Google AdWords Bans Horse Racing Ads But Allows Hard Liqueur?

Dec 12, 2008 - 8:18 am 6 by
Filed Under Google Ads

Google has recently allowed advertisers to place AdWords ads for hard liquors, beer, and even gambling ads in the UK, but has now banned ads for the keyword phrase, [horse racing].

A WebmasterWorld thread says this ban is brand new. He has had ads for that keyword phrase for a long time and now Google is telling him that these ads are not a "good match for AdWords". Even if you sell sporting goods for horse racing, or horse racing toys or anything not related to the gambling side, you cannot bid on the term [horse racing] (you can bid on [horse racing toys]).

Senior member, woop01 said:

We have been told by an Adwords rep that now horse racing and horse racing related activities are no longer considered a "good match for Adwords". I'm not talking about the wagering aspect of horse racing, the entire sport of horse racing.

We spent an afternoon removing any of the very minor references to wagering on a horse racing site that had been advertising with Adwords for years. Unfortunately, it was only after we did it that the rep then said that horse racing in general is the problem.

I find the whole thing fairly interesting.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: October 16, 2025

Oct 16, 2025 - 10:00 am
Bing SEO

Bing Gains Support For data-nosnippet HTML Attribute

Oct 16, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google

AI-Generated Google People Also Ask Almost Doubles In 3 Months

Oct 16, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google

Nano Banana Comes To Google Search Via Google Lens

Oct 16, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google Ads

Google Ads API Version 22 Now Available

Oct 16, 2025 - 7:21 am
Google

Google Read Aloud User Agent Updates Which Services Use It

Oct 16, 2025 - 7:11 am
 
Previous Story: Want Google AdSense Integration in Google Analytics? Here is How