Regulatory Compliance for Wine & Spirits Advertising :: Part 4

In this fourth part of our wine and spirits series, we’ll look at rules and regulations—both legal and platform-level.

For wine and spirits merchants, compliance is not a side topic. Legal restrictions and channel policies can shape where and how you advertise. Ignoring them can lead to product disapprovals or full account suspensions.

1. Shipping Rules and Geography

Start with where you are legally allowed to sell.

Fundamentals:

• Obviously, do not advertise in states or counties where you cannot legally ship.

• Pay attention to “dry” counties and other local restrictions.

Use the most granular geo tools the platform offers:

• On Google, take advantage of ZIP-code and county-level targeting where appropriate.

• On less mature platforms that only allow state-level settings, err on the side of caution and start small.

From a feed perspective, this often means:

• Encoding shipping eligibility into attributes (e.g., a custom label that cleary denotes "liquor" so it can easily be excluded)

• Actually excluding products from specific feeds

• Keeping internal lists of allowed regions up to date and reflected in both feed rules and campaign settings.

2. Channel-Specific Alcohol Policies

Each major platform has its own alcohol advertising rules (Google, Meta, Microsoft, etc.). You are expected to comply with both local law and platform policy.

Common areas to watch:

• Ad copy
  This is generally not a problem for feed related ads because there is limited copy.  Keep an eye on "extensions" in Google Ads and ensure they don't promote alcohol in ways that violate obvious regulations.

• Landing pages
  Ensure that:

  • Pricing and key product details are clearly shown

  • Any required age-gate or disclaimers are implemented correctly

  • The business is licensed to sell in the locations shown

Before launching on a new channel, see if you can get an account rep to join a call to look for obvious problems.  You are paying them for advertising after all, they can and should join a review call.

3. Protecting Account Health with the Feed

Many account problems start with the feed:

• Products submitted for regions where you cannot ship

• Incomplete or inaccurate attributes

• Placeholder images are used too broadly

• Mismatches between feed data and the landing page

To keep accounts healthy, merchants must monitor disapproval and warning rates across channels and adjust feed rules accordingly.

A clean, accurate feed is usually the fastest way to prevent repeated policy issues.

Bringing It All Together

Across this series, we’ve covered:

1. Protecting ad spend by cutting low-intent traffic and excluding the wrong products

2. Structuring titles and images so buyers and algorithms understand what you’re selling

3. Choosing channels that make sense for wine merchants, from Google and Microsoft to specialty platforms and LIA

4. Staying within legal and platform rules so your accounts remain stable

Managing all of this in-house is demanding, especially for merchants with multiple locations and large catalogs. A strong feed partner doesn’t replace your marketing team, but it does give them the tools and data structure to run smarter campaigns.

If your shop:

• Spends at least $25,000 USD per month on online advertising, and

• Operates two or more physical locations,

We’re happy to discuss how VersaFeed can support your wine and spirits program.

You can reach us here if you have questions.