Sorry, No Emoji Allowed In Google PLAs (Frown Face)

Just when it looked like the newest frontier for emoji could be PLAs, Google has fixed the glitch, so to speak.

At least one intrepid advertiser figured out how to get an emoji to appear alongside the display URL in its Google Shopping campaign ads, spotted here on Google.dk (Denmark).

Unfortunately for this and any other advertisers pushing the emoji envelope, Google recently updated its store name guidelines in the Merchant Store policy center to specifically cite emoticons and emoji among its don’ts.

Emoticons and emoji had fallen under the existing guidelines that disallowed the use of unnecessary symbols, but until the recent update, the guidelines only specifically listed “ALL CAPS” as an example of unnecessary use of punctuation, capitalization or symbols.

So until a business adopts an emoji as part or all of its name (and that is a dare), PLAs will be an emoji-free zone. And admittedly, that’s probably for the best.

Thanks to Frederik Hyldig from s360 A/S for the SERP screenshot.

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About The Author

Ginny Marvin

Ginny Marvin was Third Door Media’s former Editor-in-Chief (October 2018 to December 2020), running the day to day editorial operations across all publications and overseeing paid media coverage. Ginny Marvin writes about paid digital advertising and analytics news and trends for Search Engine Land, Marketing Land and MarTech Today. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, Ginny has held both in-house and agency management positions. She can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.