I’m a brick/mortar computer repair shop. We fix them all, laptops, desktops, Windows, Mac – you name it. I’m trying to create a simply Google ad and when I entered my first keyword, I get a warning from Google. This keyword is pretty insane, so make sure you’re sitting for this. The keyword for my computer repair shop is “computer repair”. Hold your applause – I know how brilliant that was.

So I can’t use that keyword because it violates Google’s policy, which is that there is to be no “Technical support by third-party providers for consumer technology products and online services.”.

Here’s the detail:

Examples (non-exhaustive): Online and offline technical support and troubleshooting for consumer tech products and services (example, data recovery, security, virus removal, booting, internet connectivity, account recovery, password resets or login support, installations, maintenance), hardware repair services, software installations, aggregators and comparison sites for technical support.

So…. That reads as if I can’t advertise period, the end. Am I missing something?

And I just checked by google searching “computer repair <my town and state>” and guess what? One of my competitors has a sponsored ad for that keyword.