SEARCHENGINES
Google Disapproving & Suspending Google Ads Accounts In Masses?

I am seeing tons of reports over the past 24 hours of complaints around mass disapproving of ads and suspensions of accounts within Google Ads. Some are specific to being disapproved around “government documents and circumventing systems.”
Ginny Marvin from Google updated us saying no, there is no bug or mass disapprovals going on.
I am seeing very little information from Google on these disapprovals and account suspensions. Ginny Marvin from Google did respond to one complaint on Twitter from a respected member of the search marketing community saying “we take system safety very seriously & have focused significantly in this area to both catch more fraud & reduce flagging of good customers. I know it can be frustrating, but we review all appeals & monitor incorrect decisions to provide feedback to our systems. Due to the complex and sensitive nature of these situations, support reps are not able to comment on suspension details.” She did offer a link to this help page for a place to start.
Here are those tweets:
Hi John, We take system safety very seriously & have focused significantly in this area to both catch more fraud & reduce flagging of good customers. I know it can be frustrating, but we review all appeals & monitor incorrect decisions to provide feedback to our systems. 1/2…
— Ginny Marvin (@GinnyMarvin) February 14, 2022
Appreciate the reply, Ginny. It is indeed very frustrating. I’ll have a look at that doc and work my way through it, but do know this is a huge issue going on right now, for me and many others.
— John Doherty (@dohertyjf) February 14, 2022
The ratio might surprise you & it’s one of the reasons the team is so heavily focused in this area to both catch issues & reduce false positives. I’ve shared this feedback with the team and we‘ll continue to invest in making the experience better.
— Ginny Marvin (@GinnyMarvin) February 15, 2022
Lior Krolewicz posted a screenshot of some of these messages on his blog saying “when I logged into Google Ads this morning, I saw multiple accounts with newly disapproved ads for one fairly odd policy: Disapproved (Government Documents and Official Services).” Here is that help document on that government documents and official services policy:
- Not allowed Promotions for documents and/or services that facilitate the acquisition, renewal, replacement, or lookup of official documents or information that are available directly from a government or government delegated provider.
- Not allowed Promotions for assistance with applying or paying for official services that are directly available via a government or government delegated provider.
Google provides more examples in the help document but Lior said “I soon began getting emails from clients that received the same messages and realized it was not an isolated issue.” He also posted a screenshot showing the number of ads disapproved.
PPCGreg also posted this:
the only thing I can see on the ad (along with the other ads that were popped for the same violation) is the use of the word “Official” in the headline with the brand’s name. @adsliaison 🕵️any insight? Recent updates to the policy that might have tripped up on these?
— Greg (@PPCGreg) February 14, 2022
Hi Ginny – our accounts were hit, en masse. Support confirmed the error in 1 acct but said the fix would take 2 days. any chance we can speed that up? pic.twitter.com/1ycGnBz2CQ
— Greg (@PPCGreg) February 15, 2022
There is also a large thread on these complaints in the Reddit forums saying “Anyone else seeing tons of ads getting disapproved for government documents and circumventing systems?” Then there are tons and tons of threads of complaints around this in the Google Ads forums, I’ll just list some – I can’t go through all of them:
Again, something is going on around this “government documents and circumventing systems” and maybe other efforts to step up policy enforcement. I am not sure if all of these disapprovals and suspensions are accurate or not but it seems Google is not talking about it much.
Ginny Marvin responded to my request for more details saying this is not a bug – not that I thought it was a bug, I thought there was some step up in policy enforcement:
Hi Barry, Safety is paramount and our policies span range of concerns, including the content of ad creatives and advertiser behavior. The issues addressed in this story aren’t related. We also haven’t seen any “mass” disapprovals that would indicate a bug.
— Ginny Marvin (@GinnyMarvin) February 15, 2022
Ginny added there is also no mass disapprovals going on:
The teams are keenly aware that policy flags are disruptive and work incredibly hard to strike the right balance. Safety is critical to a healthy system. Advertisers can request as reviews and/or appeals.
— Ginny Marvin (@GinnyMarvin) February 15, 2022
Maybe I am confusing things?
FYI – chatting with Google Ads support yesterday, they said it was a “known issue”. pic.twitter.com/TmAdmjFs3a
— Lior Krolewicz (@yaelconsulting) February 15, 2022
Bug confirmed, should be fixed soon. #ppcchat https://t.co/a9lQ3ybE2y pic.twitter.com/Gqnp7au7xL
— Greg (@PPCGreg) February 15, 2022
Forum discussion at Reddit and the forum links above.
SEARCHENGINES
Bing Chat / Microsoft Copilot Balanced Mode Used 70% Of The Time With Creative & Precise Mode At 15% Each

Mikhail Parakhin from Microsoft shared how often the different modes in Microsoft Copilot, formerly known as Bing Chat, are used. There is Balanced mode, creative mode and precise mode. Balanced mode gets 60-70% of the usages, whereas the other two modes get about 15% each.
Mikhail wrote on X, “Balanced is the most popular, maybe 60-70% of the people (it is the fastest and the default). Creative and Precise are 15%-ish each.”
Here are those posts:
I thought creative mode would get more usage than precise mode because of the image generation aspect but I guess I was wrong.
To learn more about these chat modes, read this story.
Forum discussion at X.
SEARCHENGINES
Most SEOs Believe Google’s November Core & Reviews Updates Will Complete In December

The Google November 2023 core update and Google November 2023 reviews update are still both rolling out, and we have no estimated time of when they will finish rolling out. Both are well past their estimated two-week rollout period. I ran a poll yesterday asking SEOs when they think it will be done, and most said in December and not in the next few days left of November.
The poll had just under 600 votes in 24-hours and 79% said the update will be completed in December and 21% said in the last days remaining in November. I posted the poll on X – here it is:
Will the Google core and reviews update finish in November or December?
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) November 27, 2023
Personally, I thought it would be done by now and I still think it will be done in the next day or so – but I am wrong a lot. 🙂
I do hope it is done today so they can roll out the Christmas holiday update (kidding…).
Forum discussion at X.
Update: I’ll have a story tomorrow but at least one of the updates is done in November:
The roll-out of the November core update is now complete.https://t.co/geIJA2Bg8g
— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) November 28, 2023
SEARCHENGINES
Google Search Console Was Down Today

Google Search Console seems to be down right now. If you try to access it, you will get a 500 server error. I suspect Search Console will be back up shortly but right now, if it is down for you, you are not alone.
Update: At 8:52 am ET Google Search Console is back, the tool was offline for about 50 minutes.
Google’s Daniel Waisberg is 100% aware of the issue. He responded to some posts about the issue, saying, “we’re working on it.” John Mueller from Google is also reposting Daniel’s posts on X.
Here is what it looked like when you tried to access it while it was down:
Search Console went down at about 8 am ET and returned at 8:52 am ET.
Here are the posts on X from Daniel Waisberg of Google on this issue:
I was looking for a plug to charge my phone, so I had to unplug the server 🤷♂️
— Daniel Waisberg (@danielwaisberg) November 27, 2023
Joking aside, we’re working on it! 👨💻
— Daniel Waisberg (@danielwaisberg) November 27, 2023
Who knows, maybe we will have a new Search Console feature when it returns?
Here are some of the complaints:
Search Console its down atm.
— Juanan Carapapa (@Carapapeando) November 27, 2023
@rustybrick search console is down pic.twitter.com/Nm6P84WJld
— Daramel (@Daramel29) November 27, 2023
Is Google Search Console currently experiencing issues? It’s not functioning on my device.
Cc:- @JohnMu @searchliaison @googlesearchc @rustybrick pic.twitter.com/YHjXfSVn30
— Vijay Chauhan 📈 – SEO for Enterprise Businesses (@VijayChauhanSEO) November 27, 2023
In Spain too pic.twitter.com/d1Yiwef72k
— Rafa Martin 👽🖖 (@rafainatica) November 27, 2023
Someone kick the server in the corner @googlesearchc @JohnMu @danielwaisberg https://t.co/79IFVVFdTM
— Pedro Dias (@pedrodias) November 27, 2023
Anyone facing google search console 500 error 🤨🤨#DigitalMarketing #google #searchconsoleerror #500error #trend #news # pic.twitter.com/jWDscWcz1f
— Pankaj besarwal (@Iampankaj10) November 27, 2023
GSC this morning… talk about a case of the Mondays pic.twitter.com/6H3KUG2sd4
— Lily Ray 😏 (@lilyraynyc) November 27, 2023
Update: At 8:52 am ET Google Search Console is back, the tool was offline for about 50 minutes.
Should be all good now.
— Daniel Waisberg (@danielwaisberg) November 27, 2023
-
FACEBOOK5 days ago
Indian Government Warns Facebook, YouTube About Deepfakes, Misinformation Violations
-
MARKETING4 days ago
Whiteboard Friday Recap 2023: AI Edition
-
MARKETING7 days ago
“Undercover” Case Studies: Why the Future of Marketing Is Proving Yourself in the Field
-
SOCIAL6 days ago
17-Year-Old Claims To Make 6 Figures A Year
-
SEARCHENGINES7 days ago
Follower Count Is Not A Google Search Ranking Factor
-
SOCIAL6 days ago
Meta Stock: Still Room For Upside In A Maturing Market (NASDAQ:META)
-
SEARCHENGINES6 days ago
Google Testing “Simple Search” Refinement Option
-
SOCIAL7 days ago
X Withdraws From MRC Brand Safety Accreditation
You must be logged in to post a comment Login