Google has announced that it will be changing its policy for advertising pharmacy products on AdWords in the U.S and Canada.
Selling prescription drugs online is more prevalent in the US thanks to the difference in healthcare systems.
Because of the potential problems existing around selling pharmaceuticals to the public outside of accredited healthcare, such advertising is heavily scrutinised by the federal government. Search engine marketing, though self-regulated, is particularly restrictive thanks to the heavy competition among online retailers in the sector and the unscrupulous practices and claims of some websites in the past.
Yesterday in a post on its Inside Adwords blog, Google announced that it will be changing its AdWords policy towards the end of February.
When the changes go into effect, AdWords will only accept PPC ads from online pharmacies in the US that have been certified by the National Association Boards of Pharmacy VIPPS program. In Canada, it will only accept those that have been accredited by the Canadian International Pharmacy Association (CIPA).
In addition to this, pharmacies may only target ads to users in the country in which they are accredited. Therefore, CIPA certified advertisers will only be able to run Adwords campaigns to Canadian users rather than the US and vice-versa for VIPPS certified advertisers.
“Accordingly, we’ll no longer be using any 3rd party verifier of online pharmacies other than VIPPS and CIPA” says Dan Friedman of the Inside Adwords crew. “Adwords advertisers who aren’t accredited by VIPPS or CIPA will no longer see their online pharmacy ads displayed once this policy change comes into effect.”
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