A disapproved ad is an ad that Google has reviewed and blocked from showing anywhere because it, its assets or its landing page break one of the Google Ads advertising policies. Unlike an ad marked as limited, which can still run in some places, a disapproved ad receives no impressions until the problem is fixed or an appeal succeeds.
How ad disapproval works
Every new or edited ad goes through review, which is mostly automated, with people checking some cases. The review looks at the ad text, images and assets, the keywords, and the page the ad leads to. If something breaches a policy, the ad’s status changes to Disapproved and the reason is shown when you hover over the status or open the Policy manager. Its approval status is the first thing to check when an ad has no impressions.
Reasons fall into a few broad groups:
- Destination problems: the page does not load, redirects somewhere unexpected, is blocked to Google’s crawler, or the domain does not match the one shown in the ad.
- Editorial issues: unusual capitalisation, excessive punctuation, symbols used as words, or a phone number written into the ad text.
- Misleading content: claims the page cannot back up, prices that do not match, or wording that implies something false. Google files much of this under misrepresentation.
- Restricted sectors: financial services, gambling, healthcare and some others need extra steps before ads can run in the UK, such as financial services verification, which checks FCA authorisation.
A single disapproved ad is routine. Repeated or serious breaches are different: some policies use a strike system, and egregious violations can lead straight to account suspension.
Why it matters for a UK business
The obvious cost is lost traffic. If every ad in an ad group is disapproved, that ad group is silent and its keywords spend nothing, which is easy to miss if you only look at account totals. The less obvious cost is trust: an account with a long history of disapprovals tends to see stricter review later.
Google’s approval is also not the same as legal compliance. An ad can pass Google’s review and still break the CAP Code enforced by the Advertising Standards Authority, or the FCA’s financial promotion rules. Approval only means the platform will run it.
Common mistakes
- Deleting the ad and creating an identical one, hoping it slips through. This looks like an attempt to get around review and can make things worse.
- Appealing without changing anything when the reason is clearly valid.
- Ignoring destination errors after a site update, a new cookie wall or a firewall rule that blocks Google’s crawler.
- Only checking the ads tab and missing disapproved sitelinks, images or other assets.
- Assuming that because a competitor runs a similar claim, yours is acceptable.
How to act on it
- Open the Policy manager (under Tools) or hover over the status to read the exact policy named.
- Check the landing page in a private browser window on a phone and a computer. Many disapprovals come from the destination, not the ad.
- If the cause is valid, edit the ad, asset or page. Editing sends it for review again; you do not need to appeal.
- If you believe the decision is wrong, submit a policy appeal from the Policy manager, explaining briefly why the ad complies.
- For restricted sectors, complete any certification or verification Google asks for before relaunching.
Checking for disapprovals and limited ads every week is part of the Google Ads account management I run, because the earlier you see one, the less traffic it costs.