Fix ads with policy violations

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When you have an ad with policy violations, you’ll want to review the policy and fix the ad to get it running again. Once you fix your ad, we'll review the ad and allow it to run if it’s compliant with policy. Please note that the duration for policy restrictions is permanent and the territorial restriction is global unless otherwise specified.

This article explains how to find out if your ad is disapproved or limited by policy, why your ad is disapproved or Eligible (limited), and how to edit your ads and resubmit your ad for review. Additionally you will learn how to appeal a policy decision. To appeal DV360 ads, refer to this page.

Ads can be compliant with policies, and still receive policy labels.

  • If your ad is labeled for a policy, but is targeting countries/regions where these policies don’t apply, your ad would serve.
    • For example (non-exhaustive): An ad labeled for Alcohol Information, targeting the US, would have the “Eligible Limited” status. The ad would serve as normal to US users, in line with our Alcohol policy’s Ad network, platform, and format requirements.
  • If your ad is labeled for a policy, but you are appropriately certified to serve ads for that policy, your ad will serve.
    • For example (non-exhaustive): An ad labeled for Complex Speculative Financial Products, serving in Singapore, run by an account with Complex Speculative Financial Products certification for Singapore, will have the “Eligible: Limited” status. The ad will serve to users in Singapore, provided the ad and landing page are compliant with all other Complex Speculative Financial Products guidelines.

However, there may be other scenarios where you’ll need to appeal your ad for further review.

  • If your ad is disapproved due to issues in your destination, you’ll need to fix your destination, and then appeal.
  • If you’ve reviewed the policy and believe your ad is compliant with the policy, you’ll want to appeal.

This article also explains how to take these steps. To learn more about how to check ads for policy violations and what different ad statuses mean, read Check your ad’s policy review status.

How to check ads for policy violations

Check for policy violations from your Google Ads account

Check the status of an ad or group

  1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon Campaigns Icon.
  2. Click the Campaigns drop down in the section menu.
  3. Click Ads or Ad groups.
  4. Review the "Status" column for the current status of your ad or ad group.

Check the status of an asset

  1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon Campaigns Icon.
  2. Click the Assets drop down in the section menu.
  3. Click Assets.
  4. Review the "Status" column for the current status of your asset.

Check detailed policy information of an ad or asset

The "Policy details" column provides information about why a disapproved ad isn't "Eligible", or why an "Eligible (limited)" ad is limited to a certain audience. You can add the “Policy details column” to the Ads or Assets table by following the steps below.

  1. From the table on the Ads or Assets page in your Google Ads account, click the Columns iconA picture of the Google Ads columns icon above the statistics table.
  2. Click to expand the Attributes section.
  3. Click Policy details.
  4. Click Apply. The “Policy details” column will now appear in your statistics table.

Check for policy violations from an ad disapproval email notification

  1. Click the View and fix policy issues button provided in the email.
  2. Click View ads for the flagged policy to see more information in Policy Manager.
  3. To check an ad or asset status, review the “Status” column. If you hover over each status, you’ll notice a more detailed explanation of the policy violation.
  4. Click Read the policy under the disapproval reason to learn how to fix your ad.

Fix your ad

The steps to fix your ad depend on the policy violation impacting your ad.

Your ad itself may be non-compliant with specific Google Ads policies:

  • For example (non-exhaustive): Your ad is disapproved for punctuations and symbols under the Editorial policy because repeated punctuation or symbols were used in the ad headlines.

Or there may be issues with your destination:

  • For example (non-exhaustive): Your destination has content that’s not allowed.
    • Note: In addition to complying with all other policies, ad destinations must meet our Destination Requirements. If all content on your destination is compliant, check your destination to determine if a technical issue is causing the disapproval and work with your webmaster to make any necessary changes before proceeding.
      • For example (non-exhaustive): Your destination is not working, or your destination is not crawlable.

First, check which policy is affecting your ad, and then follow the applicable steps below.

Note: For video or image ads, please review the video and image ad requirements.

If your ad is not affected by policies related to the destination, follow these steps to fix the ad:

  1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon Campaigns Icon.
  2. Click the Campaigns drop down in the section menu.
  3. Click Ads.
  4. Hover over the ad or asset and click Edit.
  5. Edit the ad or asset so that it complies with the policy.
  6. Click Save.

Your ad will automatically be reviewed again. You can check the status of your appeal by reviewing the “Status” column or using the Policy Manager.

To resolve policy issues for Related videos, remove the videos, save your changes, and upload them again to initiate a new review.

Appeal policy decision

The option to appeal a policy decision directly from your Google Ads account is now available for most formats and policies.

For any unsupported formats and policies, you can dispute policy decisions using the Disapproved ads and policy questions form.

If you’ve fixed your ad and destination or believe that we’ve made an error, appeal the policy decision directly from your Google Ads account to request a review.

  1. You may appeal ads in batches for specific ad group(s) or campaign(s). If you attempt to appeal all ads in your account at once, you may experience longer review times.
    1. Follow the instructions here to submit an appeal for an entire campaign.
  2. Please also ensure that an appeal for the same ad group(s) or campaign(s) or for all ads in your account is made 24 hours after the previous appeal to avoid appeal requests from being marked as duplicate.
  3. If we have indications that you may be misusing our appeals function, we will suspend the processing of certain appeals until you reach out to customer support. For example, the appeal limit for each ad is 3 times. If you appeal 3 times unsuccessfully, we will not process additional appeals on the same ad. If you still believe your ad is policy compliant, please reach out to customer support. In addition, if you submit too many unique appeals within a 24-hour window, we will suspend processing of additional appeals during that window.
Tip: Appeals via “Made changes to comply with policy” are reviewed by the system and “Dispute decision” are reviewed by our ad reviewers.
  • For example (non-exhaustive): If you’ve made changes on your landing pages to comply with policies such as Destination not working and Restricted Drug Terms, you would select “Made changes to comply with policy” under "Reason for appealing".
  • For example (non-exhaustive): If you believe that we’ve made an error on the disapproval, you would select “Dispute Decision” under "Reason for appealing".

From here, there are 3 ways to appeal.

How to appeal policy decisions from the “Policy manager”

  1. In your Google Ads account, click the Tools icon Tools Icon.
  2. Click the Troubleshooting drop down in the section menu.
  3. Click Policy manager.
  4. On the “Policy issues” tab, find the ad you want to appeal, then click Appeal.
  5. Under "Reason for appealing," select Dispute decision or Made changes to comply with policy.
  6. Click Submit.

How to appeal policy decisions from the Assets page

  1. Select the ads you want to appeal.
  2. From the menu at the top, select Edit.
  3. Click Appeal.
    • If any of the ads you selected aren’t eligible for appeal, you’ll receive a message showing which ads aren’t eligible.
  4. Under "Reason for appealing", select Dispute decision or Made changes to comply with policy.
  5. Under "Appeal the following", select which ads you want to appeal.
  6. Click Submit.

How to appeal policy decisions from an ad's "Status" column

  1. In the “Status” column of the ad you want to dispute, hover over the ad status, and click Appeal.
  2. Under "Reason for appealing", select Dispute decision or Made changes to comply with policy.
  3. Under "Appeal the following", select which ads you want to appeal.
  4. Click Submit.

Check appeal status

After appealing, you can always check on the review status in the Policy Manager.

  1. In your Google Ads account, click the Tools icon Tools Icon.
  2. Click Troubleshooting, then click Policy manager.
  3. On the “Appeal history” tab, you’ll find details for all ads you’ve appealed.
  • The “Status” column shows whether the appeal is still in progress or complete.
  • Review complete: Your review is now complete. Review the “Results” column for more details.
  • In progress: Your appeal is currently under review. Please check back in 24 hours.
  • Not reviewed: Your appeal was not reviewed. Review the “Results” column for more details.
  • The “Results” column shows the results of the appeal, including how many ads had their policy review status updated after the review. If you submit the same appeal too many times, you may notice the status 'Exceeded appeal retry-limit' in the Appeals History tab within Policy Manager. Please contact customer support for assistance with filing a new appeal.
  • Successful: The policy appealed no longer applies to any of the ads that were reviewed. All of your ads in this appeal are no longer restricted due to the policy appealed. If there are remaining policies applied to your ads that are restricting serving, please appeal if you've read the respective policy and disagree with the decision.
  • Partially successful: The policy appealed no longer applies to at least one of the ads that were reviewed. If there are remaining policies applied to your ads that are restricting serving, please appeal if you've read the respective policy and disagree with the decision.
  • Error: Try again: There was an error in processing your request. Please contact our support team.
  • Failed: None of your ads in this appeal are Eligible. Please review Google Ads policies and fix your ads and landing pages. Common appeal failures include the ad being correctly labeled, and (occasionally) reviewer errors.
  • Duplicate: Your appeal has not been processed because it was submitted while we were still processing your previous appeal on the same set of ads. Please contact our support team.
  • Exceeded appeal retry-limit: If we have indications that you may be misusing our appeals function, we will suspend the processing of certain appeals until you reach out to customer support. For example, the appeal limit for each ad is 3 times. If you appeal 3 times unsuccessfully, we will not process additional appeals on the same ad. If you still believe your ad is policy compliant, please reach out to customer support. In addition, if you submit too many unique appeals within a 24-hour window, we will suspend processing of additional appeals during that window.

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