The Ad review center offers several features to help you find specific ads to review and block.
Filter or search
The search box at the top of the Ad review center lets you restrict which ads you see, for example, by language, ad type, ad size, etc.
You can search for ads using the following:
- Text: Find ads with matching ad text or destination URLs.
- Click string: Search for ads based on their tracking URL.
You can filter ads using one of the following:
- Date range: Filter ads based on the date that an ad received at least a small number of impressions. Use the date range selector to choose which dates you want to filter on.
Note: Date range is based on Pacific Standard Time (PST).
- Publisher domain: Filter ads based on which of your sites they appeared on.
- Newest ads: Filter for ads that have appeared on your site in the last 1 to 30 days.
- Ad network: Filter for ads from a specific ad network. Note, this filter only shows ads from real-time bidding (RTB) so it can't be combined with the "language" filter.
- Creative ID: Filter for an ad based on its unique identifier.
- General ad category: Filter ads based on their general category or subcategory.
Note: Our system classifies ads automatically, and we don't rely solely on advertiser-provided categorization. Our technology makes its best attempt to filter ads from the possible categories; however, we don't guarantee that it will filter every related ad.
- Sensitive ad category: Filter ads based on their sensitive category.
Note: Our system classifies ads automatically, and we don't rely solely on advertiser-provided categorization. Our technology makes its best attempt to filter ads from the possible categories; however, we don't guarantee that it will filter every related ad.
- Language: Filter based on the language that has been detected for ads. To determine ad language, we look at various factors including the landing page of the ad and its content, which means you might see ads with images or text in a different language to the one you filtered on. The list is ordered by the percentage of ads in each language. Note, this filter only shows ads from the Google Display Network (GDN) so it can't be combined with the "ad network" filter.
Example
Let's say you have ads in five languages (English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Japanese), and the distribution totals for each language are: English (20), Spanish (40), Italian (25), Portuguese (5), and Japanese (10). The list would then display the languages in the following (descending) order: Spanish, Italian, English, Japanese, and Portuguese.
- Size: Filter based on the size of the ads shown on your site. The list is ordered by the percentage of ads of each size.
- Ad type: Filter by image, text or rich media ads.
- Advertiser name: Filter ads based on the name of the advertiser promoting ads as part of your app or site.
- Advertiser app: Filter ads based on the name of the app being promoted by the advertiser within your app or site.
- Labels: Search for ads you tagged with custom labels, such as "Needs review."
Note that some filtering options are hidden until you start typing in the search box and we determine what you're searching for.
Image search
You can use the Ad review center's image search function to help you find and review image ads. For example, you could upload a picture of a competitor's logo and use it to search for image ads containing their logo. Images are available to review in the Ad review center for 30 days.
To search for ads that match an image:
- Click Search by image .
- Click Choose image and upload your image.
Notes:
- Your image must be a PNG file that's less than 3MB in size, and only contain 1 ad. Ad matches can only be identified with an original PNG.
- Distorting the image will affect the search results. Be sure that you haven't distorted the image by zooming in or out. Also, if you are using an image that was emailed, be sure to download the image to your computer rather than copying the image to avoid distortion.
During the search, the Ad review center may find ad matches, as well as visual matches, for the creative you're searching for. Creatives will be labeled as ad matches or visual matches in the search results.
- An ad match is the instance of the creative you uploaded. Search finds the creative you uploaded based on the creative and time it served. AdSense then allows you to block it, or lets you know the source of the creative.
An ad match may or may not be visually exact to the uploaded creative. Blocking the ad match can prevent it from showing in your app, however it may still serve from your other ad sources.
- A visual match is a creative that is visually exact or very similar to the uploaded creative you're searching for, but may or may not be an exact ad match.
You can also use image search to identifying the source of a creative.
Similar ads
The Ad review center also offers the ability to find similar ads. Ads are considered related if they have a similar destination page, or are connected by a similar subject (e.g., a brand, a person, an object etc.).
To view similar ads:
- Hover over an ad, click More , then Find similar ads by and select an option.
Similar ads appear in a new filtered page. From here you can choose to block ads, mark as reviewed, etc.