Google Ads Implements 3-Strike Policy Rule

If you’re a Google Ads advertiser, you’ve likely been hit with a disapproved ad once in your lifetime.

Disapprovals are becoming more automated and harder to appeal without the support of a Google rep.

With the uptick in ad disapprovals, Google announced updates to enforcement of repeated disapproval violations. Enforcements will take effect starting in June 2022.

What’s Changing

Google issues strikes against your Google Ads account when you have repeatedly violated certain policies.

To clarify, strikes are not issued for every policy. The policies that will have the strike system enabled are:

• Compensated sexual acts
• Mail-order brides
• Clickbait
• Misleading ad design
• Bail bond services
• Call Directories, forwarding services
• Credit repair services
• Binary options
• Personal loans

For the certain policies involved in the enforcement, your Google Ads account will get a maximum of three strikes. Google mentioned that with each strike applied, the penalties will progressively increase.

How Strikes Work

On your account’s first and second strikes, your account will be put on a temporary hold.

• First Strike: 3-day temporary hold
• Second Strike: 7-day temporary hold

On the third strike of your account, it will result in an account suspension.

The strikes will be on an individual account-level, not a Manager account-level (MCC).

How Strikes Are Communicated

If you are set up to receive email notifications from Google Ads and are on the specific account, you will be notified via email of the warning or suspension.

An in-account notification will also show in the interface of the warnings and strikes.

An example of the notifications you may receive are below:

How To Handle Receiving Strikes Or Suspensions

If your account is on a temporary hold, you are required to fix the violations and disapprovals. In addition, you will need to submit an acknowledgement form.

By submitting the acknowledgement form to Google, you are agreeing to the following (per Google’s support article):

• You are aware of the specific policy or policies that led to a strike being issued on the account, that you have reviewed the policies in question, and that you understand that additional violations of these policies can lead to more severe action, up to and including account suspension.
• You have removed the assets and ads that violate the policies in question and you will ensure that future assets and ads will comply with our policies.
• Creating additional accounts and/or attempting to circumvent Google’s policy enforcement is strictly prohibited and can lead to account suspension

If you feel that you haven’t violated any policies, you are able to submit an appeal form, which you can find here.

If your appeal is successful, the strike will be removed from your account and the account hold will be lifted immediately.

Summary

For accounts that don’t fit into the above categories, you will likely be spared the account violations. However, it’s still a good practice to routinely check your account notifications.

If you see any account violations, be proactive. Review, revise, or appeal the violations to remain in good account standing.

Source: Google

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