Microsoft reserves the right to withhold approval of advertising content at its discretion. The following sections describe the types of content that adCenter content guidelines may prohibit or restrict. To help ensure that your ad is approved, apply these content guidelines as you write ads, select keywords, and link to landing pages.
Adult content
Alcohol and tobacco
Deceptive products and services
Defamatory, libelous, slanderous content
Free offers and sweepstakes
Illegal substances and activities
Pharmacies and medical or pharmaceutical products
Political and religious content
Privacy statement
Software
Spam
Trademarks
Traffic tickets
Unaccredited universities
Weapons, fireworks, and violence
Webcams and surveillance equipment
- Advertising that contains associations with adult keywords is not allowed.
- Advertising and associated landing pages that contain sexually explicit content are not allowed. Such content includes, but is not limited to:
- Partial or complete nudity
- Suggestive positions or activities
- Advertising for web sites that feature predominantly adult content is not allowed.
- Adult content that is displayed on otherwise non-adult sites must be clearly segregated from the non-adult content.
- Most types of gambling-related content cannot be advertised on Live Search or MSN-affiliated webpages. For more information about the kinds of gambling-related content allowed, see the Gambling guidelines.
- Advertising that facilitates or promotes hate speech, whether directed at an individual or a group, is not allowed.
- Profanity is not allowed in an ad or keyword, nor is it allowed on the landing page of an advertiser's web site.
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- Advertising that promotes beer or hard alcohol is not allowed.
- Advertising that promotes wine is allowed, as long as the associated landing pages do not sell other types of alcohol.
- Advertising that promotes tobacco is not allowed.
- Advertising that promotes firearms or weapons of any kind is not allowed.
- Advertising fireworks is not allowed
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- Advertising that advocates, glorifies, or promotes rape, torture, cannibalism, suffering, or death, or that displays graphic or violent images is not allowed.
- Advertising that promotes products and services that are designed to facilitate deception is not allowed. Such disallowed products and services include those that promote:
- Cheating on spouses.
- Fake documentation or identification. For example, essay-writing services that encourage or enable individuals to represent someone else’s work as their own; or falsified records, such as college diplomas or birth certificates.
- Circumventing drug tests. The promotion of products that encourage or enable the beating of drug tests is not allowed.
- Advertising that contains defamatory, libelous, or slanderous content is not allowed.
- Advertising that promotes sweepstakes is not allowed.
- Advertising that offers "free" goods or services, including ads that use the word "free," must indicate that terms and conditions apply.
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- Advertising that promotes devices for descrambling cable or satellite signals is not allowed.
- Advertising that promotes illegal drugs or related paraphernalia is not allowed.
- Advertising, promoting, or facilitating illegal activity is not allowed.
- Advertising that promotes illegal contests, pyramid schemes, or chain letters is not allowed.
- Advertisements for pharmacies and medical or pharmaceutical products are restricted based on applicable laws. In the United States, Microsoft adCenter requires online pharmaceutical advertisers and advertisers who use pharmaceutical-related keywords and ads to have Pharmacy Checker certification. This safeguard helps to ensure that such advertisers are qualified pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors, or sellers.
- Over-the-counter drugs (drugs that do not require a prescription) are permitted.
- Herbal supplements or vitamins are permitted.
- Drug manufacturers do not require Pharmacy Checker certification as long as they do not sell their pharmaceuticals to the public online.
- Companies providing information or services relating to pharmaceuticals (such as books on drugs, or pharmaceutical information) do not require Pharmacy Checker certification as long as they do not sell pharmaceuticals to the public online.
- Only pharmacies based in the United States and Canada can target the U.S. market.
- Different guidelines or restrictions might apply to web sites in countries or regions other than the United States.
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- Advertising that exploits sensitive political issues for commercial gain is not allowed. However, political advocacy is generally allowed.
- Advertising that uses texts or rituals of a religion to ridicule or shock its followers is not allowed.
- Advertisers must include a prominent link to a privacy policy that is applicable to the information being collected.
- Advertising that promotes software that takes actions not expressly consented to by the user (dialers, for example) is not allowed.
- Advertising for bulk marketing products is not allowed if the intended use is unsolicited spam.
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- Microsoft adCenter does not allow you to bid on as a keyword, or use in the content of your ads:
- Any term whose use would infringe the trademark of any third party or otherwise be unlawful or in violation of the rights of any third party.
- Microsoft adCenter might allow the use of a third-party trademark if its use is truthful and lawful, for example if:
- You are a reseller whose web site sells authentic goods or services that are distributed under the trademark.
- Your web site provides information (for example, product reviews) about goods or services represented by the trademark, and you do not sell or facilitate the sale of any product or service that competes with the goods or services represented by the trademark.
- You are clearly using the ordinary, dictionary use of a term, and your web site does not sell, or facilitate the sale, of any product or service that competes with the owner of the trademarked term.
If you have a concern that your trademark is being used improperly, please do the following:
- Contact the advertiser directly.
- Contact us by completing the Online Trademark Concern form, which you can find on the Trademark Concerns page.
- Advertising that promotes devices, services, or methods to avoid traffic tickets is not allowed.
- Advertising that promotes unaccredited universities is not allowed.
- Advertising that promotes the sale or use of webcams or surveillance equipment for illegitimate use is not allowed.
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For more information on content guidelines, visit Microsoft adCenter Help: Content Guidelines |
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