List of ad policies
Review process
- About the ad review process
- About Past violations
- Eligible (limited): Definition
- Under review: Definition
- Advertising policies
- Disapproved: Definition
- Not eligible: Definition
- How automation is used in content moderation
- Limited ad serving
Verification and transparency
Change log
List of ad policies
Review process
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About the ad review process
Google provides translated versions of the Advertising Policies Help Center, though they're not meant to change the content of the policies. The English version is the official language used to enforce Google Ads policies. To view this article in a different language, use the language dropdown at the bottom of the page.To keep ads safe and appropriate for everyone, ads are reviewed to make sure they comply with Google Ads policies. Most ads are reviewed within one business day.
On this page
Your ads under review
Check your ad’s status and get help if you need it. Most reviews are completed within one business day, but more complex reviews can take longer.
How ad review works
After you create or edit an ad or asset, the review process begins automatically. The content in your ad is reviewed, including your headline, description, keywords, destination, and any images and video.
If your ad passes the review, its status will change to "Eligible" and it will start to run. If your ad's status is "Eligible" but it isn't running, check that the campaign it belongs to isn't paused.
If the review indicates that your ad violates a policy, its status will change to "Disapproved", which means it can’t show anywhere. You’ll be notified of the policy violation and informed what you can do next.
Learn how to Check the review status of an ad or asset.
Ad status is “Under review”
Your ad's status is "Under review" during the ad review process. Changes to your ad or assets restart the review process and may cause delays.
Google reserves the right to prioritize ad reviews or re-reviews to ensure the overall stability of system operations, or temporarily restrict ad serving to ensure policy compliance.
How long ad review takes
- Most ads are reviewed within one business day. However, some reviews take longer if the ad requires a more complex review.
- If your ad is under review for more than 2 full business days, check your ad’s status.
- If your ad has been under review for more than a week, contact Google Ads support for assistance.
How to start ads on a particular date
If you need your ad reviewed by a particular date, submit the ad several days in advance. To stop an ad from running as soon as its status is "Eligible", pause the ad, ad group, or campaign. Paused ads are reviewed just like active ads. Learn how to Pause or resume your ads.
If you're also planning to launch a new webpage at the same time, that webpage will need to be complete for your ad to be reviewed.
To make sure that the new page stays hidden until your launch date:
- Don't link to the new page on the rest of your website. If you were to link to the new page, then search engines might index it, and the page could start appearing in search results.
- Configure your website’s "robots.txt" file. Your robots.txt file tells search engine crawlers which URLs the crawler can access on your site. You can update your robots.txt file to tell search engines not to index the page. When you’re ready to launch, update your robots.txt file again to allow crawlers to access the page. Learn How to write and submit a robots.txt file.
Related links
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About Past violations
Google provides translated versions of the Advertising Policies Help Center, though they're not meant to change the content of the policies. The English version is the official language used to enforce Google Ads policies. To view this article in a different language, use the language dropdown at the bottom of the page.Google continuously re-reviews ads to ensure they conform with our policies. During the standard re-review process, our system may identify disapproved ads that no longer violate our policies. If your ad was disapproved for an extended period of time and our enforcement system later decides that the policy no longer applies, Google may keep the ad disapproved and classify the ad as “Past Violation”. Google does this to prevent you from unintentionally exhausting spend on old ads. In order to re-activate your ads, follow the steps below:
Instructions
- Select Campaigns or Assets in the Campaigns
menu.
- In the "Status" column, hover over the "Disapproved" status.
- Select Appeal.
- Under "Reason for appealing," select Dispute decision or Made changes to comply with policy.
- Under "Appeal the following," select which ads you want to appeal.
- Select Submit.
Note: If the “Appeal” link isn’t available, the associated policy doesn’t allow campaign submission. You’ll need to make and save minor edits to each ad to trigger a review.To learn more about fixing disapproved ads, visit Disapprovals and suspensions help articles. - Select Campaigns or Assets in the Campaigns
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Eligible (limited): Definition
Google provides translated versions of the Advertising Policies Help Center, though they're not meant to change the content of the policies. The English version is the official language used to enforce Google Ads policies. To view this article in a different language, use the language dropdown at the bottom of the page.A status given to ads and products that comply with our policies but are limited in where and when they can show.
An ad or product will be marked "Eligible (limited)" when Google Ads policies, such as Alcohol, Gambling, Healthcare, and Trademarks, prevent certain types of ads or products from showing in certain locations, to certain ages, or on certain devices.
Additionally, ads may be limited due to policy restrictions based on the content of your ad or website. This limitation can also apply if your website content contains terms associated with regulated industries, even if your products or services themselves are compliant.
For example:
- A gambling ad or product run by an advertiser certified under our Gambling policy will serve as Eligible (limited).
- An ad or product labeled for our Sexual Content: Moderately Restricted policy will serve as Eligible (limited).
If you believe your ad or product has been incorrectly labeled for a policy restriction, you can file an appeal. Learn how to Fix a disapproved ad.
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Under review: Definition
Google provides translated versions of the Advertising Policies Help Center, though they're not meant to change the content of the policies. The English version is the official language used to enforce Google Ads policies. To view this article in a different language, use the language dropdown at the bottom of the page.A status given to ads that are being reviewed to ensure they are safe, appropriate, and comply with advertising policies.
We review most ads within one business day, though some complex reviews may take longer. If your ad is under review for longer than one full business day, contact us. Google reserves the right to prioritize reviews to ensure the overall stability of system operations. -
Advertising policies
Google's advertising policies are designed to ensure a safe and positive experience for our users and abide by applicable laws. This means that our policies prohibit content that is harmful to users and the overall advertising ecosystem.
The policies cover four broad areas:
- Prohibited Content: Content that is never allowed, such as counterfeit goods, dangerous goods, or sexually explicit content.
- Prohibited Practices: Actions that are not allowed when advertising, like misrepresenting who you are or what you're selling.
- Restricted Content: Content that can be advertised but with limitations, such as alcohol, gambling, and healthcare products.
- Editorial and Technical Standards: Quality standards for ads and landing pages, ensuring they are clear, professional, and functional.
We use a combination of Google AI and human evaluation to ensure that ads comply with these policies. Our enforcement technologies use Google AI, modeled on human reviewers’ decisions, to help protect our users and keep our ad platforms safe. More complex, nuanced or severe cases are often reviewed and evaluated by our specially-trained experts.
Related links
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Disapproved: Definition
A disapproved ad won't show because it violates the Google Ads policies.
Find out why an ad was disapproved by hovering your cursor over the "Status" column. This will display information about the policy violation impacting your ad. Click “Read the policy” under the disapproval reason to learn how to fix your ad.
If you believe that we’ve made an error or have fixed your ad to comply with our policies, you can appeal the disapproval by following the guidelines here. After you submit an appeal, it will be reviewed. Check the Policy Manager in your Google Ads account to see the status. Ads can become "Eligible" if the review determines that the ad complies with our policies.
Related links
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Not eligible: Definition
A status given to campaigns, ad groups, ads, or keywords that are not serving.
Learn more
- About the ad review process
- Enable the Policy Details column to see why an ad is Not eligible
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How automation is used in content moderation
Google provides translated versions of the Advertising Policies Help Center, though they're not meant to change the content of the policies. The English version is the official language used to enforce Google Ads policies. To view this article in a different language, use the language dropdown at the bottom of the page.To keep ads safe and appropriate for everyone, ads are reviewed to make sure they comply with Google Ads policies. Most ads are reviewed within one business day.
We use a combination of Google's AI and human evaluation to detect and remove ads which violate our policies and are harmful to users and the overall Google Ads ecosystem. Our enforcement technologies may use Google's AI, modeled on human reviewers’ decisions, to help protect our users and keep our ad platforms safe. The policy-violating content is either removed by Google's AI or, where a more nuanced determination is required, it is flagged for further review by trained operators and analysts who conduct content evaluations that might be difficult for algorithms to perform alone, for example because an understanding of the context of the ad is required. The results of these manual reviews are then used to help build training data to further improve our machine learning models.
When reviewing content or accounts to determine whether they violate our policies, we take various information into consideration when making a decision, including the content of the creative (e.g. ad text, keywords, and any images and video) as well as the associated ad destination. We also consider account information (e.g., past history of policy violations) and other information provided through reporting mechanisms (where applicable) and our investigation.
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Limited ad serving
Google provides translated versions of the Advertising Policies Help Center, though they're not meant to change the content of the policies. The English version is the official language used to enforce Google Ads policies. To view this article in a different language, use the language dropdown at the bottom of the page.To protect the integrity of the Google Ads advertising ecosystem, Google limits impressions of ads that have a higher potential of causing abuse or a poor experience for our users. This policy is specific to a certain set of ad-serving scenarios, which are detailed below. In these instances, only qualified advertisers will be able to serve ads without impression limits.
Advertisers in certain industries might separately have to Apply to advertise certain products & services using Google Ads.
On this page
- About Limited ad serving
- Advertisers with unclear brand relationships and generic ads
- Best practices
- Advertisers serving on YouTube
About Limited ad serving
Why will certain advertisers be limited?
Ads from unqualified advertisers will be limited in specific scenarios to decrease the potential for negative user experiences when interacting with these ads. This helps increase user and advertiser trust in the Google Ads platform.
Google wants to ensure that YouTube maintains a trustworthy ecosystem for advertisers and users, and may limit impressions for YouTube ads from unqualified advertisers. Initial enforcement for this policy began in September 2024 and will gradually be applied to all YouTube ads by 2026. Additional restrictions may apply to advertisers advertising in certain high-abuse verticals. Learn more about who is a qualified advertiser and what you can do to become qualified.
If you're not promoting ads within these scenarios, your ads won't be limited by this policy. Google Ads considers the following information when determining if a particular scenario has a higher potential of causing abuse or creating a poor user experience:
- User feedback
- Prevalence of abuse
- Industry trends
Who is a qualified advertiser?
Google will consider various factors to determine whether an advertiser is qualified, such as:
- Account attributes
- User activity and reports
- Account maturity
- Ad format usage
- History of policy compliance
- Advertiser industry
- Advertiser verification status
If you're a qualified advertiser, your ad impressions aren't limited by this policy.
What can I do to become a qualified advertiser?
You're required to build trust to become a qualified advertiser. You can do this by ensuring that you comply with all Google Ads policies and completing advertiser verification if your account is eligible. You should continue to build campaigns and creatives with positive user engagement while your account is assessed. Google Ads will automatically update your ad serving limits based on this assessment and review.
How will I know if my ad serving has been limited?
Unqualified advertisers who have a meaningful proportion of impressions in scope of this policy will receive an in-account notification. Individual ads will not be disapproved. To appeal this restriction, complete the Limited Ad Serving Appeals Form. Google will reinstate an advertiser once they become qualified.
We will automatically review and update advertisers' ad serving limits as we continue to monitor your accounts. Unfortunately, we can't say how long this might take.
If any issues are detected after lifting a limit, Google may need to reinstate the limit while we evaluate further.
Advertisers with unclear brand relationships and generic ads
Google wants to ensure that users know which advertisers they are interacting with. At times, users may not be seeking content related to a particular advertiser, brand, product, or service; other times they may have a specific brand in mind. In both situations, Google wants to ensure that the identity of the advertiser the user chooses to engage with is unambiguous.
While an advertiser may not intend to purposefully mislead a user or misrepresent themselves, ads that reference other brands and generic ads that have no branding at all may confuse the user into thinking they are interacting with their desired advertiser. In these cases, Google may limit impressions for all branded and generic ads for that advertiser.
Examples that reference a brand where the relationship to the advertiser is unclear include (non-exhaustive):
- Ads that reference another brand’s name or likeness, such as an airline or customer service department, based on a user’s search for that brand
- Ads that reference a name or brand closely resembling another brand based on a user’s general search of an industry like technology, travel, or customer service
- Situations where the user has reason to believe they're interacting with a brand other than the advertiser that's running the ad
- Ads that use a brand logo from an unaffiliated advertiser
Examples when a generic ad may be unclear include (non-exhaustive):
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Unbranded ads from third parties that are shown when users search for specific brands, products, or services
Best practices
Clearly identify your brand by pinning your domain
Pin your domain to the front of the ad title, especially if you're a new advertiser or your brand is less well-known. This feature may not be available for all ad or campaign types. Learn more about how to Pin headlines and descriptions to specific positions.
Steps to pin your domain
- On the Ads page in your Google Ads account, create or edit a responsive search ad.
- For the field that contains your domain, select the Pin icon
.
- Select Show only in position 1.
- Click Save.
To reduce user confusion and decrease the likelihood of ad serving limitations, consider these steps:
- Comply with advertising policies: Ensure your ads and landing pages adhere to our advertising policies.
- Avoid brand confusion: Don't use other brands’ names or logos. Clearly display your own brand in your ads and on your landing page.
- Use specific language: Avoid generic ad copy and landing page content.
- Maintain clear branding: Promote products or services with a clear association to your brand.
- Verify your account: Complete advertiser verification if requested.
- Build positive engagement: Maintain positive user engagement in your campaigns to aid in account assessment.
- Use a Google-certified click tracker: If you’re using a click tracker, make sure that it’s set up correctly and is on the List of certified Google click trackers.
Appeal the policy restriction
Unqualified advertisers who have a meaningful proportion of impressions in scope of this policy will receive an in-account notification. Individual ads will not be disapproved. Complete the Limited Ad Serving Appeals Form to appeal this restriction.
Advertisers serving on YouTube
Google wants to ensure that YouTube maintains a trustworthy ecosystem for advertisers and users, and may limit impressions for YouTube ads from unqualified advertisers. Initial enforcement for this policy began in September 2024 and will gradually be applied to all YouTube ads by 2026.
Additional restrictions may apply to advertisers advertising in certain high-abuse verticals. Learn more about who is a qualified advertiser and what you can do to become qualified.
Best practices for YouTube ads
- Make sure you’re complying with Google’s advertising policies.
- Complete advertiser verification.
- Continue to build campaigns and creatives to accumulate positive user interactions so Google can better assess your account.
- Use a Google-certified click tracker.
.