About data-driven creative review

To keep ads safe and appropriate for everyone, creatives are reviewed to make sure they comply with Display & Video 360 policies. Data-driven creatives take about 26 hours (24 hours for standard creative review, with an extra 2 hours for variant review). The extra 2 hours is necessary to review creative variants.

All creative variants must be approved to serve a data-driven creative. If one variant is rejected, the creative cannot serve until the issue is resolved.

What starts creative review

Creative review starts whenever you:

• Publish a draft
• Resubmit for approval

Check the creative review status

1. Creative review starts as soon as the creative is published. Afterward, it takes 2 more hours for creative variant review. The full process takes about 26 hours.
2. After 26 hours have passed, you can check on the status of the creative review. Open the creative, click Creative status, then click Display & Video 360 review to see more details. If there are any problems, you'll see a feedback message explaining the problem and how to fix it. Below is a list of problems that may appear in the creative details page. Because these problems affect the creative as a whole, they aren't shown on individual creative variants.
   • Restricted products and services
   • Audience list targeting with restricted categories and products
   • Political content
   • Unsupported ad technology providers
3. If there are any problems in creative variants, you'll see the feedback message: “One or more variants are rejected because they're not compliant with Google ad policies.” Click “See details” to find detailed errors for each variant.
4. In Ad Canvas' list view, check the Status column. You'll see one of three potential statuses:
   • Pending - Review is still in progress, or this variant is not assigned to a priority group.
   • Servable - This variant is ready to serve, while awaiting additional review.
   • Approved - This variant is approved and ready to serve.
   • Rejected - There's a problem with this variant and the creative can't serve until it's resolved. Click on this status to see details about why this variant was rejected.

Tip: Any variant that is not assigned to a priority group in Dynamic Rules will not be reviewed, and will always have a “Pending” status.

Find rejected variants

If there are ad policy problems with any of your variants, open Ad Canvas in list view to see detailed errors for each variant.

In list view

When viewing Ad Canvas in list view, rejected variants will have a “Rejected” status.

In gallery view

• When viewing Ad Canvas in gallery view, rejected variants will have a rejected icon  at the top right. (1)
• To see detailed errors, click List view . (2)

Fix rejected variants

If there are ad policy problems with any of your variants, open Ad Canvas to see detailed errors for each variant.

1. Open the creative.
2. If you're not already in Ad Canvas, click the Ad Canvas tab.
3. Variant errors are only shown in list view. If you're in gallery view, click List view  to switch.
4. Check the Audit Status column for each variant row. You'll see a "Rejected" status in this column for any rejected variants.
5. Click Rejected to see why the variant was rejected. The Intelligence panel will open on the right with detailed creative review feedback.
6. Edit the variant or creative as needed. How to troubleshoot creative rejections
7. When the problem is fixed, click Publish to restart the review process.

Edit published variants

After a creative has been reviewed, when anyone creates a new draft and edits a variant, you'll see a variant edited icon next to the status in list view. This lets you know that there's a draft in progress, and the review status shown only applies to the previously published creative. After you publish the draft, the review process restarts and the status will be updated.