One of the most important elements of effective online promotion is the ads that appear before internet users' eyes on the Google search network. These ads – as the first point of contact with the advertiser's offer – should be eye-catching, arouse users' interest, and encourage them to interact, i.e., click and proceed to the landing page where they can ultimately convert.
For an advertising campaign to work, ads must meet Google's requirements. Below, we've outlined some of the most common errors that can prevent Google Ads text ads from running . We also want to draw your attention to the fact that in some cases, new ads may be automatically approved and continue to run until Google notices they violate company policies. Therefore, it's crucial to ensure compliance with advertising policies from the outset.
Potential errors in a Google Ads campaign
Things that may cause text ads to be rejected or not accepted:
- editorial requirements not met – Google ensures the high quality of ads and the content presented to internet users. For this reason, it may block texts that are not clear or professional, such as those that:
- they present too short and general advertisements containing unclear information or abbreviations that are difficult to understand,
- exceed the permissible number of characters,
- contain too many characters special punctuation marks and symbols, e.g. exclamation marks, question marks, etc.,
- contain prohibited punctuation marks in the headline, e.g. exclamation marks,
- are a combination of different characters, e.g. 4DID4S, GratiS,
- use only capital letters, e.g. HIGH QUALITY SILK SHIRTS, WIDE RANGE OF COLORS. BUY NOW,
- were written incorrectly according to the rules of spelling or grammar, e.g. "Buy it now at us", "Zamuff even today", "Qpuj only at us",
- they contain a call to action that is too general or not tailored to the offer, e.g. “Click here”,
- in addition to standard text, they contain emoticons,
- have too many or too few spaces between characters/words, e.g. “Order now” or “UnasDzisWszystkoWpromocji”,
- have their phone number included in the ad content,
- missing at least 2 headers – Google currently allows (in standard, so-called expanded text ads) the use of a maximum of three headlines and two lines of text. There is no requirement to use a third headline and a second line of text, but for an ad to be accepted, it must have at least two headlines,
- prohibited content in advertising text – this is content related to products that cannot be advertised within Google Ads, e.g., alcohol, drugs, gambling. It's also important to remember that Google may preemptively reject content that it associates with prohibited products,
- prohibited content on the landing page – similarly to the above, this content refers to prohibited products. An example is the case of one of our clients who had T-shirts with champagne glasses printed on them. The information about the print, which was included in the product description on the website, resulted in the ads being rejected.
- promoting counterfeit products – since Google absolutely prohibits the advertising and sale of counterfeits, all products that only imitate the features of a given brand will not be accepted or will be rejected,
- shocking, offensive, erotic content, promoting hatred, intolerance, discrimination or violence – Google places particular emphasis on mutual respect and strives not to offend the feelings of internet users. For this reason, it is prohibited to advertise, for example, firearms, products targeted at a specific ethnic group, or the use of vulgar language in ad content.
- content impossible to verify – slogans like: “Producer best coffee grinders", "Running shoes No. 1 in the world","Generally purchased dietary supplements", "Best Dietary catering – no competition stands a chance against us,
- problems arising from the landing page – Google really wants internet users who click on reklamy are satisfied with what they see after navigating to the website. Therefore, a landing page must, above all, function and be useful to Internet users. The following website issues can result in ads being rejected:
- targeting ads broken landing page,
- no connection between the displayed URL and the actual website address, e.g. “google.pl” redirects the Internet user to “gmail.pl”,
- inability to display the page in standard browsers,
- inability to click the “Back” button in the browser.
A huge advantage of the system Google Ads is that after an ad is rejected, there's no need to guess and guess what could have caused it. As seen in the screenshots above, if an ad can't be approved at the creation stage, the system always provides a reason why it can't be saved. However, if the system rejects an ad that has been running for some time, its status (in the Google Ads panel) changes to "Rejected."
(The rest of the article can be found below the form)
and when you hover the cursor over the ad's approval status, an explanation of the problem appears.
Additionally, on the Google support pages you can find a lot of valuable information and tips on editorial and technical requirements related to advertising, which are worth taking into account from the very beginning of creating a campaign.
If your ads are disapproved, you should work to fix them as soon as possible. In this case, you can click the notification that appears in the upper right corner of the Google Ads dashboard (under the bell button) or search for the disapproved ad using the (Status) filter on the Ads tab. Once you find the ad, you should investigate the disapproval reason. Then, depending on the disapproval reason, edit the ad content, destination URL, or the page the user is being directed to and wait for Google's approval.
Check out related articles
Google Ads Ad Disapproval FAQs
Google is very strict about the quality and professionalism of your content. Ads may be rejected for grammatical and spelling errors, capitalization of entire words (e.g., BUY NOW), overuse of special characters, or the use of exclamation points in headlines. Creative misspellings (e.g., "Free") are also prohibited.
No, these are common mistakes. Google doesn't allow phone numbers to be entered directly into ad text (special extensions are available for this). You should also avoid overly generic calls to action (CTAs), such as the popular "Click here."
To be accepted, a text ad must have at least two headlines. Using a third headline and a second line of descriptive text is optional but highly recommended to maximize the available space.
Google doesn't accept content that can't be objectively verified. Therefore, ads with phrases like "Manufacturer of the best grinders," "World's No. 1 catering," or "Competition doesn't stand a chance against us" may be blocked.
Absolutely. An ad will be rejected if the link points to a broken website or if the displayed URL differs from the actual landing page address. A campaign may also be blocked if the website itself contains prohibited content—even if it's just prints on clothing resembling prohibited products (e.g., alcohol).
Summary
The above article covers the following topics:
- what to avoid in Google Ads campaigns,
- what are the reasons for ad disapproval in google ads.
