Google bans ads for payday and high interest loans

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Google announced it will no longer accept and display ads promoting payday loans requiring repayment within 60 days.

The update to the AdWords policy also includes a ban on ads for high-interest loans with an APR of 36 percent or higher in the US. David Graff, director of global product policy at Google, made the announcement in a blog post Wednesday.

"When reviewing our policies, research has shown that these loans can result in unaffordable payment and high default rates for users so we will be updating our policies globally to reflect that."

Graff noted that the change will not affect companies offering loans such as mortgages, car loans, student loans, commercial loans and revolving lines of credit (e.g., credit cards).

The move was praised by Wade Henderson, CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, who told Google, "This new policy addresses many of the longstanding concerns shared by the entire civil rights community about predatory payday lending. These companies have long used slick advertising and aggressive marketing to trap consumers into outrageously high interest loans — often those least able to afford it."

The policy updates go into effect on July 13, 2016.

About The Author As Third Door Media's paid media reporter, Ginny Marvin writes about paid online marketing topics including paid search, paid social, display and retargeting for Search Engine Land and Marketing Land. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, Ginny has held both in-house and agency management positions. She provides search marketing and demand generation advice for ecommerce companies and can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin. (Some images used under license from Shutterstock.com.)
Source: Google bans ads for payday and high interest loans