can be tackled gently without violence.

When it gets to a stage where somebody will get hurt, we should never go for it.

When we hurt somebody, in whatever little of big way, it gets registered in our memory. It is like taking a loan. The loan amount and the repayment amount including interest is instantly recorded. At the right time and right place, we will be repaying the amount. There is no escape.

When we keep doing hurt on others, the ability of our body to lock on to the frequency of nature's helping wavelength is affected. For some it is less and for others it is affected more.

Revenge affects us in small ways and big ways.

We all are aware that incidents happen in a fraction of a moment. If one of the participant is late even by a moment, then that incident does not happen.

Take for example, we are following a bus. The bus suddenly takes a turn and blocks our path. As we are cursing the bus driver, from the bus gets down our friend whom we have not seen in decades. 

We would have missed her if we had started a bit late or early. If we had started early, we would have passed the bus and had we been late, the bus would have passed us. This small happiness is the  result of a good deed in the past.

In the same manner, somebody is pushing the bike to the nearest petrol pump, in the middle of the night. There are many things that could happen here. Another biker, or an autorickshaw, could stop by and tow you to the nearest petrol station.

Or, some thief on his way home, could stop and rob your purse, leaving you in further distress.

At the end of it all, we attribute it to good or bad luck. But, that is not the case. It is because, we are not in control of our such memory; we have no recall of the past. 

We have to understand that whatever happens, is deemed to happen. But, whatever will happen in the future, is in our hands.

So, beginning now, forget that revenge.