Russia-based advertisers can no longer reach global audiences on Google properties and networks

Google will pause ads on its properties and networks globally for advertisers based in Russia, the company announced Thursday. This means that advertisers based in Russia can not run Google ads targeting Russia-based users or anywhere else in the world.

Escalating ads suspensions. Google first began imposing ad suspensions on February 27. The initial round of suspensions was aimed at Russian state-owned media outlets. On March 3, the company expanded on the suspension by including all ads serving to users in Russia. 

Google is far from alone here. Numerous other platforms, including Microsoft Advertising, Apple, Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat have announced similar policies in light of Russia’s actions in Ukraine. However, Google seems to be the first platform to take these actions a step further by hamstringing Russia-based advertisers from reaching global audiences.

Why we care. This cuts off an important channel for brands in Russia, hindering their ability to reach potential customers elsewhere in the world. If other platforms follow Google’s lead, Russia-based businesses may suffer as their audiences shrink.

From an industry standpoint, these suspensions are making it nearly impossible to use paid channels to get in front of Russian users. Unfortunately, we have no indication of how long the conflict (and thus, these suspensions) will last.

The conflict in Ukraine. In addition to impacting the lives of countless people across the globe, Russia’s actions in Ukraine have also affected the search marketing industry as well as the professionals who work in it. Here is some our recent coverage:

About The Author

George Nguyen is an editor for Search Engine Land, covering organic and paid search. His background is in journalism and content marketing. Prior to entering the industry, he worked as a radio personality, writer, podcast host and public school teacher.