Google provides translated versions of our Help Centre, although they are not meant to change the content of our policies. The English version is the official language that we use to enforce our policies. To view this article in a different language, use the language drop-down at the bottom of the page.
On 31 January 2023, we provided an update on changes to the Google ads government documents and official services policy.
We’re making two new updates to the policy: specifically, we’re changing the date when we’ll begin enforcing policy changes from 31 March 2023 to 24 May 2023 and we’re removing Germany as a region-specific exception under 'Public road access fees and passes'. We’ll begin enforcing the new policy globally on 24 May 2023 with full enforcement ramping up over approximately six weeks.
As a reminder of all changes, the Google Ads government documents and official services policy will be updated in the following ways:
- We will shift policy to an exhaustive list of in-scope categories only.
- We will include region-specific category exclusions.
- Under the 31 January update, Germany was previously excluded under 'Public road access fees and passes' but will be removed as an exclusion in the final policy. Advertisers running ads promoting this category and targeting Germany, will need to qualify as a government or authorised provider and will need to apply for the appropriate certification as described in the policy.
- We will include government issued business identification as in scope of policy.
- We will allow government-authorised providers and deprecate the requirement for 'delegated providers'.
Since the updated policy provides an exhaustive list of in-scope categories, we are providing a link to the fully revised policy rather than including it in this change log.
Our current government document and services policy includes a list of professional services which aren’t restricted by the policy. This list isn’t duplicated in the new policy because the new policy instead provides an exhaustive list of in-scope documents and services. If a document or service isn’t mentioned in the policy, it is out of scope.
In February 2023, we also announced a pilot for authorised California car registration entities, where advertisers that are authorised by the state of California to process vehicle registration work on its behalf were enabled to run ads promoting services for which they’re authorised. This pilot will continue and is not impacted by changes to the enforcement start date.
Violations of this policy won’t lead to immediate account suspension without prior warning. A warning will be issued at least seven days prior to any suspension of your account.
Please review this policy update to determine whether or not any of your ads fall in scope of the policy, and if so, remove those ads before 24 May 2023.
(Posted on 24 March 2023)