Understand Ad Status
The “Status” column of your Ads tab signals whether or not an ad is active and the reason for its status. The status of an ad reflects changes that you make to that ad or its campaign and whether or not that ad’s been approved based on AdWords policies.
Where to find your ad status
- Sign in to your AdWords account.
- Click the Campaigns tab.
- Click the Ads tab.
- Look at the “Status” column, next to “Ad,” to see an ad’s status.
How to interpret your ad status
The “Status” column from the Ads tab displays information about the current state of your ad at the time you sign in. Here are the different types of ad statuses:
- Paused
- Pending
- Ended
- Deleted
- Under review
- Eligible
- Approved
- Approved (non-family)
- Approved (adult)
- Approved (limited)
- Disapproved
- Site suspended
These are the four ad statuses that you have control over:
- Paused: Inactive because you paused it. Pausing an ad means that your ads don’t show or accumulate new costs until resumed. You can also see “Campaign paused” or “Ad group paused” from your Ads tab if you paused the campaign or ad group that contains this ad. Even when ads are paused, they’re subject to review. Google will review paused ads to ensure that they comply with AdWords policies and applicable laws,and also so that ads that do get approved while under view can run as soon as you unpause them.
- Pending: Inactive but scheduled to begin at a future date. You can also see “Campaign pending” or “Ad group pending” from your Ads tab if the campaign or ad group that contains this ad is pending.
- Ended: Inactive because it’s past its scheduled end date. You can also see “Campaign ended” or” Ad group ended” from your Ads tab if the campaign or ad group that contains this ad has ended.
- Deleted: Inactive because you deleted it. Deleting an ad means that ads don’t show or accumulate new costs until re-enabled. You also see “Campaign deleted” or “Ad group deleted” from your Ads tab if you deleted the campaign or ad group that contains this ad.
The remaining types are statuses related to your ad’s approval or disapproval.
Checking Ad Approval Status
When AdWords reviews your ad, they give it one of several approval statuses. If your ad isn’t showing for certain users, or if it’s not showing at all, it could be because of your ad’s approval status. Some approval statuses, like Approved (adult) or Approved (limited), mean that your ad can only show for certain users. Other approval statuses, like Disapproved or Site suspended, mean that your ad can’t show at all right now.
Possible approval statuses
Here are the approval statuses your ad can receive: Under review
- Eligible
- Approved
- Approved (non-family)
- Approved (adult)
- Approved (limited)
- Disapproved
- Site suspended
Before getting into the details of each approval status, let’s look at how to check your ad’s approval status.
How to check your ad’s approval status
- Sign in to your AdWords account.
- Click the Campaigns tab at the top.
- Click the Ads tab.
- Look at the Status column.
- Next to each ad, you should see the ad’s current status.
What each approval status means
Click any of the approval statuses below to see what it means.
Under review
Ads with this status are still under review and can’t show anywhere yet.
When you save your ad, it’ll get either an “under review” status or an “eligible” status. While “eligible” ads are allowed to run on certain pages before they’re approved, “under review” ads can’t run anywhere until they’re approved because they need a closer look. Below are some examples of ads that will initially get an “under review” status:
- Ads targeting Google’s partner sites (websites such as AOL.com that partner with Google to show ads)
- Text ads that mention products with certain advertising restrictions, like gambling or alcohol
- Image and video ads
Every time you submit new ads or make changes to existing ads, they’re automatically submitted for review. AdWords will usually review your ads within three business days. Once your ad is reviewed, the Status column will update to reflect the ad’s new status.
Eligible
Ads with this status are still being reviewed, but can show on Google search pages.
When you save your ad, it’ll get either an “under review” status or an “eligible” status. “Under review” ads can’t run anywhere until they’re approved. “Eligible” ads are allowed to run on Google search pages before they’re approved because they think the ads are probably acceptable. Here are the restrictions for eligible ads:
- Eligible ads can only run on Google search pages until they’re approved.
- Eligible ads can only show for users who’ve turned off SafeSearch filtering.
- Eligible ads can’t run on the Search Network and Display Network until they’re approved.
Every time you submit new ads or make changes to existing ads, they’re automatically submitted for review. AdWords will usually review your ads within three business days. Once your ad is reviewed, the Status column will update to reflect the ad’s new status.
Approved
Ads with this status are allowed to show on all networks, since they’re considered to have content that’s safe for all audiences.
Approved (non-family)
Ads with this status are considered to have content that may be inappropriate for certain audiences. For example, certain gambling or dating site ads may fall under this category.
These ads won’t appear for users who’ve turned on SafeSearch filtering. Also, some sites in the Google Network might not accept any ads that are rated “adult” or “non-family” safe.
Approved (adult)
Ads with this status are considered to have “adult” content. For example, ads that promote sites with nude images may fall under this category.
These ads will only appear for searches considered “adult” in nature, and won’t appear for users who’ve turned on SafeSearch filtering. Also, some sites in the Google Network might not accept any ads that are rated “adult” or “non-family” safe.
Adult ads aren’t allowed in certain countries. See Google’s Family Status policy for a list of countries where adult ads aren’t allowed.
Approved (limited) Disapproved
Ads with this status have an issue with one or more of Google’s advertising policies, and therefore can’t show until the issue is resolved.
To fix the issue, find out which policy your ad violated, then edit your ad so that it follows Google’s policies. See how to fix disapproved ads.
Site suspended
Ads with this status are pointing to a suspended website, and therefore can’t show until the issue is resolved. A suspended website is a site that violates one or more of Google’s policies.
To fix the issue, find out which policy your site violated, then edit your website so that it follows Google’s policies. See how to fix suspended sites.
Serving (video ads)
A video ad is approved to appear on YouTube, and Google hasn’t detected any issues with it. Note: The video ad may not necessarily be running at this time.
Not serving (video ads)
All formats (headline, description, video, etc.) of the video ad have been disapproved.
Not yet serving (video ads)
A video ad is not yet approved to appear on YouTube but is under review.
With issues (video ads)
One or more of a video ad’s formats are marked as “Disapproved” or “Approved (limited).” This means the ad is not running.
View policy details for each ad
Are you wondering why your ad has an Approved (limited), Disapproved, or Site suspended status? If so, the Policy details column can show you information about which policies are affecting the approval status of your ads.
Here’s how to enable the Policy details column:
- Go to the Ads tab in your account.
- Click the Columns button in the toolbar above the statistics table.
- Click Customize columns.
- In the Attributes section, click Add next to Policy details.
- Click Apply.
After following the steps above, you’ll now see a Policy details column in your Ads tab. This column gives you policy information about certain approval statuses:
- If your ad has an Approved (limited) status, you’ll see details on why that ad is limited to a certain audience.
- If your ad has a Disapproved status, you’ll see the reason why that ad wasn’t approved. Click the disapproval reason to learn more about that policy, then make changes to your ad (and website, if needed) so that it complies with Google’s policies.
- If your ad has a Site suspended status, check your email for details about why your site was suspended from AdWords. The email will tell you the name of the policy that was violated, the site that’s in violation, and a link that points you to more information about that policy and how to fix the issue.
Resubmit a Disapproved Ad
Before resubmitting your ad, make sure that you first fix your disapproved ad so that it complies with Google’s policies.
If your ad gets disapproved, you can make changes to your ad and/or website to make sure that they comply with Google’s advertising policies. Once you do that, you can resubmit that ad to Google for another review. There are different instructions depending on whether you’ve made a change to your ad or to your website.
Resubmit your ad for review
To resubmit a single ad for review, you just have to edit and save it. Your ad will then be automatically resubmitted to AdWords for review.
- Go to the Ads tab.
- Hover over the ad that you want to resubmit, and then click the pencil icon next to your ad.
- Make any change to your ad and click Save.
- Make sure that you actually edit your ad in some way. If you don’t make any changes to your ad, it won’t be resubmitted for review. Know that after you save, you can always edit your ad again to change it back to the way it was.
- Your ad automatically gets resubmitted to AdWords for review. The Status column will soon reflect the change in approval status – it will change from “Disapproved” to either “Eligible” or “Under review.” AdWords will usually review your ads within three business days.
Editing your ad is the same as deleting your original ad and creating a new one, so any statistics for that ad will be reset to zero when resubmitting your ad this way. Also, resubmitted ads may get disapproved again. Depending on the situation, repeated disapprovals may lead to your account getting suspended, so please think twice before resubmitting your ads.
Resubmit some entire campaigns for review
If your ads were disapproved for issues with your ad’s destination URL, you may have the option to use a link in your account to resubmit all eligible ads within that entire campaign. For example, if your ads were originally disapproved because your landing page was temporarily down, you can use this option to resubmit that campaign once your webpage is back up again.
Note that this option is only available for ads that have been disapproved for certain issues relating to your site or destination URL.
- Go to the Campaigns tab and select a campaign.
- Select the Ads tab.
- Look at the Status column and hover over the white speech bubble next to “Disapproved.”
- Click “Resubmit my campaign for review.” Remember that this link will appear only if your ad was disapproved for certain issues relating to your site or destination URL.
- Follow the on-screen instructions to resubmit the eligible disapproved ads in that campaign.
- The Status column will soon reflect the change in approval status – it will change from “Disapproved” to “Eligible” or “Under review.” AdWords will usually review your ads within three business days.
Resubmitting your ads this way will not affect your ads’ statistics. However, resubmitted ads may get disapproved again. Depending on the situation, repeated disapprovals may lead to your account getting suspended, so please think twice before resubmitting your ads.
Have a suspended site? If your website was suspended for policy issues, you can fix the issues and then resubmit your site for review.
Paused Ads and the Approval Process
All ads in AdWords are subject to review, whether they’re paused or active. By reviewing your paused ads, AdWords can insure that your ads ready when you’re ready to make them live.
Most ads are reviewed within three business days.
Imagine you’re launching a big new campaign next week. If you wait until next week to create your ads, there’s a chance that those ads won’t run immediately because it can take up to three business days to get your ads reviewed. Wouldn’t it be great if you could just flip a switch and have your ads run immediately? AdWords allows you to do this by creating your ads in advance and then pausing them. As long as there are no issues with your ads during review, they’ll be able to run as soon as you unpause them.
Fixing disapproved ads that were paused
If your paused ad doesn’t comply with Google’s Advertising Policies, they may disapprove it. If your paused ad shows a “Disapproved” status when you unpause it, follow the instructions on how to robots.txt configuration to keep it out of the crawl index. This way Google won’t display your new web page in their search results before it’s officially launched.
- Don’t link to the new web page from the rest of your site.
- Create your ads and immediately pause them. You can also create your ads in a paused campaign or ad group so that it’s easier to resume multiple ads at once.
When you’re ready for the campaign to go live, you can resume your paused ads, campaigns, or ad groups, remove any robots.txt configuration, and add links to the new page.