- Joined
- Dec 13, 2014
- Messages
- 12
I work at a party that used to advertise for knives through Google. I shall not plug the company, but we are Europe based and are dealing with European Google employees. I think it's relevant to mention the background before dropping the information i gathered. I've spend hours talking with Google employees, had douzons of back and forth mail conversations and tried getting comments through the online community as well.
There are several fields of issue.
This is what they communicate and do. Google has a clause that actions which are to circumvent policy are a policy violation on their own. Any and all more creative methods to advertise for knives are prohibited as well by this clause. The policy is very frustrating to say the least. It is what it is though. And it's not enforced the same everywhere, in some countries the policy teams aren't enforcing the (strict) policy yet, for which i'm grateful.
I did see knivesshipfree and cabelas pop up when i recently searched Google though. While i am confident knivesshipfree will be thrown out again, cabelas might be big enough and have enough other products to let them continue their business.
That's my 2 cents, if there are any other advertisers out there, i'm personally interested in hearing your experiences as well. You can send me a msg in private to if you want.
There are several fields of issue.
1. Tactical knives: They provide a list of examples (e.g. daggers, butterfly knives), but in the end a Google policy employee will decide if a knife is tactical or not (an ESEE Izula fixed blade was given to us as example of a prohibited knife). I've tried in length to get them to comment on knife features which are indicative of rulings, with zero result. They simply will not comment.
2. Assisted opening knives are prohibited. Google's interpretation of assisted is broad, ANY feature of a knife that is to help a person with unfolding it is an assisted feature (exceptions being small blade nudges for your nails (e.g. Buck 110)) and provides a tactical advantage, and is thus prohibited. This means thumb studs fall in this category.
It's my personal observation that they are very brand orientated. For example the Victorinox délèmont line, which features blades with "assisted opening", is OK. While technically not, Google will look the other way because it doesn't have the air of a tactical knife (pure speculation on my part). Another fun example is the Buck 119, is it a tactical knife or not? It started out as a "yeah ok" and then it became a "no, i'm not sure" which translates effectively to being prohibited. When a policy employee is in doubt, they'll just play it safe. Interesting detail, machete's are allowed since they are officially classified as a tool for agricultural purposes or something of the sort, i'd have to look up the quote to be more specific. Tomahawk are prohibited, they're considered tactical. Advertise for a broad axe as a broad axe? Not cool. But advertise for it as an axe... sure, why not. It's not like policy employees actually know the difference between a broad axe and a splitting axe. They don't have an issue with the product, but the term describing the product. Unfortunately they do think the ZTs are tactical knives, whether you communicate them as being survival knives or not.
But when i said they are brand orientated i mean that they seem to have started searching for specific brands. For us it started with Cold Steel tomahawks. Some random day all the ads we had been running for months for these axes, while previously approved (which means they were vetted by a Google employee) were overturned and became disapproved. Same for the CS spartan. Days later we were hit with site suspension issues.
3. Is the website's intend to sell the prohibited products... Which is the rule which exempts Amazon, Ebay and other large (online) warehouse. The sheer volume of other product groups makes it so that they can get away with doing what others can not. When their ads are reported and are in violation the ads will be removed, but they'll never be penalized like specialized knife shops are.
2. Assisted opening knives are prohibited. Google's interpretation of assisted is broad, ANY feature of a knife that is to help a person with unfolding it is an assisted feature (exceptions being small blade nudges for your nails (e.g. Buck 110)) and provides a tactical advantage, and is thus prohibited. This means thumb studs fall in this category.
It's my personal observation that they are very brand orientated. For example the Victorinox délèmont line, which features blades with "assisted opening", is OK. While technically not, Google will look the other way because it doesn't have the air of a tactical knife (pure speculation on my part). Another fun example is the Buck 119, is it a tactical knife or not? It started out as a "yeah ok" and then it became a "no, i'm not sure" which translates effectively to being prohibited. When a policy employee is in doubt, they'll just play it safe. Interesting detail, machete's are allowed since they are officially classified as a tool for agricultural purposes or something of the sort, i'd have to look up the quote to be more specific. Tomahawk are prohibited, they're considered tactical. Advertise for a broad axe as a broad axe? Not cool. But advertise for it as an axe... sure, why not. It's not like policy employees actually know the difference between a broad axe and a splitting axe. They don't have an issue with the product, but the term describing the product. Unfortunately they do think the ZTs are tactical knives, whether you communicate them as being survival knives or not.
But when i said they are brand orientated i mean that they seem to have started searching for specific brands. For us it started with Cold Steel tomahawks. Some random day all the ads we had been running for months for these axes, while previously approved (which means they were vetted by a Google employee) were overturned and became disapproved. Same for the CS spartan. Days later we were hit with site suspension issues.
3. Is the website's intend to sell the prohibited products... Which is the rule which exempts Amazon, Ebay and other large (online) warehouse. The sheer volume of other product groups makes it so that they can get away with doing what others can not. When their ads are reported and are in violation the ads will be removed, but they'll never be penalized like specialized knife shops are.
This is what they communicate and do. Google has a clause that actions which are to circumvent policy are a policy violation on their own. Any and all more creative methods to advertise for knives are prohibited as well by this clause. The policy is very frustrating to say the least. It is what it is though. And it's not enforced the same everywhere, in some countries the policy teams aren't enforcing the (strict) policy yet, for which i'm grateful.
I did see knivesshipfree and cabelas pop up when i recently searched Google though. While i am confident knivesshipfree will be thrown out again, cabelas might be big enough and have enough other products to let them continue their business.
That's my 2 cents, if there are any other advertisers out there, i'm personally interested in hearing your experiences as well. You can send me a msg in private to if you want.