The steps required to complete advertiser verification for certain Google Ads accounts may differ, depending on your account structure, your billing setup, and if you are advertising on behalf of an organization or individual. Learn more about increasing transparency through advertiser identity verification.
Google Ads accounts paying via monthly invoicing
Large advertisers and agencies who pay for their Google Ads accounts using the monthly invoicing payment method can complete verification at the manager account level in bulk, or more specifically by selecting individual Google Ads account IDs.
When Google Ads accounts are selected to complete verification, the manager account admins will be notified by email and through in-account notifications with the detailed steps required to approve the use of your (or your client’s) legal name and location in ad disclosures for all Google Ads accounts linked to your manager account (or by individual accounts if you prefer).
If you’re a direct advertiser (not an agency) or you’re an agency but your client pays for their accounts using their payments profile, then the following applies: once you have approved your name and location, they will be displayed in the ads disclosure on any ads you run in any of your verified accounts that are billed to the same payments profile under the manager account. Learn more about ad disclosures.
If you’re an agency with your agency’s payments profile paying for your client’s Google Ads accounts, then the following applies: you will need to bring your client into the verification process so they can either create or confirm their company’s payments profile. Once they do, the client’s approved name and location will be displayed in the ads disclosure on any ads you run in any of the verified accounts you’ve selected for that client. Learn more about ad disclosures.
If you’re at an agency that has a Sequential Liability legal agreement (primarily just big 6 agencies in the US), then the following applies: once you approve your client’s name and location (based on their secondary Advertiser payments profile on their Google Ads accounts), they will be displayed in the disclosure on any ads you run that are linked to this Advertiser payments profile under the manager account. Learn more about ad disclosures.
Read on for details on how to complete the verification process if you’re on the monthly invoicing payment method.
How to verify
Monthly invoicing customers paying directly for their ads
- In your Google Ads account, click the Billing icon
.
- Click Advertiser verification.
- Click Get Started within the "Advertiser verification” page. Answer a few questions to identify yourself and your company, and share how you pay for your ads.
- Select the advertiser (the identity you want to verify, which will be the ad disclosure name) you want to verify.
- The advertiser names listed in this step will be either the name of your payments profile(s), or any previously requested Trademarks that have been approved by Google to be used as the advertiser name in the ad disclosure.
- Select the Advertiser you wish to verify, and click Next. You’ll see a list of unverified accounts in your manager account that use the selected payment profile - these are all of the accounts you can verify with this payments profile.
- You can select all the accounts that you wish to verify either in bulk by checking the selection box on the top left of the table, or by clicking individual accounts from the list.
- If you are logged into a paying manager account (or any manager accounts above the paying manager), you will see a selection option underneath the account table to verify all future accounts that will be created under this manager account and billed to the selected payment profile with its disclosure name. This enables you to save time and avoid needing to complete verification for all new accounts you create moving forward.
- You must have selected all accounts in the table above to be able to automatic future account verification.
- Review all the accounts selected and click Confirm.
US agencies with Sequential Liability
You will receive an email or see an in-account notification if you are eligible, which are only those agencies with a Sequential Liability legal contract. This is a US-only legal agreement for large agencies which requires 2 payments profiles on all Google Ads accounts - the first profile in the name of the agency and the second profile in the name of the advertiser. Please follow these steps to complete verification for your Google Ads accounts:
- In your Google Ads account, click the Billing icon
- Click Advertiser verification.
- Click Get Started within the “Advertiser verification” page.
- Answer a few questions to identify yourself as an agency, and share how you pay for your ads
- Select the advertiser (the identity you want to verify, which will be the ad disclosure name) you want to verify.
- The advertiser names listed in this Advertiser Selection step will be either the name of your payments profile(s), or any previously requested Trademarks that have been approved by Google.
- Because you are an agency with Sequential Liability, you will be verifying your client’s payments profile instead of your agency’s payments profile. All of the payments profiles listed in the payments profile column with the (Secondary) tag are those profiles listed as the secondary payer on your billing account, and should be in the name of your client.
- Select the Advertiser you wish to verify, and click Next. You’ll see a list of unverified accounts in your manager account that use the selected payment profile - these are all of the accounts you can verify with this payments profile.
- You can select all the accounts that you wish to verify either in bulk by checking the selection box on the top left of the table, or by clicking individual accounts from the list.
- If you are logged into a paying manager account (or any manager accounts above the paying manager), you will see a selection option underneath the account table to verify all future accounts that will be created under this manager account and billed to the selected payment profile with its disclosure name. This enables you to save time and avoid needing to complete verification for all new accounts you create moving forward.
- You must have selected all accounts in the table above to be able to automatic future account verification.
- Review all the accounts selected and click Confirm.
Options when verifying
During the verification process, you’ll have 2 main choices to make:
- Ad disclosure name selection: Select your payments profile (legal) name or request to use a different name.
- Account(s) selection: choose to verify all current and future accounts, or a selection of individual accounts.
All agencies globally (those without Sequential Liability)
This section pertains to agencies that pay for and manage Google Ads accounts on behalf of their clients.
The identity of a Google Ads account represents the identity of the business being advertised for in the account. The identity typically comes from the payments profile of the Google Ads account (i.e. who the Google Ads account is billed to). Agencies that pay for their client’s accounts with their agency payments profile will see a step in their verification process to identify their client’s payments profile. Agencies will need to loop in their client contact so the client can either confirm an existing payments profile they have with Google to use for this step, or create a new payments profile to use instead. This profile will not be used for billing purposes or change the billing setup of their accounts, and is purely used to establish the identity of the end advertiser.
All agencies that pay for their clients’ Google Ads accounts via their agency payments profile will receive an email and see an in-account notification if eligible. Please see this high level flowchart for an overview and follow the steps below to complete verification for your Google Ads accounts:
- In your Google Ads account, click the Billing icon
- Click Advertiser verification.
- Click Get started within the “Advertiser verification” page.
- Answer a few questions to identify yourself as an agency, and share how you pay for your ads.
- Because you pay for your client’s Google Ads account, you will next be prompted to ask your client to verify themselves.
- You need to input the name of your client’s business, and a contact (or multiple if you’d like) at that business to help with the process.
- A request will be sent via email to the client contact(s) you inputted, which will walk them through the next steps in the verification process. Preview the email here.
- Your client will be prompted to either select an existing payments profile they have with Google to use for verification of their business’ advertising, or they will be prompted to create a new payments profile.
- The payments profiles that will appear for selection to them in this step will be any profiles currently associated with their email address. If they have no existing profiles, they must create a new one.
- The business name of the profile they choose will be used in the ad disclosures of their ads.
- If your client wishes to use a trademark in their ad disclosures instead of their payments profile name, they will need to follow the trademark request process once their profile is verified. See here for more information.
- Regardless of if they select an existing or create a new profile, there will be no change to the billing of their Google Ads account(s) nor will they be granted access to their Google Ads account(s) if they do not already have it
- Unless the client selects an existing profile that has previously been verified, they will need to verify their payments profile by uploading documentation proving their company’s identity. See here for more information.
- Once your client successfully verifies their payments profile, you will be notified via email and can proceed with the verification process by selecting which Google Ads account(s) should use the client’s identity
- In the Advertisr Verification page of your Manager account, you will now see a list of verified Advertisers available for selection
- Select the advertiser you wish to verify, and click Next. You’ll see a list of unverified accounts in your manager account - these are all of the accounts you can verify with this payments profile.
- You can select all the accounts that you wish to verify either in bulk by checking the selection box on the top left of the table, or by clicking individual accounts from the list.
- Review all the accounts selected and click Confirm.
- All ads from the selected account(s) will now display the Advertiser’s business name and location in their ad disclosures
Options when verifying
During the verification process, you’ll see the following 2 options:
- Ad disclosure name selection: Select your client’s payments profile name or request to use a different name (trademark).
- Account(s) selection: choose to verify all current and future accounts, or a selection of individual accounts.
Ad disclosure name selection
Select your payments profile (legal) name.
Selecting the name of the payments profile means that your ads disclosures will appear with the name exactly as it appears in the payments profile.
Selecting the legal name of the payments profile means that your ads disclosures will appear with your legal name exactly as it appears in your payments profile. In case you’re unfamiliar, your payments profile is the entity the account is billed to, and is the name of your line of credit with Google (typically your business’ legal name).
If your payments profile information is not up-to-date, please contact us before starting verification. You may need to take one of the 2 following actions (you'll need to contact the support team to do either of the 2):
- Revise the existing name of your payments profile. This means that if your business has undergone a formal company name change so need to update your payments profile to the current legal name of your business
- Switch your account(s) to a different payments profile. This means that if you’re a multi-entity business with several payments profiles and want to switch your account(s) to a different one, or create a new one, given your profile name will now appear in the account’s ad disclosures
If the payments profile includes accounts managed by others, the option you select will also affect those accounts.
Request a different name - use a Trademark
Advertisers will have the option of identifying themselves using a trademark, rather than the legal name listed in their payments profile, pending certain requirements:
Requirements
A payments profile can only be linked to a single trademark, and the trademark must meet all of the following requirements:
- The trademark must be a standard character word mark registered solely for the text elements of your mark, without any additional stylized font, color, or design elements as a feature of the mark.
- The trademark must be registered to the entity listed in the payments profile, or a parent or subsidiary of that entity, or a company under common control with that entity.
- The trademark must be registered in the country where the entity listed in the payments profile is incorporated or located.
- The trademark must be actively registered in all countries where your ads run and for all products or services you will promote in the associated ad account(s).
Who can submit a request
Only the owner of the trademark in question, or a parent or subsidiary of that entity, or a company under common control with that entity, may submit the trademark verification request form.
An agency managing accounts on behalf of a trademark owner will need to share the trademark request form with their client to complete. To complete verification, the trademark owner will need to have their own payments profile and submit the trademark verification form using the payments profile ID associated with their own company’s payments profile - not the payments profile ID of the agency.
The person submitting the trademark request form must also be one of the following:
- an admin on the payments profile,
- an admin on the manager account, or
- an employee of the trademark owner or trademark owner’s parent/subsidiary company, with an email domain that matches that of the trademark owner or its parent/subsidiary company.
How to request trademark verification
To add a trademark to your payments profile for use in ad disclosures, please fill out this trademark verification form .
What to do after the request is submitted
Once the requested trademark has been verified, the contact who submitted the request form will receive confirmation. The trademarked name will be displayed on the Advertiser column of the Advertiser verification page in your Google Ads manager account. You will need to log in to your manager account and select the accounts you’d like to identify with the trademark name.
For trademark owners working with an agency - if your account is managed and paid by an agency, please inform the agency when the trademarked name has been verified, at which point they will need to associate it with your account(s) in order for your trademark to appear as your advertiser name in the Ad disclosures.
Trademark Verification Troubleshooting
- I want to verify multiple trademarks.
A payments profile can only be linked to a single trademark. Once verified, the trademark will be displayed in ads disclosures for all Ads accounts linked to that payments profile. If you want to replace an already approved trademark with a different registered trademark for all of your Ads accounts, please resubmit this trademark verification form.
- The country identified in my payments profile is different from the country that issued my trademark registration.
To successfully complete trademark verification, you must have a trademark registered in the same country where the entity listed in the payments profile is incorporated or located. If you are unable to meet this requirement, please note the advertiser name listed on your payments profile will be the one displayed in your ad disclosures.
If you need to change the country listed on your payments profile, contact us.
- My trademark incorporates design or stylistic elements.
Since our in-ad disclosures are text based, trademarks that include symbols or design elements will not be considered. If you do not have a word mark registration, your trademark verification request will not be approved and the advertiser name listed on your payments profile will be the one displayed in your ad disclosures.
If you obtain a word mark trademark registration solely for the text elements of your mark without any additional stylized font, color, or design elements as a feature of the mark, please resubmit a trademark verification request form and we will review your verification request.
- I own a pending trademark application and want to complete trademark verification.
We only accept trademark requests for trademarks that are actively registered. Pending applications will not be accepted. You can submit a new trademark verification request as soon as the trademark registry has successfully completed examination of your trademark application and registration has been granted.
- I want to display a commercial name that is different from the advertiser name on my payments profile.
At this time, name options for your Ads disclosures are limited to the legal name listed in your payments profile or a registered trademark. Trademark verification requests submitted for business names such as commercial trade names, doing business as (“DBA”) names, and fictitious names that are different from the name listed on your payments profile will not be considered unless they are also registered as trademarks.
If you’d like to make changes to your current Ads disclosure name after having selected one of the available options, please contact us.
- The name of the entity listed on my payments profile does not match the name of the trademark owner.
To successfully pass trademark verification, the trademark must be registered to the entity listed in the payments profile, or a parent or subsidiary of that entity, or a company under common control with that entity. If the entity listed on your payments profile does not match the trademark owner, please upload supporting documents in your trademark verification request form, describing the relationship between the payments profile and trademark registrant entities.
If you are a trademark owner and are working with an agency to submit a trademark verification request, please be sure to use your own payment profile ID when submitting the trademark request form. Once your request is approved, your agency can then associate the trademark with your account.
This section only applies to direct customers or agencies with sequential liability. It does not pertain to all other agencies that pay for their Google Ads accounts via their agency payments profile.
Select all current and future accounts
If you are logged into a paying manager account (or any manager accounts above the paying manager), you will see in step 2 “Select accounts” of the verification process, a selection option underneath the account table to verify all current AND future accounts that will be linked under this manager account and billed to the selected payments profile with its disclosure name. This enables you to save time and avoid needing to complete verification for all new accounts you create moving forward.
Important: The ad disclosure will only apply to future accounts billed to the same payments profile and created under the same paying manager, unless the paying manager for the new account is:
- Above your manager account in the hierarchy
- Or outside your manager account hierarchy
To select this option, an admin on the paying manager account will need to select all the accounts first.
Note:
- You must have selected all accounts in the table to be able to select the automatic verification of future accounts.
- If you’re not logged into a paying manager (or any manager accounts above the paying manager), you won’t be able to select the option to include future accounts.
Select individual accounts
You can select all the accounts that you wish to verify either in bulk by checking the selection box on the top left of the table, or by clicking individual accounts from the list. Note that future accounts will not be verified by default.
Managing your ad disclosure name
Only Google Ads users with Admin access can request changes to the ad disclosure name.
View your ad disclosure name
You can view your ad disclosure name in the "Advertiser Verification" page of your Google Ads Manager account under "Tools & settings" and "Billing".
Change your ad disclosure name
If you’d like to use a trademarked name instead of your payments profile name in Ads disclosures, please follow the steps in the section Request a different name - use a Trademark.Once the trademarked name is approved, it will be automatically displayed in Ad disclosures. No action will be needed on your end.
If you’d like to make changes to your current Ads disclosure name after having selected one of the options above, please contact us.
Revoke your ad disclosure name
You can’t revoke your ad disclosure name from your Google Ads manager account. Please contact us if there’s any error with your ad disclosure name.
Google Ads accounts paying via automatic or manual payments
Accounts paying via automatic or manual payments must follow the following instructions on this page.
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{Agency Name} wants to help you verify {Client Name} for Google Ads |
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An ad disclosure in Google Search Help build a more transparent web — and build more trust with your audience To ensure a safe, trustworthy experience for your audiences, we’re verifying every one of the millions of advertisers who use Google Ads. Learn why Now, {Agency Name} wants to help get {Client Name} verified. Once verified, {Client Name}’s ads will include the org’s verified name and location in ad disclosures, building trust in your brand. |
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[ GET STARTED ] |
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Note: Verifying will not change how you pay for your agency’s services. If you aren’t able to verify in the next 20 days, you’ll need to ask {agency email address} to resend their request.
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What happens after verification Once you’ve verified, we’ll email you and {Agency Name} so you can work together to get your verified information on the right Google Ads accounts. As we expand our transparency efforts, we may also publish more information about advertisers, including specific ads, dates and locations they ran in, and more. Learn more about Google Ads’ transparency efforts |
About the Advertiser verification page for Manager Accounts
The Advertiser verification page in your Google Ads manager account makes managing the Advertiser verification of all of your Google Ads accounts easy. You can track the verification status of all your accounts, view accounts that require verification and take action to complete the verification. You can also use filters to help prioritize the accounts that need attention, download the table of information, and more. This article goes through how to find and use the Advertiser Verification page.
Benefits of the Advertiser verification page
Using the Advertiser verification page, you can take following actions:
- Start verifying multiple accounts at once (for eligible customers)
- View all accounts that require verification
- Track the statuses of all accounts through the verification process
- Start the verification process
- Filter your accounts by verification status, pause date, ad spend and more
- Download the table of all accounts
Note that this page doesn’t show the status of Business operations verification.
Access to the Advertiser verification page
The Advertiser verification page is visible to all Google Ads manager accounts users (and only manager account users). If you are a manager account user, you can view any Google Ads accounts tied to your manager account and its verification status on the Advertiser verification page.
Some features on this page are only available to users with certain access levels:
- Only Google Ads manager accounts with Admin access can view the Advertiser verification page and start verification from the Verify button in the table.
- Google Ads account Admin users cannot see the Advertiser verification page directly in their Google Ads account, but can start verification directly in their Google Ads account under Tools & settings → Billing → Advertiser verification.
View the Advertiser verification page
- In your Google Ads account, click the Billing icon
- Click Advertiser verification.
Navigate the Advertiser verification page
The Advertiser verification page provides:
- [For eligible advertisers] The option to verify advertisers, and all their accounts, in 3 simple steps. Alternatively, advertisers can verify individual accounts from the table available below on the page.
- An overview of Advertiser verification. It exemplifies how disclosures will appear in your Google ads, once you're verified. Here you will also find a brief description on key uses of the identity page itself.
- Below the introduction section you will see a table with several columns of key verification information. In the first row of the table you will see all of your accounts grouped into 4 tabs: "Verification required," "Verification not yet required," "Verified," and "All." Clicking on these tabs will display all the accounts under that particular tab.
What each column indicates
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Account | Displays Google Ads account name and customer ID |
| Verification status |
Displays verification status. This includes the following statuses:
Important: if an account is required to complete Business operations verification as part of Advertiser verification program, the status will not be reflected in this table. This status can be seen directly in the Google Ads account under Tools & settings, then Billing and Advertiser verification. |
| Pause date |
This could include the following states:
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| Action |
Displays “Verify” link that opens verification flow in a new tab when verification is required. Note: If you are not an Admin user on that Google Ads account, this link will be grayed out and you will not be able to start verification. You might be able to complete verification if you are the payments admin and a Google Ads admin user has already started the verification. |
| Spend (last 7 days) | Displays amount spent by Google Ads account in last 7 days. |
| Payments profile | Displays payments profile ID and name. |
| Direct manager | Displays direct manager of the Google Ads account’s name and ID. |
| Ads Disclosure name and location | Displays name and location shown in ads disclosure to users. N/A may show if the account isn’t verified. In some cases, only the location may show if the country isn’t supported yet. |
| Verification type | Displays what type of verification program an account has. |
Filter your accounts
- Above the table, click the filter icon
and select the filter type that you’d like to apply.
- Enter any additional information needed to complete the filter.
- Example: After you add the “Verification status” filter, select Not started - action required or Incomplete - action required to see all the accounts that need to complete identity verification. Click Apply, then add more filters as needed.
and select the filter type that you’d like to apply.To remove a filter, click the X on the filter you’d like to remove.
Sort your accounts
Default columns sorting: Columns will be sorted by “Pause date” in descending order, with paused accounts on top.
To sort your accounts ascending or descending order, just click the column header that you’d like to sort. Click the column header again to toggle between ascending and descending order.
Verify your accounts
- Go to the "Verification required tab" at the top of the table.
- Click Verify in the "Action" column to verify the account.
Note: If you are not an admin user on that Google Ads account, this link will be grayed out and you will not be able to start verification. You'll be able to complete verification if you are the payments admin and a Google Ads admin user has already started the verification.
