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Contextual advertising for the sale of medicines (gray segment)

Sale of medicines (gray segment)

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About the project:

An online store that sells medical products, including prescription drugs, without the mandatory requirement to provide a prescription. The main goal is to ensure a stable flow of customers from search queries, while bypassing the restrictions of Google Ads advertising policies.

Issues:

  1. Medicines are a category subject to strict regulation in contextual advertising.

  2. Google Ads requires verification of certifications and licenses, and prohibits advertising of certain types of drugs.

  3. Frequent refusals to moderate ads due to non-compliance with policies.

Actions:

Cloaking:

  • We created 2 versions of the site: one for moderators, which looks like an informative health blog, and the second for real customers with products and an ordering function.

  • We set up a dynamic redirect: Google moderators see a "white" site, and customers see a commercial page.

    Working with creatives:

  • The ad texts were adapted to Google policies: words like "sale" and "drug delivery" were avoided, replacing them with "consultations" or "information about drugs."

  • Neutral image (no images of pills or blisters).

    Geotargeting:

  • The ad was targeted at countries with less strict policies on medical advertising (outside the US and EU).

  • In Ukraine, for example, the rules are somewhat more loyal, which allowed us to launch test campaigns.

    Account rotation:

  • Used multiple Google Ads accounts to avoid blocking.

  • If one account was banned, they would switch to another with prepared campaigns.

Results:

  1. CTR: averaged 4.5%, as the ads were as relevant as possible to the audience.

  2. ROI: for every dollar invested, they received $3.2 in profit.

  3. Monthly traffic: about 15 thousand visitors from search engines.

  4. The complexity of cloaking and control of moderation checks required constant monitoring, but this allowed us to keep advertising active.

Conclusions:

Contextual advertising in gray areas, such as the sale of medicines, requires constant work on bypassing moderation algorithms, technical solutions (cloaking, account rotation), and adapting advertising materials.

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