Joe Spector reports that when he tried designing a landing page for the Latino US market, and when he went on to advertise online, he approached all the big players: Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. Surprisingly, while Google was helpful, all his advertisements were rejected by Microsoft adCenter because he had used Spanish on the landing page.

The rejection notice sent to him by Microsoft looked like this:

“The reason for the disapproval is because of the use of a foreign language on the landing page. You are using the English US distribution channel and targeting the US and so you must use only the English language on the landing page.”

He expresses surprise that even the words tu media naranja in his ads would need to be translated to English.

Apparently, Microsoft’s adCenter allows advertisements to be drafted only in either English or French. Moreover, there don't seem to be any Google or Yahoo! policies which state that one can only use English on your landing pages, observes Barry.

Not too far back there was a hue and cry about Microsoft adCenter expecting advertisers to increase bid prices!