When you're using Google Ads or other popular advertising platforms, it's not uncommon for your ads promoting whitehat products and services to get rejected.
The thing is, most of the time these rejections are not done by real human moderators, but by automated bots that check the ads. And sometimes these bots make mistakes and falsely reject ads that should have been approved. It can be really frustrating, especially when you've put a lot of time and effort into researching keywords, creating compelling ads, and optimizing your landing pages. But despite all that, your advertising campaign comes to a halt and you're not getting any leads.
In this article, the team at YeezyPay, a service that provides trusted agency accounts for Google Ads, explains some of the most common reasons why ads get rejected or suspended. They also provide practical tips on how to fix these issues.
Possible reasons why Google might reject an ad and ways to solve them
Here are some common reasons why Google might reject or stop an ad, ad set, or entire ad campaign, and some ways to solve them:
Lack of official Google certificate
If you want to promote certain types of products on Google, like pharmaceutical and medical products, you need to have a certificate from Google. This means you must have the necessary permits from government agencies in the specific location where you plan to advertise the products.
In some countries, there are no clear bans on advertising prescription drugs, but there are still some restrictions. However, it's important to note that Google's list of restricted drugs is not comprehensive. Additionally, certain types of content may also be prohibited in some countries.
The example shown in the screenshot proves that if you don't have the official confirmation or permission to produce and/or sell drugs that Google considers potentially prohibited, your advertisements won't be displayed. This is true even if you use established personal or agency accounts on Google Ads.
Solution:
To address this issue, it is recommended that if your promoted offers fall into these restricted product categories, you should tailor your advertising campaigns to meet the specific requirements and rules of each country and comply with Google's policies regarding the advertising of such offers.
If the company producing the offers is a pharmaceutical manufacturer, it is necessary to go through the Google certification process by submitting the appropriate application in order to successfully launch the ad campaign.
Inappropriate Content
When advertising products or services in sensitive verticals, Google has the power to temporarily stop showing your ads or completely reject them during the review process. This can happen if their algorithms suspect that your ad or the webpage it links to contains language, phrases, or images that are aggressive or otherwise inappropriate.
Solution: If you strongly believe that your ad or landing page should include this type of content, you can still run your advertising campaign, but with certain restrictions on who sees it. However, to do this, you need to submit an appeal against the rejection of your ads.
If including such content in your advertising campaign is not important, and if you're not sure why your ads were rejected or suspended, it's recommended to carefully review your content and remove any inappropriate elements.
The website or landing page is not functioning properly
Sometimes, your ads might be rejected because there are issues with the landing page or the website link that you entered when creating the advertising campaign on Google Ads. This could be due to mistakes made while typing the address or because the website has recently undergone changes or updates.
Solution: This is a common reason why ad campaigns get rejected, and there could be different reasons why Google considers a page to be broken. To solve this problem, you need to double-check that the link to the landing page is correct. Make sure to test if the page can be accessed from different places, on different devices, and using different web browsers. Also, ensure that the ads direct people to the right landing page without any typos or errors in the link.
In some cases, when promoting offers in grayhat verticals, affiliates may be required to use a cloaker. In such situations, it's possible that the web address added to the ad campaign is not a cloaked link but a direct link to the grayhat landing page.
Malware
Another common reason why a campaign doesn't pass the review process or gets stopped is the potential presence of malware on the landing page or website.
Solution: Often, Google suspects malware on a website if there are suspicious scripts or links. If you got the landing page from an affiliate network, it's best to remove any unknown scripts and check all the links. To quickly find out the real reason, it's a good idea to contact Google support and ask for clarification.
Destination link mismatch
This error occurs when there is a mismatch between the link users see in the ad and the actual destination link.
Solution: To fix this issue, make sure that the ad campaign follows the rule of having consistent and appropriate destination links across campaigns and ad groups. In other words, the ads should accurately represent the content of the page users are directed to.
Using incorrect capitalization
Another reason why your ad may get rejected is if you use capital letters incorrectly in the text or extensions.
Solution: It's generally better to avoid using too many capital letters in your ads just to make them stand out. If you do need to use uppercase letters for a specific part of the text, it's a good idea to request a review to ensure that you're using them correctly.
Punctuation marks and special characters
Google is particularly strict when it comes to grammar and punctuation rules for ad text. If the ad contains extra or inappropriate characters, it may not be displayed.
Solution: Google's guidelines emphasize the importance of maintaining clean and correct text. It's not recommended to use exclamation points, ellipses, or other symbols in titles and descriptions to enhance the ad text. Instead, focus on the content and unique selling points (USPs) of your offer to convince users to click on the ad.
Confidential events
If you mention sensitive cultural or political events like revolutions or natural disasters in your ad or landing page, Google may reject or stop showing those campaigns.
Solution: To avoid giving the impression that you're trying to exploit these events for clicks, it's best to rephrase your text and ensure it follows ethical and moral standards.
Use of trademarks in ad text
Google has strict rules that prohibit mentioning trademarks of other companies in ad texts without providing supporting documents to prove ownership of the trademark.
Solution: It's important to note that some brand names might be commonly used in broad search queries. If your ad contains keywords similar to trademarks or brands and gets rejected, you can appeal the decision by filling out the support form and providing the necessary documentation to substantiate your ownership of the trademark.
Ads that include trademarks are less likely to be rejected if you launch your advertising campaign through a trusted agency account with Google Ads.
Copyrighted content
Another reason for an ad or an entire advertising campaign being stopped is the use of text or images that are protected by copyright.
Solution: If the affiliate has received all the necessary documentation from the original copyright holder to use the content, they can challenge the rejection of the advertisement by filing an appeal and attaching scanned copies of the documents.
Furthermore, if an advertiser discovers that their copyrighted content is being used in other users' ads without permission, they can file a complaint with Google.
If the affiliate cannot confirm the legal right to use such content, it is advisable to revise the ad text, extensions, images, or videos and remove any content that may be protected by copyright.
Poor image quality
If you're running display ads, one reason your ad may get rejected is if the image quality is low or doesn't meet Google's standards. This includes blurry, grainy, or upside-down images that make it hard for people to understand the information.
Solution: Replace the image with a better-quality one that follows Google's guidelines. Make sure to check it beforehand to ensure it meets the requirements.
Misrepresentation
Google may also reject your ad or landing page if it doesn't accurately represent the actual offer or its characteristics.
Solution: Double-check all the information in your ads and landing page to make sure it matches the real facts. For example, if your ad gets rejected because the offer prices are outdated, Google may see it as deceptive and refuse to publish the ad. Keep everything up to date and honest.
Dishonest Behavior
Google Ads has established rules to ensure fairness and honesty among advertisers. If an ad or landing page misleads users or contains questionable information, there's a chance it will be rejected by the ad campaign.
Furthermore, if an affiliate runs ads from different ad accounts on the same domain or landing page, those ads will also be rejected or stopped. Google views this behavior as unfair competition and an attempt to dominate the advertising auction at the expense of other advertisers.
So, in the previous example, it's possible that the affiliate's ads were rejected due to engaging in such dishonest behavior.
Solution: It is important to avoid promoting offers that involve providing ready-made exam answers, selling confidential information, or services for unauthorized activities like password cracking. These types of ads violate Google's policies.
Also, it's not a good idea to run ads from multiple accounts on the same website, hoping that at least one of them will get approved. Google doesn't like that and may give you a warning. If they suspect you're being dishonest, your account might even get blocked within a week.
If you want to speed up the approval process and have a better chance of keeping your account going (especially if you're working with grayhat offers), it's better to use a Google Ads trusted agency account provided by YeezyPay.
Promotion of dangerous goods or services
Google has strict rules against promoting things like explosives, drugs, tobacco, knives, and other weapons in search ads.
Solution: It's important to know that while Google doesn't have restrictions on advertising gun parts or related products like rifle cases, dealers need to have official approval certificates from government agencies to advertise spare parts and components.
If your ad gets rejected and you don't reach out to Google for clarification, your account could end up being completely banned.
Using an unverified phone number in the ad
If your ad has an unverified or incorrect phone number, it may get rejected.
Solution: Only verified and current phone numbers are allowed in Google Ads. So if you're promoting an affiliate offer, make sure to use accurate contact information.
Approved (restricted)
When you launch an ad campaign in multiple geos, you might see a message from Google Ads saying that the campaign is approved but has some restrictions. This means that certain limitations are placed on the ad in specific geos based on local laws or regulations.
Solution: In this case, you have two options:
- Modify the ad to comply with the advertising policy in the targeted location.
- Adjust your ad campaign settings and choose different locations where the restrictions don't apply.
Conclusion
To sum up, we have listed more than a dozen reasons why Google Ads might reject your ads, but there are even more possibilities than what we covered. Google is very strict when it comes to following local laws and ethical advertising guidelines. If there's even a slight suspicion that you're breaking the rules, Google's algorithms can reject your ads and prevent them from running. This happens more often when you're promoting offers in grayhat verticals.
If the offers you are promoting are Iin the grayhat category, then the only way you can somehow survive ad rejections is by using high-quality agency advertising accounts.
