Google scans Ad Manager creatives for policy violations and to prevent malware in ad content. If Google detects a policy violation, it either temporarily pauses or permanently deactivates the creative from serving. Remove the policy violation to re-traffic the existing creative or traffic a new one.
This article outlines the process for identifying and resolving policy violations in ad creatives, which are scanned for malware and adherence to Google's platform policies.
On this page
- Understand policy violation creative statuses
- Find creatives under policy violation
- Fix policy violations
Note: Because of the sensitive nature of policy violations, Google is unable to provide additional information beyond what’s available in the Google Ad Manager UI.
Google periodically re-scans creatives that are flagged for policy violations. The frequency of re-scanning is based on a number of factors and is not something we can expedite. If you need a campaign to run as soon as possible, traffic a new creative after resolving the policy violation.
Understand policy violation creative statuses
Creatives affected by a policy violation have one of the following "Inactive" statuses:
Status | Description | What you should do |
---|---|---|
Disabled for policy violation | Google has disabled the creative because of a policy violation. It won't be reactivated in the future. | Fix the policy violation and traffic a new creative. |
Paused for policy violation; re‑scanning | The creative is currently not serving because of a policy violation. The creative will be re-scanned and, if Google determines that it no longer has policy violations, it will be cleared. | Wait for Google to re-scan the creative. |
Cleared; eligible for serving | Google has determined that the creative no longer has policy violations. | Add the creative back to the line items to resume delivery. |
1. Find creatives under policy violation
When you add both filters, you can see all of the line items with creatives that have been flagged for a policy violation, but have been updated.
- Sign in to Google Ad Manager.
- Click Delivery, then Line items, and then All line items.
- Add one or both filters listed below, using the described criteria. When you add both filters, you can see all creatives that have been flagged for a policy violation, but have been updated.
- Click to open any of the affected line items, then click Creatives to see the specific violation.
2. Fix policy violations
Once you find a creative under policy violation, you can click to open its creative details page for more information.Follow these steps for the given violation.