These advertising guidelines ("Specifications") apply to each Advertiser (as defined below), and serve to increase click-through frequency and quality. These Specifications apply to all Advertiser content including without limitation domain names, ads, keywords, and all Web site (as defined below) content (collectively, "Content"). Company reserves the right to reject submissions relating to any Content, products and/or services deemed unacceptable in Company's sole discretion. An Advertiser is any person or entity which utilizes search advertising with one or more of the following Marchex, Inc. companies: Marchex, LLC (f/k/a Marchex Adhere SSC, LLC f/k/a IndustryBrains, LLC), a Delaware limited liability company and successor in interest to Marchex Adhere PPC, Inc. (f/k/a Enhance Interactive, Inc. f/k/a ah-ha.com, Inc.); or Marchex Sales, Inc. (f/k/a MDNH, Inc.) a Delaware corporation (as applicable, the "Company"). The corresponding Company shall be solely responsible for determining Advertiser's compliance with these Specifications.
ADVERTISER WEB SITE
The Advertiser Web site ("Web site") must promote a clearly defined product or service. If such product or service is not provided by Advertiser, Advertiser must have appropriate permission for such advertising. Web sites limited to a simple list of items or links are not acceptable, and the Web site may not restrict the user's "back" button. Search engine, shopping, auction, and similar Web sites with dynamic content may not bid on keywords relating to specific products. Acceptable keywords are those related to the type of service provided by the Web site. (E.g., "mountain bikes", "mountain bike stores", "mountain bike trails").
TRADEMARK POLICY
An Advertiser's use and submission of any content that a third party asserts trademark rights to, without the authorization of the trademark owner, is a violation of these Specifications. Any Advertiser using such unauthorized Content assumes all liability with respect thereto and agrees to indemnify Company for any claims arising from such liability pursuant to the applicable terms and conditions of the advertising program.
Trademark owners (or their representatives) who have a good faith belief that an Advertiser is improperly using a trademark in Content are encouraged to contact such Advertiser directly, but may also directly contact Company with the following information:
- Your name, company name, if applicable, and relevant contact information;
- Trademark(s) in question;
- Current registration information for the trademark(s);
- Name of Advertiser improperly using trademarked term(s);
- The keyword(s) causing the relevant Content to appear and any evidence of consumer confusion resulting from the display of such Content;
- Copies of direct communications with the Advertiser regarding trademark concerns, if any; and
- A statement certifying that the information in your claim is true and correct and that you are authorized to act on behalf of the trademark owner.
Upon receipt of the above information, Company will endeavor to review the relevant Advertiser's compliance with these Specifications and, if applicable, take appropriate action.
KEYWORD GUIDELINES
Keywords may only contain alphanumeric characters and may not exceed 100 characters in length. Certain non-standard characters are invalid and cannot be included within keywords such as ! @ % ^ * ( ) = { } - ~ | ; , ' and ?. Keywords are not case-sensitive and are matched without regard to upper-case or lower-case letters (e.g. 'ppc campaign' encompasses both 'ppc campaign' and 'PPC Campaign'.) In addition certain common punctuation variations such as commas and periods will be ignored by our system (e.g 'second ave.' is equivalent to 'second ave'.)
EDITORIAL AND CONTENT GUIDELINES
Character Limits
Ad headline: 25 (including spaces)
Ad description: minimum 20 and maximum 70 (including spaces)
Display URL: 35
Destination URL: 500
Recommended Account Limits
Keywords per Account: 150,000
Campaigns per Account: 50
Ad Groups per Account: 1,000
Keywords per Ad Group: 1,000
Ads per Ad Group: 1 (only)
Prohibited Uses
Neither the Content nor Advertiser's use of the advertising services may: (a) violate any applicable law, statute, or ordinance; (b) promote, display or link to inappropriate, illegal, or harmful content; or (c) engage in "Net Abuse" (as defined below). Company reserves the right to restrict or prohibit any and all uses or content that it determines in its sole discretion to violate this Section. All examples below are non-exhaustive.
| Violation of Law: |
Infringement of Intellectual Property Rights (e.g., material protected by copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, right of publicity or privacy, or other proprietary right); illegal content (e.g., material which is defamatory, obscene, lewd); export violations (e.g., posting or sending software in violation of export laws); fraud (e.g., offering or disseminating fraudulent goods or services such as chain letters or pyramid schemes); violation of CAN-SPAM Act; |
| Prohibited Content: |
Alcohol. Content advertising certain alcoholic beverages including without limitation beer, hard alcohol and liqueurs.
Tobacco. Content advertising cigarettes, cigars or other tobacco products.
Cable Descramblers. Any content advertising descrambling cable or satellite signals.
Counterfeit Products. Content advertising counterfeit, imitation or replica products or goods.
Illegal Drugs, Drug Testing and Paraphernalia. Content promoting illegal or mind-altering drugs, drug paraphernalia and products designed to manipulate drug testing including without limitation drug cleansing shakes and urine test additives.
Fake Documents. Content advertising false documents including without limitation identification, passports, social security cards, etc.
Fireworks & Pyrotechnic Devices. Content advertising or promoting fireworks or pyrotechnic devices.
Questionable and Illegal Activity. Content advertising or promoting questionable or illegal activity.
Traffic Devices. Content advertising ways to evade traffic tickets.
Weapons. Content advertising certain weapons including without limitation automatic or assault firearms, ammunition, brass knuckles and switchblades.
|
| Harmful Content: |
Lewd, harassing, offensive, racist, threatening, inflammatory, or otherwise objectionable content; dissemination or hosting of viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bots or similar computer programming routines or technology; unfair or deceptive business practices; |
| Net Abuse: |
Distributing or publishing any kind of unsolicited or unwelcome email ("Spam"); posting a single article or substantially similar articles to an excessive number of newsgroups or mailing lists; repeated or deliberate posting of articles that are off-topic according to the rules of the newsgroup or mailing list where posted; posting advertising in a conference or newsgroup, unless specifically permitted. |
Prohibited Terms
The superlatives and phrases set forth below are prohibited:
| at its best |
freshest |
rock-bottom |
| beat any price |
greatest |
safest |
| best |
highest |
supreme |
| biggest |
hottest |
the leader |
| can't be beat |
largest |
the leading |
| cheapest |
lightest |
the most |
| fastest |
longest |
the top-rated |
| finest |
no. 1 |
the top 10 |
| first rate |
number one |
unbeatable |
| foremost |
preeminent |
unmatched |
| lowest |
premier |
won't be undersold |
Style Specifications
Advertiser shall use standard grammatical rules unless otherwise noted herein. Ad copy must be logical and contain correct spelling, punctuation and grammar (commonly misspelled words or spelling variations may be accepted). Numbers and letters must adhere to their true meaning. The following uses are prohibited:
- repetitious symbols, words or phrases (e.g., "Sale Sale Sale.");
- gimmicky, vulgar or obscene language;
- use of more than one exclamation mark;
- use of ellipses ("...");
- inclusion of contact information in the headline or description;
- excessive use of punctuation marks and/or inappropriate spacing;
- substitution of a word which may be written for a symbol (e.g., "$" for "money");
- use of ampersand ("&") in a headline except if part of a proper noun; and
- capitalization of words not normally capitalized (e.g. "Start Saving TODAY").
Additional rules are as follows:
- Hyphens: Include a space before and after (e.g. "Socks - $5.00 and up").
- Abbreviations: Are generally not permitted. However Advertisers may make use of common abbreviations within their ad copy that web users would easily recognize.
- Conciseness: Ad copy should be brief and informative. Avoid repetition between the headline and description. Avoid nonspecific call-to-action phrases such as "click here".
- Headlines: Headlines should be in title case (e.g., Excellence in Distance Education) and may not contain exclamation marks.
- Descriptions: Descriptions must be at least twenty characters in length.
- Symbolic Characters: Symbols must adhere to their true meaning. No more than two ampersands ("&") may be used in an ad (headline and description combined). No more than a total of six symbolic characters and/or punctuation may be used in a description and no more than three in a headline (DKI brackets do not count towards this punctuation limit). No more than two symbolic characters may be used in sequence. The characters "{ } < > ~" are not permitted in either headlines or descriptions.
COMPLIANCE
Company shall be solely responsible for determining whether Advertiser is in compliance with these Specifications, but shall have no obligation to take any specific action with regard to same, investigatory or otherwise. Additionally, Company reserves the right to report any suspected illegal activity to the appropriate authorities. Company may modify these Specifications at any time.
Effective June 1, 2010
