Troubleshoot creatives rejected by Display & Video 360 or Google Ad Manager

What's the issue?

The creative does not match the size of the ad slot returned by your ad server. For example, your ad server returned a 728 x 90 ad slot, but the actual creative only fills a 300 x 250 ad slot.

What exchanges does this apply to?

This rejection applies to Google Ad Manager and may apply to other exchanges. Learn more about this rejection on Ad Manager. You can contact individual exchanges to learn more about their policies.

How can I fix it?

All ads served should return creatives that match the declared ad slot size.

Either upload a creative of the right size to your ad server or edit the dimensions in the creative’s Creative details tab in Display & Video 360.

What's the issue?

The ad is disapproved because it contains or leads to a landing page that contains sexual content.

How can I fix it?

Remove sexual content from the creative or landing page.

What's the issue?

The ad redirects the user to a landing page without a click or reports a click when there wasn't one.

Ads on most exchanges must be designed to only redirect the user to a landing page upon user-initiated click. Ads that inflate clicks by automatically redirect the user to a landing page, file download, or application are prohibited.

What exchanges does this apply to?

This rejection applies to Google Ad Manager and may apply to other exchanges. Learn more about this rejection on Ad Manager. You can contact individual exchanges to learn more about their policies.

How can I fix it?

Edit the creative to make sure landing page redirects only occur after someone clicks.

What's the issue?

The ad is blank or does not load. Blank creatives are often caused by geo-targeting, user targeting, ad verification services, and inactive ads in your ad server. It's your responsibility to make sure all creatives load and work as expected.

How can I fix it?

All creatives served by Display & Video 360 must render properly; blank creatives are prohibited.

Make sure the creative is viewable to all users on all impressions. This may require having your ad server or verification service deliver a backup ad in the event of ad blocking.

What's the issue?

• The clickthrough URL doesn't work properly. Common issues include malformed clickthrough URLs, invalid click redirect URLs, problems with macro replacement in URLs, or non-working/non-existent landing pages. Make sure your ads click through to working landing pages.
• This creative doesn't have a valid landing page. This creative must include at least one exit to a landing page that loads without error, is accessible in all locations, and is crawlable by Google.

How can I fix it?

All creatives served by Display & Video 360 must contain a functional click-through URL that leads the user to a working landing page. Your landing page must work properly for all locations, regardless of where you're targeting your ad. Check your landing page on various browsers and devices to make sure that it always links to a working website or app.

Edit the creative so that it clicks through to a working landing page. To test click-through URLs, preview your creative in Display & Video 360.

What's the issue?

The ad or landing page promotes guns, gun parts, or gun-related content.

Gun-related content includes functional devices that appear to discharge a projectile at high velocity, whether for sport, self-defense, or combat (including sporting or recreational guns that can cause serious harm if misused, or that appear to be real guns) as well as any part or component that's necessary to the function of a gun. Common examples include handguns, rifles, shotguns, hunting guns, functioning antique guns, airsoft guns, paintball guns, bb guns, silencers, ammunition, or ammunition clips or belts.

How can I fix it?

All creatives and landing pages served by Display & Video 360 are prohibited from promoting guns, gun parts, or gun-related content. Remove gun-related content from the creative and any landing pages it links to.

What's the issue?

The ad or landing page promotes dangerous knives or related content.

Dangerous knives include knives that are designed or promoted (in modern-day usage) as products that can be used to injure an opponent in sport, self defense, or combat, or any knife design that provides a confrontational advantage (including disguised appearance or assisted-opening mechanism). Common examples include switchblades, fighting knives, sword-canes, balisongs, military knives, push daggers, or throwing axes.

How can I fix it?

All creatives and landing pages served by Display & Video 360 are prohibited from promoting dangerous knives.

Remove all dangerous knives content from the creative and any landing pages it links to.

What's the issue?

The ad or landing page promotes tobacco-related content or products, including those that are designed to simulate smoking.

Common examples include cigarettes, cigars, snus, chewing tobacco, rolling tobacco, pipe tobacco, rolling papers, pipes, tobacco filters, hookah lounges, cigar bars, herbal cigarettes, electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes.

How can I fix it?

All creatives and landing pages served by Display &  Video 360 are prohibited from promoting tobacco products, services, and related equipment including those which are designed to simulate smoking. Remove all tobacco-related content from the creative and any landing pages it links to.

What's the issue?

There's a problem with the synced Campaign Manager 360 placement, resulting in the feedback "The Campaign Manager 360 tag is invalid."

How can I fix it?

1. Check if the creative was just uploaded or created. If it was recently created, the tag may not be created and validated yet. This should change to valid after a few hours. If it has been more than a few hours, follow the steps below.
2. Check if it's a tracking placement. If the creative is a 1x1 and only meant for tracking, you can ignore this rejection. Creatives that are 1x1 tracking placements will be always rejected in Display & Video 360, because they aren't meant to serve alone.
3. If you have access to the linked Campaign Manager 360 advertiser, open Campaign Manager 360 and find the synced placement.
4. Check for the following problems:
   • There's an invalid landing page URL in either the placement or any of the ads assigned to the placement
   • Placement is not active
   • Advertiser is not approved in Campaign Manager 360
   • No active creatives are assigned to the placement
   • No active ads are assigned to the placement
   • Placement or ad start or end dates are outside of the date range set for the campaign
   • An assigned ad uses targeting or audience segmentation, but does not have a default ad assigned
   • Placement has tag key-values with macros that aren't supported in Display & Video 360
5. If the creative is a video creative:
   1. Make sure there's at least one video asset in your creatives that's not a QuickTime (.mov) format. The .mov format is supported, but requires at least one other video type (for example, .mp4).
   2. For Campaign Manager 360-hosted and third-party hosted videos, check if there are videos with different durations (15s and 30s) included in rotation, or if the primary and default assets are different lengths. Exchanges require that each line item has video assets that are approximately the same length (within 10%) in rotation.

After you've corrected the problems in Campaign Manager 360, give the updated placement about an hour to sync.

What's the issue?

The ad or landing page promotes weapons or weapon-related content.

Weapon-related content includes any product that's designed to (in modern-day usage) injure an opponent in sport, self-defense, or combat. Common examples include throwing stars, brass knuckles, tasers, or pepper spray.

How can I fix it?

All creatives and landing pages served by Display & Video 360 are prohibited from promoting weapons or weapon-related content. Remove all weapon-related content from the creative and any landing pages it links to.

What's the issue?

The ad or landing page contains an abusive experience. Common examples include: auto-redirects to landing page without user action, misleads or tricks the user into interacting, resembles system or site warnings or error messages, simulates messages, dialog boxes or request notifications, and so on.

How can I fix it?

All creatives and landing pages served by Display & Video 360 must not contain experiences designed to be misleading. Learn more about what's considered abusive

Remove the abusive content from the creative and any landing pages it links to.

What's the issue?

The clickthrough URL leads to a landing page that could not be crawled. Common crawl errors include: robots.txt failure, DNS errors, or server errors.

At least one landing page must be crawlable if your creative will run on Ad Manager. Ad Manager uses the AdsBot-Google and Googlebot crawlers to read and ensure your landing page complies with Ad Manager policies.

To allow Google to crawl your page, add User-agent: AdsBot-Google and User-agent: Googlebot to your domain’s robots.txt. You can also use Google Search Console to see how to make your page accessible to Google.

What exchanges does this apply to?

This rejection applies to Google Ad Manager and may apply to other exchanges. Learn more about this rejection on Ad Manager. You can contact individual exchanges to learn more about their policies.

How can I fix it?

Make sure Google bots can crawl your creative's landing page (or at least 1 of your landing pages if you have more than one).

• To check if your creative’s landing page is crawlable by Google, verify that your domain’s robots.txt file allows Google bots.
• If the landing page is not crawlable, work with the website administrator to add User-agent: AdsBot-Google and User-agent: Googlebot to your domain’s robots.txt and verify that your landing page is otherwise crawlable.
• Check the creative's code to make sure at least one link leads to a crawlable landing page.
• If Display & Video 360 fails to detect the landing page, the website provided in your Display & Video 360 advertiser's Basic Details page is used instead. Make sure this page is crawlable.

See our in-depth guide, Troubleshoot uncrawlable landing pages, for more details.

What's the issue?

The ad or landing page is difficult to interact with. Common issues include landing pages that disable browser navigational functions, sites with pop-ups or interstitial ads that interfere with the user's ability to see the content requested, or ads that look like software download buttons, official system warnings, or webpage features like menus, search results, or other site content.

Your site should not present unexpected webpages, ads, or sponsored offers to users when they are navigating the site.

Your site should not require registration or sign-in to view site content (for example, when using a Facebook page as your landing page, make sure the page is public.)

What exchanges does this apply to?

This rejection applies to Google Ad Manager and may apply to other exchanges. Learn more about this rejection on Ad Manager. You can contact individual exchanges to learn more about their policies.

How can I fix it?

Edit the creative or landing page content to comply with policies.

What's the issue?

The ad or landing page contains content that enables dishonest behavior including products or services that help users to mislead others and products or services that enable a user to gain unauthorized access (or make unauthorized changes) to systems, devices, or property.

Examples include the creation of false documents such as passports or diplomas, aids to pass drug tests, exam-taking services, hacking services, radar jammers, phone or wire-tapping, or stealing cable.

Learn more

How can I fix it?

All creatives and landing pages served by Display & Video 360 are prohibited from containing content that enables dishonest behavior including products or services that help users to mislead others and products or services that enable a user to gain unauthorized access (or make unauthorized changes) to systems, devices, or property.

Edit the creative and any landing pages it links to. Remove content that enables dishonest behavior.

What's the issue?

The expandable ad does not function properly (for example, not expanding outside of an iframe).

Expandable creatives may not expand to more than twice the width or three times the height of the creative's base dimensions, except when displaying certain IAB formats or formats approved by Google. Each ad technology vendor’s cross-site scripting file is required for iframe ad calls to be functional. Learn more about publisher-side iframe buster files.

What exchanges does this apply to?

This rejection applies to Google Ad Manager and may apply to other exchanges. Learn more about this rejection on Ad Manager. You can contact individual exchanges to learn more about their policies.

How can I fix it?

All expandable creatives on Ad Manager must correctly display creative content, function as expected, cannot have any broken assets. Edit the creative to make sure it renders and expands properly.

What's the issue?

The ad or landing page contains content that's malicious or attempts to trick or circumvent our creative review processes. Examples include cloaking, use of dynamic DNS to switch page or ad content, or manipulating ad or text in order to bypass automated system checks.

Learn more

How can I fix it?

All creatives and landing pages served by Display & Video 360 are prohibited from engaging in practices that attempt to circumvent or interfere with Google’s system controls or quality processes.

Edit the creative and any landing pages it links to. Remove practices that attempt to circumvent or interfere with Google’s systems and processes.

What's the issue?

The ad or landing page contains offensive or inappropriate content which may include violence and self-harm, harassment, racism, hatred and intolerance, and capitalizing on sensitive events or threatened species.

Common examples of offensive or inappropriate content include hatred and intolerance (including sexual, religious and political intolerance), violence and self-harm, harassment and intimidation, exploitation, racism, shocking content, capitalizing on sensitive events, or capitalizing on threatened or extinct species.

How can I fix it?

All creatives and landing pages served by Display & Video 360 must be designated as "family safe" to ensure they can potentially be shown to all appropriate audiences. Products that are considered to have "non-family safe" status are prohibited from serving by Display & Video 360.

Edit the creative and any linked landing pages. Remove content that is offensive or inappropriate.

What's the issue?

The ad does not declare the use of a declarable, approved technology vendor.

What exchanges does this apply to?

This rejection applies to Google Ad Manager and may apply to other exchanges. Learn more about this rejection on Ad Manager. You can contact individual exchanges to learn more about their policies.

How can I fix it?

Edit the creative to declare any declarable technology vendors. Use Chrome Developer Tools to check for all the calls made from your ad within a browser.

What's the issue?

The ad's declared click-through URL does not match the actual landing page URL. Make sure your ads declare click-through URLs that match the actual landing page URLs.

What exchanges does this apply to?

This rejection applies to Google Ad Manager and may apply to other exchanges. Learn more about this rejection on Ad Manager. You can contact individual exchanges to learn more about their policies.

How can I fix it?

All creatives on Ad Manager must click through to a landing page that matches the declared click-through URL.

You can verify what URL(s) Display & Video 360 has declared on your behalf for a given creative by checking the Creative status tab of the creative and reviewing the Detected landing page URLs in the Display & Video 360 review section.

If the URL that’s flagged alongside the creative rejection is from one of the following locations, correct the URL within the appropriate ad server so that it matches the actual destination URL of your creative:

• Creatives synced from Campaign Manager 360:
  • The Campaign Manager 360 click-through URL
  • The Display & Video 360 advertiser default URL in Advertiser Settings Basic Details of your Display & Video 360 advertiser
• Creatives hosted in Display & Video 360:
  • The click-through URL you set when you uploaded your asset
  • Any redirect URLs
  • The Display & Video 360 advertiser default URL in Advertiser Settings Basic Details of your Display & Video 360 advertiser
• Third-party tags:
  • The landing page you set during upload to Display & Video 360 
  • Any redirect URLs
  • The Display & Video 360 advertiser default URL in Advertiser Settings Basic Details of your Display & Video 360 advertiser

Who can I contact for more help?

If the declared URL(s) is not from any of the locations listed above, contact support via the question mark in the upper right corner of your Display & Video 360 account.

What's the issue?

The ad makes a call to an unapproved technology vendor.

What exchanges does this apply to?

This rejection applies to Google Ad Manager and may apply to other exchanges. Learn more about this rejection on Ad Manager. You can contact individual exchanges to learn more about their policies.

How can I fix it?

If you're using a vendor that's not approved to run on Ad Manager, remove calls made to unapproved technology vendors. Make sure the creative calls certified technology vendors in all environments (for example, in a mobile browser, in a mobile app, or in a desktop browser.) Learn how to troubleshoot rejected calls using Chrome Developer Tools

Alternatively, you can request certification for an unapproved technology vendor by getting in touch with support with contact information for the technology vendor.

If you do not believe any of your vendors are disapproved for use on Ad Manager, verify whether the URL shown in the creative’s Creative status tab belongs to any of the vendors that you’re using.

What's the issue?

The ad contains non-secure HTTP calls. All creatives served outside of China must be 100% SSL-compliant across all calls contained within the creative, including assets, fourth parties, and other trackers.

What exchanges does this apply to?

This rejection applies to Google Ad Manager and may apply to other exchanges. Learn more about this rejection on Ad Manager. You can contact individual exchanges to learn more about their policies.

How can I fix it?

If you're using creative assets or fourth parties that are not 100% SSL-compliant, correct these assets or have the fourth party provide SSL-only assets. Learn how to troubleshoot rejected calls using Chrome Developer Tools

If you do not recognize the non-secure assets, verify whether the URL(s) shown in the creative's Creative status tab belong to any of the vendors that you’re using.

If the flagged asset is displayed as https://, check if the SSL certificate is valid. Check if a site's connection is secure in Chrome.

What's the issue?

The ad's landing page does not adhere to our landing page quality guidelines. Common landing page quality violations include low value content, non-working sites, or parked domains.

Landing pages should provide a quality user experience. All promotions should be clear, professional in appearance, and lead users to content that is relevant, useful, and easy to interact with. Landing pages cannot lead to an email address or file, such as image, audio, video, or document, that require an additional application to open. Sites should load quickly and properly without errors or error pages that display a status code beginning with a 4 or a 5 (such as a 404 error, page not found). All landing page guidelines are outlined in the Google Ads Policy Center.

How can I fix it?

All creatives served by Display & Video 360 must click through to landing pages that comply with Google policies. Improve the quality of the creative's landing page experience, or use a different landing page that meets these requirements.

What's the issue?

The ad animates longer than the maximum duration of 30 seconds.

What exchanges does this apply to?

This rejection applies to Google Ad Manager and may apply to other exchanges. Learn more about this rejection on Ad Manager. You can contact individual exchanges to learn more about their policies.

How can I fix it?

Change the creative's animation so that it does not loop or animate longer than 30 seconds.

What's the issue?

The ad uses an animated GIF with a frame rate higher than 5 frames per second.

What exchanges does this apply to?

This rejection applies to Google Ad Manager and may apply to other exchanges. Learn more about this rejection on Ad Manager. You can contact individual exchanges to learn more about their policies.

How can I fix it?

Change the creative's animation so that the GIF uses a frame rate no higher than 5 frames per second.

What's the issue?

The ad uses Local Shared Objects (LSO). Examples include browser helper objects or HTML5 Local Storage. Learn more

How can I fix it?

Remove all LSOs from the creative.

What's the issue?

The ad's download size exceeds the 5 MB limit. The total file size of all creative files downloaded by a person's browser when an ad serves is limited to a maximum of 5 MB.

What exchanges does this apply to?

This rejection applies to Google Ad Manager and may apply to other exchanges. Learn more about this rejection on Ad Manager. You can contact individual exchanges to learn more about their policies.

How can I fix it?

All non-video creatives on Ad Manager must comply with the download limit of 5 MB. Exceeding this limit can negatively impact the performance of the Google Marketing Platform service and users' devices.

Work with your creative developer to reduce the total downloaded file size below the 5 MB limit.

Check the download size using Google Chrome:

1. Open the creative in Display & Video 360.
2. Click Preview. The preview will load in a new tab.
3. Click Customize and control Google ChromeMore ToolsDeveloper Tools.
4. Click Network.
5. Make sure recording is on (the circle at the top left is red.)
6. Make sure Disable cache is checked.
7. Reload the page .
8. At the bottom of the network panel find the number before "transferred". This is the approximate download size.

What's the issue?

The ad has more than 100 HTTP/HTTPS (fourth-party) calls. This rejection does not apply to VAST video creatives. Exceeding this limit can negatively impact the performance of the ad on mobile devices.

What exchanges does this apply to?

This rejection applies to Google Ad Manager and may apply to other exchanges. Learn more about this rejection on Ad Manager. You can contact individual exchanges to learn more about their policies.

How can I fix it?

Remove unnecessary calls or file loads to reduce them to 100 or fewer. Make sure to check how many HTTP calls the creative makes in each environment. For example, some creatives may make more HTTP calls in mobile browsers on Android or iOS than they do in desktop browsers.

What's the issue?

The ad sets more than 25 cookies. Exceeding this limit can negatively impact the performance of the ad and users' devices.

What exchanges does this apply to?

This rejection applies to Google Ad Manager and may apply to other exchanges. Learn more about this rejection on Ad Manager. You can contact individual exchanges to learn more about their policies.

How can I fix it?

Edit the creative and remove unnecessary cookie dropping. Make sure to check how many cookies the creative drops in all environments. For example, some creatives may drop more cookies in mobile browsers on Android or iOS than they do in desktop browsers. For each environment, the creative can drop no more than 25 cookies.

What's the issue?

The ad does not function as expected or contains broken assets.

How can I fix it?

All creatives served by Display & Video 360 must correctly display creative content, function as expected, and be void of any broken assets. Ensure your ad and landing page work properly for all locations, regardless of where you're targeting your ad.

Click the Preview button or icon to preview your creative, then check the following:

• The creative loads completely (including all images, videos, or other files).
• The creative redirects to the correct landing page after click.
• The creative doesn’t load a blank landing page after click. For example, this could happen if the landing page restricts access to certain countries or locations.
• The creative only loads one landing page after click. (Opening multiple links will result in rejection.)
• The creative responds to mouse clicks.
• The landing page opens in a new browser tab or window.
• Clicking the creative doesn't result in a redirect loop.

What's the issue?

The ad or landing page contains misleading claims or information. Common issues include providing scientifically impossible claims, offering guaranteed results without a refund policy, or showing testimonials that claim specific results without a link to third-party verification.

How can I fix it?

Remove any misleading claims from the creative and any linked landing pages.

What's the issue?

The ad or landing page is missing important information such as the charges expected to be incurred by the user. Common misleading practices include failure to disclose all charges the user will incur, failure to close tax-exempt status and charity number if your site solicits tax-exempt donations, or promoting a service or product (such as an app) as free when it is not.

What exchanges does this apply to?

This rejection applies to Google Ad Manager and may apply to other exchanges. Learn more about this rejection on Ad Manager. You can contact individual exchanges to learn more about their policies.

How can I fix it?

Provide relevant information and remove misleading information from the creative and any linked landing pages.

What's the issue?

The ad or landing page promotes deceptive or harmful financial practices or does not prominently disclose the required consumer information.

When promoting financial services and products, you must comply with state and local regulations for any region that your ads target — for example, include specific disclosures required by local law. Refer to our non-exhaustive list of country-specific requirements for more information.

How can I fix it?

All creatives and landing pages served by Display & Video 360 must comply with local regulations and provide required disclosures. Learn more about required disclosures

If the problem is in the creative itself, remove the content and/or add a link to the required disclosures. If the problem is with the landing page, add the required disclosures to the landing page. If you can’t fix the landing page, update the creative with a new landing page that complies with this policy.

What's the issue?

The ad contains:

• Content related to initial coin offerings, cryptocurrency token sales, or otherwise promoting the purchase, sale, or trade of cryptocurrencies or related products, except where explicitly allowed, or
• A landing page that aggregates or compares issuers of cryptocurrencies or related products

Cryptocurrency exchanges may only be advertised if the advertiser is a licensed provider, the products and ads comply with local laws and industry standards, and the account is certified by Google.

How can I fix it?

To run content related to cryptocurrency exchanges on open exchanges, YouTube, and deals on Display & Video 360, you must certify the domain of the advertiser for each country you target before your ads can serve.
Display & Video 360 allows cryptocurrency exchange related content in the following countries:

• United States
• Japan

If the problem is in the creative itself, remove the content or update it to comply with the policy. If the problem is with the landing page, either fix the landing page or update the creative with a new landing page that complies with this policy.

What's the issue?

The ad contains content related to election advertising in India. Learn more

To run India elections ads, you must:

• Be verified by Google
• Submit for each ad a valid pre-certificate issued by the Election Commission of India (ECI) or anyone authorized by the ECI
• Include a "Paid for by" disclosure directly in the ad
• Use a supported ad format for India elections

How can I fix it?

Check that your India election ads are running only in India, that you’ve been verified to run India election ads, and that you have a valid pre-certificate. If you're not verified by Google, apply for verification.

If you're verified by Google, check that the creative includes a visible "Paid for by" disclosure.

If you're verified and the ad includes a disclosure, make sure you're using an ad format that's supported for India advertising: audio, video, image, HTML5, and dynamic creatives from Studio.

What's the issue?

The ad or landing page contains pharmaceuticals, alcohol, or gambling-related content which is prohibited by some exchange policies. To run gambling- or pharmaceutical-related content on open exchanges, deals, and YouTube on Display & Video 360, you must certify the domain of the advertiser for each country you target before your ads can serve on Display & Video 360.

How can I fix it?

Learn more about Display & Video 360’s requirements for serving restricted products and services.

What's the issue?

The ad opens a pop-up window. Common examples include ads that open pop-unders, timed or intermittent pop-ups, mock system warnings, and pages that automatically start a file download.

What exchanges does this apply to?

This rejection applies to Google Ad Manager and may apply to other exchanges. Learn more about this rejection on Ad Manager. You can contact individual exchanges to learn more about their policies.

How can I fix it?

Remove the pop-up window from the creative.

What's the issue?

The ad does not include or is incorrectly using a Google click macro.

What exchanges does this apply to?

This rejection applies to Google Ad Manager and may apply to other exchanges. Learn more about this rejection on Ad Manager. You can contact individual exchanges to learn more about their policies.

How can I fix it?

All creatives on Ad Manager are required to include a click macro, allowing Google to dynamically generate a unique click URL and pass it through the ad tag at the time of the ad request. There are several different types and implementation methods for click macros.

If your creative is rejected because of an issue with the click macro, including third-party ad server macros, correct the click macro implementation.

For creatives hosted by a third-party ad server, you can also verify that the creative isn’t tracking an impression as a click:

1. Add the creative to Display & Video 360.
2. Once you reach the step to check click tracking, don’t click on the ad.  
3. If you're tracking an impression as a click, you'll see a checkmark and the message "Click tracking received." Review your click tracker implementation or contact your third-party ad server for support.

What's the issue?

The ad does not meet high professional and editorial standards. Common examples include generic call-to-action phrases such as “click here,” creatives that are misaligned or partially visible in the ad space, or gimmicky text copy. Ads shouldn't try to look like a software download button, official system warning, or a web page feature like a menu.

How can I fix it?

All creatives on Ad Manager must be clear, professional in appearance, and lead users to content that is relevant, useful, and easy to interact with. Improve the creative's content to comply with policies.

What's the issue?

The ad makes a call to a numeric IP address. Ad calls must be made to domains—not IP addresses—to fetch creative, tracking pixels, and other ad serving or ad tracking elements.

How can I fix it?

All creatives served by Display & Video 360 are prohibited from making calls to numeric IP addresses. Remove all calls made to IP addresses.

What's the issue?

The ad or landing page contains shocking content such as profane language, gruesome or disgusting imagery, or promotions that are designed to shock or scare.

All creatives and landing pages served by Display & Video 360 must be designated as "family safe" to ensure they can potentially be shown to all appropriate audiences. Anything considered to have a "non-family safe" status is prohibited from serving by Display & Video 360. Common examples of shocking content include profanity or violent language, gruesome or disgusting imagery, graphic images or accounts of physical trauma, or gratuitous bodily fluids or waste.

How can I fix it?

Remove content that is designed to shock or scare from the creative and any linked landing pages.

What's the issue?

The ad or landing page contains unacceptable content such as malware. Malware is not accepted or tolerated. Google verifies ads directly uploaded into Display & Video 360, or follows the third-party redirects for malware or viruses through proprietary systems. Learn more about what Google does to prevent malware in ads.

How can I fix it?

All creatives and landing pages served by Display & Video 360 must be void of malware or viruses. Remove the malware or viruses in the creative or landing page.

What's the issue?

The ad contains unacceptable image content that is deceptive, such as a "trick-to-click" element. Common deceptive practices include mimicking publisher content, site warnings, or operating system dialog windows and error messages.

Ad content must be distinguishable from publisher content, contain a contrasting background or border, and clearly identify the brand, product or promotion being offered.

How to identify deceptive content

It’s not always easy to identify why an ad was disapproved for deceptive content. Here are some examples to look for: 

• "Download" or "Install" buttons (except for app install ads where the landing page is a Play store or Apple App store page). Buttons like "Download now" or "Install" suggest that that after clicking, a download or installation process will start, but the user simply gets redirected to the landing page.
• Common user interface buttons or icons that don’t work as expected, for example, play buttons, volume controls, checkboxes, text boxes, or slider controls.
• Fake system warnings or website warnings, ads simulating new message notifications or social media notifications.
• Ads that mimic publisher content or layout, or news articles and features.
• Ads that mimic or resemble Windows, Mac, or Unix dialog boxes, error messages, and so on.
• Ads that have a transparent background.
• Having or suggesting animated features or icons without the functionality working.
• A single ad with separate areas that makes it look like multiple distinct ads.
   

How can I fix it?

All creatives served by Display & Video 360 are prohibited from displaying content that tricks a user into clicking through. Remove any deceptive elements from the creative.

What's the issue?

The ad sets an unauthorized cookie on a Google domain, such as googlesyndication.com or doubleclick.net.

How can I fix it?

All creatives served by Display & Video 360 are prohibited from setting unauthorized cookies on Google domains such as googlesyndication.com or doubleclick.net. You also cannot assist or knowingly permit any third-party to set a cookie, or alter or delete a cookie set, on any Google owned and operated domains, including DoubleClick domains.

Remove the creative calls that set unauthorized cookies.

What's the issue?

The ad is unclear, confusing, doesn't lead users to relevant content, or doesn't accurately reflect the business, product, or service that is promoted on the landing page.

Your creative and landing page text should make sense and not be overly generic. Images, videos, audio, and other elements of your ad should be of good quality and not blurry, unclear, or unrecognizable. If your creative uses a superlative or competitive claim, you need to support that claim by showing third-party verification on your landing page. Learn more

What exchanges does this apply to?

This rejection applies to Google Ad Manager and may apply to other exchanges. Learn more about this rejection on Ad Manager. You can contact individual exchanges to learn more about their policies.

How can I fix it?

All creatives on Ad Manager must clearly identify the brand, product, or promotion being offered.

If your creative is rejected because it is contains content that is unclear or irrelevant, correct by improving the content to comply with policies.

What's the issue?

The ad contains restricted category content (such as alcohol) but does not declare use of a restricted category.

Many products and services are regulated by law, which can vary from country to country. All advertising, as well as the products and services being advertised, must clearly comply with all applicable laws and regulations. All advertisers bear their own responsibility for understanding the laws applicable to their business.

What exchanges does this apply to?

This rejection applies to Google Ad Manager and may apply to other exchanges. Learn more about this rejection on Ad Manager. You can contact individual exchanges to learn more about their policies.

How can I fix it?

All creatives on Ad Manager must declare use of restricted category content, where applicable.

What's the issue?

The ad is not rendering, not clicking through, not functioning, or contains an empty VAST XML file. Review Display & Video 360’s technical requirements for video ads, as well as the Ad Manager in-stream video ads requirements for third-party ad serving as an example of exchange requirements.

How can I fix it?

All videos served by Display & Video 360 must have valid VAST XML, render and clickthrough, and include WebM and MP4 video file types.

Edit the creative to make sure it contains valid VAST XML and functions properly.

What's the issue?

The ad makes a call to an unapproved video technology vendor.

What exchanges does this apply to?

This rejection applies to Google Ad Manager and may apply to other exchanges. Learn more about this rejection on Ad Manager. You can contact individual exchanges to learn more about their policies.

How can I fix it?

Remove calls made to unapproved video technology vendors. Alternatively, you can request certification for an unapproved technology vendor by contacting support and providing contact information for the technology vendor.

What's the issue?

The format of the video ad is not supported or no video file types were detected.

What exchanges does this apply to?

This rejection applies to Google Ad Manager and may apply to other exchanges. Learn more about this rejection on Ad Manager. You can contact individual exchanges to learn more about their policies.

How can I fix it?

Videos on Ad Manager can only include WebM or MP4 video file types. Edit the creative so that it includes only WebM or MP4 video file types.

If no video files were detected, there could be a problem with the VAST tag. For help, see troubleshoot VAST tag problems.

What's the issue?

The length of the video ad is not supported. In-stream video ad maximum allowed length is 60 seconds.

What exchanges does this apply to?

This rejection applies to Google Ad Manager and may apply to other exchanges. Learn more about this rejection on Ad Manager. You can contact individual exchanges to learn more about their policies.

How can I fix it?

Update the video to comply with the 60-second limit.