AdSense for Search tightens Referrer Ad Creative requirements

Google notified publishers on October 7, 2025, of mandatory changes to AdSense for Search policies governing Related Search for Content pages. Publishers who direct traffic from third-party sources will face new obligations regarding the Referrer Ad Creative parameter, with enforcement beginning November 1, 2025.

The email notification outlined specific requirements for publishers utilizing Related Search for Content functionality. When traffic arrives from sources under publisher control—including any third-party network, service, or affiliate partnership—publishers must provide the referrerAdCreative parameter. This parameter requires precise and complete creative text from the advertisement or link source.

Google defined "precise and complete creative text" as literal transcription. The policy mandates verbatim inclusion of multiple content elements from upstream sources. Publishers must capture title lines, description text, body copy, button text, image text, video text, audio transcripts, handles, and any other wording appearing in the source creative. The company emphasized that omitting values appearing in source creative constitutes a policy violation.

The notification provided a specific scenario to illustrate the new requirements. An upstream video source featuring an influencer walking down a street while speaking to the camera with background music requires comprehensive transcription. Publishers must provide the full transcript of speech, complete song lyrics, visible text on street signs, and any other elements appearing anywhere on the user's screen. All content must be provided verbatim and in its entirety.

The technical documentation confirmed that the referrerAdCreative parameter should only be provided on Related Search for Content requests. The system will ignore the parameter on all other request types. Publishers should only use the parameter on traffic intentionally sourced from other sources, not on organic traffic. The parameter accepts valid UTF-8 encoding, supporting unicode characters and diacritics while remaining case insensitive.

Google may use or ignore submitted parameter values. When used, the referrerAdCreative parameter may affect the selection and ranking of related search terms displayed to users. The documentation noted that this parameter becomes required when publishers also use the terms parameter to supply their own related search terms.

Related Search for Content represents a distinct product variation from Related Search on Search. The relatedSearchTargeting page parameter controls which experience displays based on page context. Publishers must set this parameter to 'content' for Related Search on Content pages such as articles and blog posts. Using the default 'query' value on non-search results pages constitutes a violation of written instructions.

The policy change affects traffic sourcing practices across the publisher ecosystem. Many publishers utilize third-party networks, services, and affiliate partnerships to drive traffic to content pages. These arrangements often involve upstream creative elements—advertisements, links, social media posts, or influencer content—that direct users to publisher sites. Under the new requirements, publishers bear responsibility for capturing and transmitting complete creative text from these upstream sources.

Google's Search Partner Network ecosystem has faced increasing policy scrutiny, with the platform introducing Restricted Access Features in June 2025 to create tiered access based on compliance records. Publishers with policy violations face restricted functionality across Related Search units, reporting capabilities, and customization options. The RAF system, which became active August 25, 2025, automatically restricts accounts with five or more active violations to probation status.

The implementation complexity varies significantly based on upstream content types. Text-based advertisements and links require straightforward transcription of visible copy. Video content introduces audio transcription requirements, capturing both spoken content and any music with lyrics. Visual elements within videos—street signs, billboards, on-screen text—demand inclusion regardless of prominence or relevance to the primary message. Audio-only sources require complete transcript capture of all spoken words and musical content.

Publishers face operational challenges in maintaining compliance. Third-party traffic sources frequently update creative content without direct publisher involvement or notification. A single affiliate partnership might utilize dozens or hundreds of distinct creative variations across different placements. Video influencers produce content with ambient elements—background music, environmental text, incidental audio—that publishers must capture despite not controlling the creative production process.

The policy establishes publisher responsibility for content created by third parties. When publishers partner with affiliate networks or influencer marketing platforms, they assume liability for creative text transcription despite lacking direct control over content production. This responsibility extends to elements publishers might consider incidental—background music lyrics in influencer videos, text visible on clothing or surroundings, ambient audio captured in content creation.

The case sensitivity and encoding specifications provide implementation guidance. The parameter accepts UTF-8 encoding with support for unicode characters and diacritics, enabling accurate representation of content in multiple languages and character sets. Case insensitivity means publishers can submit creative text without concern for capitalization matching, though verbatim accuracy requirements still apply to actual word content.

Google's documentation specified when the parameter should and should not be used. The referrerAdCreative requirement applies only to traffic that publishers intentionally source from other locations. Organic traffic arriving at content pages directly does not require the parameter. This distinction matters for compliance—publishers must distinguish between traffic they actively acquired through partnerships versus traffic arriving through other means.

The parameter interaction with Google's systems involves algorithmic processing. Google may choose to use or ignore submitted referrerAdCreative values. When the system uses the parameter, it can influence which related search terms appear and their relative ranking. This creates uncertainty for publishers regarding whether their compliance efforts affect the actual user experience or remain unused by Google's systems.

AdSense for Search has undergone multiple policy refinements since March 2024, when Google clarified acceptable origins for search queries and introduced Product-Integrated Features. Publishers must ensure queries stem explicitly from user search intent, falling within defined categories that include search terms entered directly, Product-Integrated Features adhering to policies, or Alternative Search Queries on enabled sites and apps.

The terms parameter relationship with referrerAdCreative creates combined requirements. Publishers supplying comma-delimited lists of related search terms through the terms parameter must also provide referrerAdCreative. This pairing suggests Google uses upstream creative text to inform decisions about which publisher-suggested terms to display. The relatedSearchTargeting parameter must be set to 'content' when using terms, establishing a three-parameter dependency for publishers providing their own related search suggestions.

The ignoredPageParams parameter introduces additional complexity for Related Search for Content implementations. Publishers can specify URL parameters that Google's crawler should disregard when indexing content pages. This helps the crawler recognize pages as previously indexed and begin showing suggested terms. However, including URL parameters that significantly impact page content, appearance, or user experience violates written instructions.

Site-level approval requirements for AdSense for Search, implemented in March 2024, added verification steps for publishers. Sites must appear in the AdSense account Sites page, undergo ownership verification, and receive approval before displaying AFS ads. Existing sites required submission by August 30, 2024. The layered approval and compliance requirements create multiple points where publishers must maintain policy adherence.

The violation consequences remain clearly stated in the notification. Omitting required referrerAdCreative values will be considered a policy violation. Google provided no grace period language or gradual enforcement indication. The November 1, 2025 effective date establishes a clear compliance deadline. Publishers must implement systems to capture and transmit complete creative text before this date.

The marketing community faces operational adaptation requirements. Publishers must establish workflows to capture complete creative text from third-party sources. This might involve contractual requirements for creative partners to provide transcripts, technical integrations to capture creative content automatically, or manual processes to transcribe upstream content. The verbatim accuracy requirement leaves no room for summarization or approximation.

Implementation verification poses challenges for publishers. Testing whether referrerAdCreative implementations comply with the "precise and complete" standard requires capturing every element mentioned in the policy. A single missed word from background audio or overlooked text element constitutes incomplete compliance. Publishers lack immediate feedback mechanisms to confirm their implementations meet Google's verbatim requirements.

The policy's scope across all third-party relationships creates broad impact. Publishers partnering with content recommendation networks, native advertising platforms, affiliate marketing services, influencer marketing agencies, or social media partnerships must evaluate whether traffic from these sources reaches Related Search for Content pages. Each relationship potentially requires creative text capture and transmission systems.

Revenue implications remain unclear but potentially significant. AdSense for Search functionality provides publishers with monetization options for both search results pages and content monetization. Policy violations can affect account standing, potentially triggering restrictions under the Restricted Access Features framework. Publishers weighing compliance costs against revenue from third-party traffic sources face calculation complexity.

The November 1, 2025 deadline provides less than four weeks from the October 7 notification for full compliance implementation. Publishers must evaluate their traffic sourcing practices, identify all third-party sources directing users to Related Search for Content pages, establish creative text capture systems, implement parameter passing in AdSense for Search requests, and verify compliance accuracy. This timeline compresses operational changes that might normally require longer planning and implementation periods.

Industry precedent for such granular creative tracking requirements remains limited. While advertising platforms commonly require advertisers to retain creative content for compliance purposes, requiring publishers to capture and transmit complete verbatim transcripts of upstream content—including incidental elements like background music lyrics and environmental text—represents an unusual degree of third-party content responsibility.

The policy interacts with Related Search for Content's broader purpose and functionality. This product variation allows publishers to display related search terms on content pages rather than search results pages. The related search terms drive users to search experiences that can display AdSense for Search ads. The referrerAdCreative requirement aims to inform Google's systems about how users arrived at content pages, potentially improving related search term relevance or detecting problematic traffic sources.

Privacy and consent requirements for AdSense for Search have expanded across jurisdictions, with Switzerland added to EU User Consent Policy coverage in June 2024. Publishers must implement certified Consent Management Platforms with Transparency and Consent Framework integration when serving ads to users in covered regions. The referrerAdCreative requirements add another layer to the expanding compliance obligations publishers face.

Publishers should review the best practices documentation Google referenced in the notification. The help center article on using related search provides implementation guidance. The implementation guide contains accurate parameter declaration requirements that complement the new referrerAdCreative policy. All usage of Related Search for Content must adhere to existing requirements while adding the new parameter obligations.

The case insensitivity specification offers limited relief in implementation complexity. While publishers need not match capitalization precisely, the verbatim requirement for all content elements—including background music lyrics, environmental signage, and incidental audio—remains comprehensive. A video featuring an influencer in Times Square would require transcribing visible text on surrounding digital billboards, store signage, and any pedestrian clothing with legible text appearing in frame.

Google's statement that it may use or ignore the parameter creates uncertainty. Publishers must implement full compliance systems despite not knowing whether their efforts affect the user experience. The system might use referrerAdCreative for some traffic sources while ignoring it for others. Publishers lack visibility into these decisions. The parameter might inform term selection algorithms for some queries while having no effect on others.

The policy affects how publishers evaluate third-party traffic partnerships. Partnerships involving complex creative content—particularly video with multiple audio sources and environmental text—create higher compliance costs than simple text-based link sources. Publishers might reconsider relationships where creative capture complexity exceeds traffic value. Alternatively, publishers might negotiate creative access and transcription services as partnership terms.

The digital marketing ecosystem relies heavily on affiliate networks, content recommendation platforms, and influencer partnerships. These intermediaries often operate at scale, working with numerous publishers and advertisers simultaneously. The new requirements might necessitate infrastructure changes at the network level to provide publishers with creative text data in machine-readable formats. Without such infrastructure, publishers face manual transcription at scale.

The email notification came from Google AdSense to publishers using the service. The sender address used Google's standard AdSense notification system. The communication style—technical policy detail combined with implementation requirements and violation warnings—matches typical Google product policy announcements. The notification included publisher-specific account information, confirming targeted delivery to active AdSense for Search participants.

Technical implementation requires integration with existing AdSense for Search code. Publishers using the Custom Search Ads API must add the referrerAdCreative parameter to page-level parameters in their request configurations. The parameter accepts string values containing the complete creative text. Character encoding must support UTF-8 to properly transmit unicode characters and diacritics present in creative content.

Publishers operating in multiple languages face additional complexity. Creative content from third-party sources might appear in different languages than the publisher's primary content. The UTF-8 encoding support enables accurate representation, but publishers must ensure their systems properly capture and transmit text in all relevant character sets and writing systems. Arabic script, Chinese characters, Cyrillic alphabets, and other writing systems must be preserved accurately.

The requirement applies regardless of traffic volume from third-party sources. A publisher receiving minimal traffic from affiliate partnerships faces the same verbatim transcription obligations as a publisher whose primary traffic derives from third-party sources. The policy establishes no minimum traffic threshold or materiality standard. Any traffic from controlled sources reaching Related Search for Content pages triggers the requirement.

Publishers should document their compliance implementations. While the notification does not explicitly require documentation, the violation consequences and future enforcement consideration suggest maintaining records of creative text sources, transcription methods, and parameter implementation verification. Such documentation might prove valuable in any future policy enforcement or appeal processes.

The marketing significance extends beyond the immediate affected publishers. The policy demonstrates Google's increasing emphasis on traffic source transparency and quality for its advertising products. Similar requirements might eventually extend to other Google advertising products or other stages of the user journey. Publishers should monitor whether verbatim creative tracking requirements appear in other contexts.

Timeline

• March 27, 2024: Google updates AdSense for Search policies introducing Product-Integrated Features
• March 7, 2024: New site-level approval process begins for AdSense for Search sites
• June 24, 2024: New AdSense for Search consent requirements announced for Switzerland
• June 24, 2025: Google announces Restricted Access Features for AdSense Search
• August 25, 2025: Restricted Access Features system becomes active for AdSense for Search accounts
• October 7, 2025: Google notifies publishers of Referrer Ad Creative policy updates via email
• November 1, 2025: New referrerAdCreative requirements take effect for Related Search for Content

Summary

Who: Google AdSense notified publishers using AdSense for Search, specifically those implementing Related Search for Content functionality and directing traffic from third-party sources including networks, services, and affiliate partnerships.

What: New mandatory requirements for the referrerAdCreative parameter, requiring publishers to provide precise and complete verbatim transcription of all creative text from upstream traffic sources, including title lines, descriptions, body text, button text, image text, video text, audio transcripts, song lyrics, visible environmental text, handles, and any other wording appearing in source creative. Omitting required content will be considered a policy violation.

When: Google sent the notification on October 7, 2025, with the policy change taking effect on November 1, 2025, providing publishers approximately three weeks to implement compliance systems.

Where: The requirements apply globally to all publishers using AdSense for Search's Related Search for Content feature who receive traffic from sources under their control, including any third-party network, service, or affiliate partnership directing users to content pages.

Why: Google stated the changes aim to ensure the accuracy and effectiveness of its systems. The verbatim creative text requirements provide Google with complete information about upstream content that directed users to Related Search for Content pages, potentially informing related search term selection and ranking while enabling detection of problematic traffic sources and maintaining advertising quality standards.