The ad validator checks your ad for common issues and displays the results in a panel, along with basic information such as the ad environment, the total size of the ad if it were to be published, and its initial load size. The panel automatically updates whenever you make a change, so it always reflects the working version of your ad.
If any checks fail, the panel displays details about each issue. You can hide or show this information by clicking the name of the failed check.
Ad Validator - Google Web Designer
Validation when publishing
When you're ready to publish your ad, you'll see a summary of the checks made by the ad validator in the publish dialogue. Any failed checks will be listed. The ad validator is informational only, so you can still publish an ad that didn't pass all checks.
Validation checks
The ad validator runs different checks depending on the ad environment that you selected when you first created the document. If your ad fails a check, look up the message in the table below for details.
| Message | Environment | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| File size > 600 KB |
|
Google Ads and AdMob ads should be no larger than 600 KB. Reduce the compressed total size of your ad to under this limit. |
| File size >1 MB |
|
Ads for Google Ads app campaigns should be no larger than 1 MB. Reduce the compressed total size of your ad to under this limit when using the 'App promo install' dynamic data schema. |
| Unsupported component found |
|
Google Ads and AdMob ads should use only supported components. |
| Filename >50 characters |
|
The published .zip filename (not including the '.zip' extension) should be no more than 50 characters. Enter a shorter name in the publish dialogue. |
| Badly formed HTML |
|
Proper document-level HTML tags (such as <!doctype>, <html>, <head> and <body>) should be present and in the correct order. You can check for these tags in code view. |
| Image missing for image button |
|
The image button component should have images specified for all states: up image, over image and down image. |
| Infinite animation loop found |
|
Animations should not loop indefinitely. Set the number of times an animation should repeat. |
| Local image source missing |
|
References to local image source files should be valid. Add missing images to the library or move them to the referenced location in your file system. |
| Pages of different sizes |
|
All pages in the ad should be the same size. Google Ads and AdMob do not support expandable HTML5 ads created by Google Web Designer. |
| Auto-played video not muted |
|
Auto-played videos should begin muted. Set the mute property. |
| Invalid tap area event |
|
A tap area component is connected to an event that will not work on mobile devices. |
| Invalid URL |
|
URLs should be well formed and contain no invalid characters. References to assets should use relative paths to resources included in the published .zip file. Exceptions include Google Fonts (https://fonts.google.com) and Google-hosted jQuery (https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery). Add other assets to the library. |
| Invalid URL |
|
URLs should be well formed and contain no invalid characters. Absolute URLs should use HTTPS. |
| Invalid URL |
|
URLs should be well formed and contain no invalid characters. |
| Custom exit found |
|
Exits for AMPHTML ads for Google Ads should be configured in the Google Ads interface and not in the creative. |
| Google API Key missing for Map or Street View components. |
|
Map and Street View components must have a billable Google API key. |
| Map uses Fusion Tables. |
|
Google Fusion Tables has been shut down as of 3 December 2019. The map component will work without the Fusion Tables feature, and the fusion-table-id attribute can be removed in code view to stop this warning. |
| Initial load size > 4 MB |
|
The ad's initial load size should be no more than 4 MB. Reduce the compressed total size of initially loaded assets to under this limit. |
| HDR file size >150 KB |
|
An HDR file should be no more than 150 KB. Resize any HDR files over this limit. |
| Exit found |
|
Custom exits are not allowed in Google Ads for this type of creative. You may need to remove any tap area components and specify the final URL for the ad in the Google Ads interface. |
| GLB file size >3 MB |
|
The GLB file should be no more than 3 MB. |
AMPHTML ad validation checks
AMPHTML ads undergo additional checks to see whether they're valid AMP documents. For details about specific errors, consult the AMP validation errors guide.
Ad guidelines and policies
For more information on requirements for your ads, visit the appropriate help centre: