When running an ad campaign, one sometimes has to create a lot of advertisements that are informative but compressed, to ensure a good understanding of the product’s value and to highlight all of its important features. Concentrating on these aspects of an ad may take your attention away from a vital part of any ad campaign – complying with advertisement policies of the platform you’re using.
Neglecting certain policies and restrictions may lead to serious consequences that will affect your ads, your account and even your overall business . To avoid getting disapproved in the future and learn how to fix disapproved ads, first you must learn exactly what standards and policies your platform of choice adheres to.
Quality Standards and Advertising Policies on Google Ads
Google Ads is remarkably transparent about what sorts of behavior and advertising is not supported across its platforms and what repercussions will follow if not complied. The full list of Google Ads policies can be found directly in Google Ads and in the corresponding help center.
Generally, there are three types of policies that can be found in Google Ads Help Center:
- Regular policies regarding showing alcohol, cigarettes, copyright usage, political and sexual content and so on that most of the time allow ads to run, but limit them to a certain audience or region;
- Unclear, unqualified or generic advertisements and while there isn’t necessarily anything wrong with them, they lack in quality and other properties and thus get limited or disapproved;
- Egregious violations that almost always get your account penalized or entirely suspended. This policy includes violations that are dangerous, unlawful or too extreme to be shown or viewed across Google Ads platforms. What exactly falls under this section is not entirely clear and is handled by the platform through the review process of each advert.
Dangers of Violating Google Ads Policies
There are several dangers resulting from violating Google Ads policies.
The first and the simplest consequence is getting your advertisement disapproved. Once disapproved, your ad will not be shown in the search results until you have fixed all the violations, thus wasting time and potential revenue it would have generated through clicks. The longer your advertisement is under the “disapproved” status, the longer it’s not useful.
Another big danger of Google Ads policies violations is risking your account being suspended. If during the review process serious violations are detected, Google Ads reserves the right to immediately take your account down without a warning. Such strict rules are imposed to deal with violations that can be harmful or unlawful to Google Ads or the users.
For minor violations that still pose account suspension risks, Google Ads sends out a 7- day warning, giving time to fix any issues with the advert.
However, if your ad campaigns generate repeated violations of the same or similar policies, Google Ads gives out penalties that increase with each time and eventually result in the account suspension. There is a maximum of three strikes for the same type of violation.
Once the account is suspended, all ad campaigns will stop running and no new advertisements can be started unless the suspension is revoked.
All in all, violating Google Ads policies can result in losing profit, time and even having your entire account suspended, and the same goes for any future account under your name. To avoid receiving penalties or getting your ads withheld, create them carefully and check the review statuses in time to be able to fix anything that may be wrong with your campaigns.
Google Ads Review Process
Before your ad campaigns or separate advertisements make their way into the web and start generating clicks, they have to pass the standard reviewing procedures. The ad review process starts automatically and typically takes no longer than one business day.
Everything that constructs the ad falls under the review process, including all the keywords, images, ad descriptions, and so on. Simply put, your advertisement will either be approved or disapproved. For additional information, check the review status once it’s updated.
Checking the Review Status of Your Campaign
After your advertisement has been created, you can check whether or not it has been reviewed in the status section. Once the advertisement registers any changes, its review process will begin again and update its status later on.
There are several statuses an ad or an entire ad campaign can get. Your advertisement will have the status “Under review” during the initial review process. As soon as it’s over, the status will change to one of the following:
- The status “Approved” allows your ad to run freely in any required directions and clears all the Google Ads policies;
- Statuses “Approved (limited)” and “Eligible (limited location)” restrict your advertisement to be shown in certain situations. Ideally you would want to check the details of these statuses in order to fix any violations your ads have caused;
- The status “Not eligible” signals that your ad group or an ad campaign is not currently running due to reasons unrelated to Google Ads policy violations – such as pausing, editing or removing an ad campaign;
- The status “Disapproved“ does not allow your ads or ad campaigns to be shown due to certain violations of the Google Ads policies. Unless you fix these violations, advertisements with such status will generate no profit and stay locked until further adjustments are made.
The advert or the campaign can also have statuses like ended, paused or pending, which are not related to Google Ads policies review process and indicate whether or not the advertisement is currently running.
How to Fix a Disapproved Ad
Once Google Ads have notified you that one or several of your applied advertisements have gotten the “disapproved” status, you can now begin editing it to get that status removed.
Generally, the notification you receive from Google Ads will explain in detail what is wrong with your advert. Whether it’s the keywords, the ad destination, the description or any other property, it will be highlighted for your convenience.
Once you’ve identified the issues with your advertisement, you can go into the ads section and edit it to fit in with the policies. After everything has been fixed or if you believe that your advert does not violate any policies at all, you can appeal the review process results.
Note, however, that appeals regarding changes to your ads and those disputing the Google Ads decisions are not the same and are reviewed separately.
How to Appeal Disapproval in Google Ads
There are three ways to appeal Google Ads policy reviewing results: from the policy manager in the tools menu, directly from the ads section in the editing menu and right from the status section of the ad that got disapproved.
After you’ve placed your appeal request, it will display a status depending on whether it has already been viewed or not. Then, after the review of your request has been completed, it will receive its final status that, to put it simply, will be a success or a failure.
If your appeal request is successful, the results of the previous policy review will be revoked and the limitations will be lifted , allowing your ad to run without restrictions. However, if your appeal request was unsuccessful, it will be denied and will require further adjustments to the ad to then reapply for the appeal.
NOTE: If you request appeals to the same advertisements without any success too frequently, Google Ads may suspect misuse of the function and will suspend your ability to appeal until you have reached out to customer support. Carefully edit out any violations to avoid getting denied any future appeal requests.
In Conclusion
Google Ads prioritize the convenience, safety and quality liability of the advertisements that are shown across its platforms. It’s fair to say, they aren’t difficult to follow. The list of policies is open and publicly available, making it easy to avoid getting disapproved.
However, if your adverts do get disapproved, Google Ads makes it simple to fix any violations that have occurred and allows you to lift limitations or restrictions that were generated as a result of those violations. In addition, Google Ads Help Center and customer support are readily available to help with any questions or issues that may appear when trying to fix your disapproved adverts.
That being said, construct your ads and ad campaigns carefully to comply with Google Ads policies so as not to waste any time and potential revenue or risk having your ads withheld or account suspended. As long as you pay attention to the policies, you will never have your adverts disapproved again.
