The ads were disapproved, and I asked what the objection was to the ellipsis but never received an answer. I substituted a dash, and the ads ran. Only problem is, a dash is the wrong tool for the job--like using a semicolon for a colon or a comma.
So my question is, if I'm willing to use up three of my 25 or 35 characters for a legitimate literary effect, why does Google object?
You can write support to ask for a waiver.
For instance you can't have all caps however a term like PADI for dive schools is necessary because it looks weird when you put Padi. They will almost always approve this.
That was a good thought about the '...' symbol. I hadn't tried it before, but I did just now, and I still get an error message, although not the same one as previously. This time it says, "Certain types of characters will not display correctly in AdWords ads and are therefore not allowed. Please correct your ad text to include single-byte characters." So I'd still have to request an exception, and I imagine it would still be rejected because of multiple punctuation. However, I imagine the rule was intended to prevent indavertent errors rather than deliberate use of a typographical convention.
They might answer just to show they know what it means.
Then hit them with why they disallow the punctuation that marks it.
Demand equal rights for all rhetorical punctuation. :)
I recently had some ads disapproved because I used an ellipsis ... otherwise known as suspension points or "three dots." It's a conventionally accepted symbol to indicate a trailing off or break in thought or speech and is often used to convey humor or irony ... which is how I used it.
mark1111, thanks for moving this question over here - much appreciated.
Funny, in three years here, I've never encountered an ellipsis in ad copy. So, I'll need to double check with an Editorial Guidelines expert who is away at the moment.
But I'm going to make an educated guess that the problem may not that you used an ellipsis, but rather where you used it. For example if you used it at the end of the last line of ad text before the Display URL, that might be a problem. Why? Well, on some sites, (AOL for one) your ad will appear as a single line of text, minus the URL. So in that case your ad would appear to be unfinished.
Another possibility is that you've used it in a way that the editor felt was essentially 'gimmicky', or meant to call attention to the ad visually.
By the way, I think the most traditional usage of an ellipsis is not to indicate irony or humor, but to indicate that text has been removed (to save space for example).
A quick check on my favorite search engine, seems to indicate that this is the case. So perhaps the disapproval has to do with that - that somehow it makes your ad look incomplete, or as if you didn't have room to really finish it.
Definitions of ellipsis on the Web:
[google.com...]
BTW, this is just my opinion, but I think that crisp and informative ads may serve you better than ones that make people wonder what you meant: Was that humor he was after, or did he just leave something out?
Anyway, I'll get an expert's word on this soon. Most likely tomorrow. (You've heard that before, eh? ;) )
AWA
Let me give an analogy. Suppose I were promoting graphics for web sites (I wasn't) and said this:
Make Your Web Graphic
...Graphic! Buy Our Top-Quality etc.
True, I could do it like this:
Make Your Web Graphic
Graphic! Buy Our Top-Quality etc.
but it doesn't come off the right way. In fact, it creates precisely the uncertainty you pointed out should be avoided. (Is the second line a continuation of the headline, or does it start a new sentence?)
So I had to do it like this:
Make Your Web Graphic
- Graphic! Buy Our Top-Quality etc.
which at least indicates a pause, but it isn't really the right effect either.
I agree about crisp and informative ads, but I think there are different ways to reach the same goal. (In my pre-Adwords life I was an editor, so I'm attuned to these things.)
Victor, I agree about equal rights for all rhetorical punctuation, but aposiopesis is usually indicated by a dash (typically represented by a hyphen where an em dash is not available), and Google doesn't object to those.
Anyway, I'll get an expert's word on this soon.
OK, mark1111, I've got the official word now, and it's a bit different that I had guessed yesterday - though of the same basic flavor, in that it goes to creating crisp and non-gimmicky ads.
I've think I've got to stop this guessing thing, though, and go back to my old 'No posting until 99.5% certain' rule. I think I'll start today. ;)
In any case, although I won't argue with your point about the many ways in which an ellipsis may be legitimately used elsewhere, when it come to AdWords, it may be used in only one way - and that is as a formal indication that words have been removed.
I do know what you were after with the examples you gave - but my 7000 hours with AdWords tells me that (entirely apart from the question of meeting the Editorial Guidelines) you'd probably find better results without the ellipsis anyway.
I'm not sure if others have thoughts or personal experience with this, but, if so, I'd be interested in hearing about it. (I think we need a classic eWhisper post - as he has seemingly researched every single thing under the AdWords sun!)
AWA
I've wanted to use ad text with a ... before, to indicate a trailing thought and a call to action, as in its use in both English text and in a pull-down-menu item meaning more follows if you click here as a nicer alternative to a colon, such as (poor example, but off the top of my head):
Visit us to find out more...
etc. I was refused too.
It may be more common in British English or in certain styles of copy than in US English. I used to edit an international trade mag and I quite like ... in certain circumstances.
So, AWA, I think your editors should lighten up on non US-English uses, especially since they seem to let some HORRIBLE grammar and mis-speelingg through! B^>
Rgds
Damon
