The queue went vague at the corner

The queue ran along the wall, turned left at the corner, and carried on out of sight.

At the bend, a man stood still, looking both ways, not quite sure which side of the corner he was on.

From the back, you couldn't see the front.
From the front, you couldn't see the back.

Somewhere around that corner, the queue stopped being a line and became a matter of opinion.

The one-second glance

Watch someone join a queue.

Before anything else, they look down to the front, back to the end, and check who's standing where.

It takes about a second.

Once you're in, the watching doesn't stop.

Someone drifts towards the middle, suddenly interested in a sign on the wall. Heads turn. Nobody says anything. The people nearest close a gap that wasn't really a gap.

They find the back.

The rule works because everyone can see it.

Round the corner

Around the bend, that stops working.

Two people end up side by side, neither sure who was first. Someone hovers in the middle, technically in the queue and technically not.

Nobody is necessarily behaving worse.

They just can't see what's happening.

Back of the queue

A business advertising home loans, car loans and personal loans had a similar problem.

Its Google Ads account wasn't passing financial services verification.

Instead of fixing the problem, it kept opening new accounts.

Every new account started again from the back of the queue, with no history and the same problem underneath.

Before long there were several accounts, each holding part of the picture.

Nobody could easily see the whole thing.

That's the problem with accounts disappearing around the corner.

You lose the history, and the same problem gets worked around again and again instead of fixed.

Questions to ask about financial services Google Ads

If you're advertising financial services, a few things are worth knowing:

• Has the account passed financial services verification?
• If not, what exactly is stopping it?
• How many accounts exist, and who can see all of them?
• If the relationship ended tomorrow, would the account and its history stay with you?

Financial advertising already comes with enough checks.

Creating another account shouldn't be the solution to failing the first one.

The queue moves on

Then the counter opens and the queue disappears.

Twenty minutes of strangers keeping each other in order, and nobody thinks about it again.

Tomorrow it'll start somewhere else.

The rules will be the same.

You just need to be able to see where the back is.