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Identity verification
Advertisers selected to undergo the advertiser verification programme, will get an email and an in-account notification with instructions to start the verification process. Once you have successfully completed verification, Google will make information about your Google Ads account and ad campaigns publicly available via ads disclosures and the Ads Transparency Center. Learn more about our transparency policy.
Google reserves the right to verify your identity or business operations again. You’ll receive a notification when this verification is required For example, you may be asked to re-verify your identity or business operations if there are significant changes in your Google Ads account.
If you are given a deadline to complete the verification
If you are given a deadline to complete the verification, you will have 30 days from the day you have received the email or in-account notification to start the 'About your business' section. After that section is completed, you will be presented with additional steps needed to complete the verification programme. The next steps will be customised based on your account structure, billing setup, and if you’re advertising on behalf of an organisation or individual. You may also be required to verify your business operations.
Please note that once started, you will be given 30 days to successfully complete all requested verifications which may include verifying your business operations, if applicable. Failure to complete the verification programme after 30 days will result in account pausing.
If you are not given a deadline to complete the verification
You will follow the same steps as above to start the 'About your business' section. After that section is completed, you will be presented with additional steps needed to complete the verification programme. The next steps will be customised based on your account structure, billing setup, and if you’re advertising on behalf of an organisation or individual. You may also be required to verify your business operations.
Your account will not be paused if you did not start the verification or if you had failed the requirements of the verification programme.
Note:
- Identity verification must be completed by an admin of the Google Ads account and/or the payments profile paying for the ads. Details for who can complete is listed below for each customer type.
- A subset of users may qualify to voluntarily submit their identity verification in bulk. If you qualify, you will be notified in the Google Ads account during the identity verification step.
- As an additional layer of protection for our users, Google may require advertisers to complete verification to access certain ad features to reduce invalid activity, scams and abuse of that feature.
The advertiser name is the legal name or trade name or 'doing business as' (DBA) name of the advertiser, verified by Google through the advertiser verification programme.
To verify a legal name, the legal name must match the legal name on any registration documents submitted during the verification programme.
To verify a trade or DBA name, the trade or DBA name must match and be on the same registration document submitted during the verification programme along with the legal name. Learn more about Document requirements for advertiser verification.
For agencies, the name must be the legal name, trade or DBA name of the advertiser that you are representing.
The advertiser name will be displayed within the 'About this advertiser' disclosure. Learn more about Ads transparency.
The following is not allowed:
Inaccurate names or product names that do not match the legal name, trade or DBA name of the advertiser on any registration documents submitted during the verification programme
- As an alternative, advertisers have the option to verify and serve their business assets like business name and business logo in their ads through brand verification for business information. Learn more about brand verification for business information.
Steps to verify your identity
Your answers to the questions in the first 'About your business' section will determine additional identity verification steps to complete. The required steps will appear under 'Your Status' on the Advertiser verification page.
Select one of the following for detailed instructions. If you’re unsure which one applies to you, learn how to check your payments setup.
Verify yourself or your organisation [I'm an advertiser, representing myself or my organisation]
How to complete
- The email notification and in-account notification you receive will detail the steps you must complete to verify your identity for each Google Ads account.
- The required steps will appear in your Google Ads account:
- Click the Billing icon
.
- Click Advertiser verification.
- Click the Billing icon
- The verification process, the 'About your business' section will already be completed. Click Get started next to 'Verify your organisation' or 'Verify yourself'.
.If you are promoting an organisation
- Your 'Account type' in your Google Ads payments profile must be 'Organisation' before submitting your information.
- A Google Ads account admin or an admin of the payments profile paying for the ads will need to complete this form. Learn more about payments users.
- You will be asked to submit registration documents that include your organisation’s legal name and location. You will also need to submit the organisation’s registration number and a document to verify yourself.* Learn more about Document requirements for advertiser verification.
- The name and location on the payments profile must match your name and location exactly on any documents that you submit. If the name doesn’t match, make sure that a Google Ads account admin or a payments admin edits the payments profile name by clicking on the pencil icon next to your organisation name. If the admin doesn't have edit access, you’ll need to contact us to request an organisation name update.
- You may be prompted to provide your D-U-N-S number to verify your legal identity. If you don’t have a D-U-N-S number, you can apply for one here or choose to submit your organisation name and address instead.
- We will look up your organisation information registered with Dun & Bradstreet with your D-U-N-S number and match it with the information which you have provided for verification. If we don’t have a match, make sure that you check the information provided is accurate and re-submit your information up to 3 times. You may still be asked to submit identity documents as listed above to complete the verification process.
- If you are verifying the identity of your organisation as part of the account suspensions appeal process, you may be prompted to submit your D-U-N-S number to complete verification. If we can’t find a match after 3 attempts, you will not be allowed to appeal your account suspension.
If you are promoting yourself as an individual
- The 'Account type' in your Google Ads payments profile must be 'Individual' before submitting your information.
- You must submit documents to verify your identity. Learn more about Document requirements for advertiser verification.
- The name and location on the payments profile must match your name and location exactly on any documents that you submit.* If the name doesn’t match, make sure that you edit your payments profile name by clicking on the pencil icon next to your name. If you don’t have edit access, you’ll need to contact us to request a name update.
- You may be prompted to provide your phone number to verify your identity. If we can’t find a match after five attempts, you may still be asked for documents to verify your identity.
- If you are verifying your identity as part of the account suspensions appeal process, you may be prompted to submit your Social Security Number or your phone number to complete verification. Your Social Security Number or phone number will be deleted and will not be stored after completing the verification process. If we can’t find a match after 3 attempts, you will not be allowed to appeal your account suspension.
Google will review your application and send you an email notification about your advertiser identity verification status within 5–7 working days if you have a deadline and within 30 working days if you don’t have a deadline. You can check your verification status on the Advertiser verification page in your Google Ads account. If you are a manager account user, you can check the Advertiser verification page to see the status of all your accounts.
Before you begin
As your information has already been verified during the credit line creation process, you are not required to submit any additional information or documentation.
The email notification and in-account notification that you receive will detail the steps required to approve the use of your legal name and location for each Google Ads account. This will be the name and location listed on your payments profile. If your payments profile information is not up-to-date, contact us before starting verification.
If you are not an admin on the Google Ads account, you must contact an admin to start verification. Learn more about account access levels.
How to complete
- After completing the 'About your business' section on the 'Advertiser verification' page in your Google Ads account, click Get Started next to 'Verify your organisation'.
- This will open a new page to confirm the name and location of your organisation.
- If you are eligible to verify multiple accounts in bulk, you will be presented with that option.
- Click Confirm.
You will receive a confirmation email that your identity has been verified. The name and location on your payments profile will be displayed in a disclosure on any ads that you run. Learn more about ads transparency.
Important
- If you have multiple Google Ad Grants accounts, you'll need to complete the steps outlined below for each account.
- You only need to complete advertiser verification for the accounts listed in the notification email requesting that you start the verification process.
- If you are not an admin on the Google Ads account, you must contact an admin to start verification. Learn more about managing access to your Google Ads account.
- All collected information is handled according to our privacy and security policies described in the Google Safety Centre.
How to complete
- After completing the 'About your business' section on the 'Advertiser verification' page in your Google Ads account, click Get Started next to 'Verify your client'.
- You'll be redirected to a new page to provide additional information for verification of your client. Select an existing payments profile for the grantee to use for verification of their business’ advertising, or create a new payments profile.
- The payments profiles that will appear for selection in this step will be any profiles currently associated with your email address. If you want to reuse an existing payments profile not showing in the list, you must share the link to start verification with an admin of the payments profile. If there are no existing profiles, you must create a new one.
- Regardless of whether you select an existing payments profile or create a new payments profile, there will be no change to the billing or access of the Google Ads account(s).
- In the selected payments profile, provide the required information and documentation.
- The business name of the profile that you choose must match the grantee's name. It will be used in the ad disclosures of the ads and in the Ads Transparency Center.
- Unless you select an existing profile that has previously been verified, you will need to verify the new or existing payments profile by uploading documentation proving the grantee’s identity. Learn more about Document requirements for advertiser verification
- Google will review your application and send you an email notification about your verification status within 5–7 working days if you have a deadline and within 30 working days if you don’t have a deadline. You can check your verification status on the Advertiser verification page in your Google Ads account.
- Once you successfully verify the payments profile, you'll be notified via email and the status will be shown on the 'Advertiser verification' page.
Note: In South Korea, identity verification is done via your mobile operator. Make sure that the information you submit exactly matches the information on file with your mobile operator.
Before you start
Verify that the 'Account type' in your Google Ads payments profile is set as 'Organisation' before submitting your information.
How to complete
- After completing the 'About your business' section on the 'Advertiser verification' page in your Google Ads Account, click Get Started next to 'Verify your agency'.
- If the agency has a Google Ads account billed on monthly invoicing, the tracker will update to Completed and no other steps are required.
- If the agency has a Google Ads account not billed on monthly invoicing, they will be brought to a new page for the next steps.
- This will open a new page requesting that you verify the identity of your agency. If you’re not a Google Ads admin, you must contact an admin on the account to start verification. Learn how.
- A Google Ads admin or an admin on the payments profile must upload registration documents for your agency and a document to verify that it’s you*. Acceptable documents by location are listed here. The legal name and location on the payments profile must match the legal name and location on any documents that you submit. If the name doesn’t match, make sure an account admin or payments admin edits the payments profile name by clicking on the pencil icon next to the organisation name to make the change. If the admin doesn’t have edit access, you’ll need to contact us to request an organisation name update.
- Click Submit.
Note: All collected information is handled according to our privacy and security policies described in the Google Safety Centre.
* In South Korea, identity verification is done via your mobile carrier. Make sure the information that you submit exactly matches the information on file with your mobile operator.
Important
- If you pay on automatic or manual payments for Google Ads accounts for multiple organisations or individuals, you will need to complete this step separately for each identified account.
How to complete
Agency’s steps
- After completing the 'about your business' section on the 'Advertiser verification' page in your Google Ads account, you'll see the 'Verify your client' section.
- You’ll then be presented with the option to invite the client to verify themselves or have the agency verify the client on their behalf.
- If you'd like to invite the client to verify themselves, click Copy link next to 'Send verification to your client'. Please ask them to follow the instructions provided to complete verification.
- If you have selected to verify the client on their behalf, you'll be redirected to a standalone page to start the client verification step. You'll have to create a new payments profile for the client and may be asked to provide documentation. Acceptable documents by location are listed here. Follow the instructions provided to complete the verification.
Client’s steps
To start the client's verification, the agency must first send the instructions via email (see section above).
- The client will be prompted to either select an existing payments profile they have with Google to use for verification of their business’ advertising or create a new payments profile.
- The payments profiles that will appear for selection to them in this step will be any profiles currently associated with their email address. If they want to reuse an existing payments profile not showing in the list, they must share the link to start verification with an admin of the payments profile. If they have no existing profiles, they must create a new one.
- The business name of the profile that they choose will be used in the ad disclosures of their ads and the Ads Transparency Center.
- Regardless of if they select an existing or create a new profile, there will be no change to the billing of their Google Ads account(s) nor will they be granted access to their Google Ads account(s) if they do not already have it.
- Unless the client selects an existing profile that has previously been verified, they will need to verify their new or existing payments profile by uploading documentation proving their company’s identity. See here for more information.
- Once your client successfully verifies their payments profile, you will be notified via email. You can see the status on the Advertiser verification page.
Note:
- The name submitted as the advertiser business name must be the advertiser represented by the agency, not the name of your agency and must exactly match their legal documents submitted through the form. This name will be displayed in a disclosure on any ads run from the Google Ads account.
- The registration documents submitted must note the name and location of the advertiser that you represent. Acceptable documents by location are listed here.
Google will review your application and send you an email notification about your client verification status within five to seven working days if you have a deadline and within 30 working days if you don’t have a deadline.
Remember
Ads run by advertisers who complete identity verification will display the name (or the name of the organisation that you represent) and location provided during the verification process in a disclosure that is automatically generated by Google. Learn more about advertiser transparency and disclosures
Steps to update your verified name
There are several reasons why you may want to update your verified name. Please follow the steps below to request any change:
As an agency, you verified the wrong name or client
If you are a Google Ads admin, you can initiate the process of resetting your verification on the Advertiser verification page in your Google Ads account. After your account is reset, you will be required to complete advertiser verification again.
Your legal name has changed
Important
Do not complete this form if:
- You want to change your payments profile information country or account type
- You want to change the ownership of the payments profile.
- Your pay with monthly invoicing
Canada only
For accounts billed in Canada only, you may see the option to edit your individual or business name in your Google Ads account. To change your verified name in your payments profile, you may need to provide more info and documentation to re-verify your name. Follow the instructions:
- In your Google Ads account, click the Billing
- Click Settings.
- Find the 'Payments profile' section where you can view details like your payments profile ID, account type and other details.
- Next to 'Name' for Individual or 'Organisation name' for businesses, click the pencil icon
.
- Below your name, click Change name.
- Click Start name change.
- Follow the on-screen instructions to enter your info and upload documents.
.Once the new name is verified, you’ll receive a confirmation email and the updated name will show under Payer details.
If there’s an issue with verification, you’ll receive an email with more details and will have the option to edit the name and fix the issue or cancel the name change request.
Changing account ownership