Restricted content is Google’s term for things you may advertise, but only with limits: the ad might need certification first, be shown only to adults, be blocked in some countries, or appear on fewer placements. It sits between ordinary ads, which show freely once approved, and prohibited content, which cannot be advertised at all.
How restricted content works
Google groups restricted topics into policy areas. The main ones a UK business is likely to meet are alcohol, gambling and games of chance, healthcare and medicines, financial services, cryptocurrencies and related products, adult or sexual content, political and election advertising, and the use of trademarks or copyrighted material. Each area has its own rules, and those rules often vary by country.
When an ad touches a restricted area, one of three things usually happens. It runs with an Approved (limited) or Eligible (limited) status, meaning it shows only in some locations, to some audiences or on some surfaces. It is held until you complete a certification or verification. Or it is disapproved because the targeting or the claim breaks the policy for that country.
In the UK, two areas come up most. Gambling advertisers need a licence from the UK Gambling Commission and must apply to Google for gambling certification before their ads can serve. Financial services advertisers targeting the UK must complete Google’s financial services verification, which at the time of writing (October 2026) requires FCA authorisation, or an approved status under the FCA’s regime, for the products being promoted. Crypto products have their own certification and rules on top of that.
Why it matters
A restricted policy rarely announces itself in advance. A London clinic launching a campaign for a prescription weight-loss treatment may find its ads limited or disapproved on day one, because advertising prescription-only medicines to the public is restricted in the UK and Google enforces that through its healthcare policy. A mortgage broker may lose a week of enquiries while verification is processed.
Restrictions also shrink reach in ways that look like poor performance. An ad marked limited may show to a fraction of the audience you planned for, and Smart Bidding then has less data to learn from. Without checking the status column, it is easy to blame the keywords or the budget instead.
Google’s rules sit alongside UK law and the CAP Code enforced by the ASA, not instead of them. Passing Google review does not make an ad compliant with the FCA’s financial promotion rules or the gambling advertising codes.
Common mistakes
- Launching a campaign in a regulated sector without first reading the Google policy page for that sector in the UK.
- Assuming an approved ad will stay approved. Policies change and ads are reviewed again when edited.
- Trying to dodge a restriction with vague wording or a different landing page for reviewers, which Google treats as circumventing systems and can lead to suspension.
- Ignoring a limited status because the ad is technically running.
- Forgetting that the landing page is reviewed too, so a compliant ad can still be limited by what the site says.
How to act on it
Before you build anything, check whether your products fall into a restricted area and what Google asks for in the UK. Gather your evidence early: your Gambling Commission licence number, your FCA firm reference number, or whatever your sector requires. Start any certification or verification application before the campaign is ready, not on launch day.
Once ads are live, add the policy details column to your ads view and filter for anything limited or disapproved each week. If you think a decision is wrong, fix the cause and request a review rather than resubmitting the same ad repeatedly. Running a regulated account carefully, with these checks built in, is part of my PPC management service.