Remove policy violations from creatives

Google scans Ad Manager creatives for policy violations and to prevent malware in ad content. If Google detects a policy violation, it either temporarily pauses or permanently deactivates the creative from serving. Remove the policy violation to re-traffic the existing creative or traffic a new one.

This article outlines the process for identifying and resolving policy violations in ad creatives, which are scanned for malware and adherence to Google's platform policies.

Understand policy violation creative statuses

Creatives affected by a policy violation have one of the following "Inactive" statuses:

Status	Description	What you should do
Disabled for policy violation	Google has disabled the creative because of a policy violation. It won't be reactivated in the future.	Fix the policy violation and traffic a new creative.
Paused for policy violation; re‑scanning	The creative is currently not serving because of a policy violation. The creative will be re-scanned and, if Google determines that it no longer has policy violations, it will be cleared.	Wait for Google to re-scan the creative.
Cleared; eligible for serving	Google has determined that the creative no longer has policy violations.	Add the creative back to the line items to resume delivery.

1. Find creatives under policy violation

When you add all filters, you can see all line items with creatives that have been flagged for a policy violation, but have been updated.

Sign in to Google Ad Manager.
Click Delivery, then Line items, and then All line items.
Click into "Add new filter."
Add one, two or all three filters listed below, and refer to the description for guidance. When you add all filters, you can see all creatives that have been flagged for a policy violation, but have been updated and line items with restricted serving
Click any of the affected line items.
Click Creatives to see the specific violation.

Filter	Description
Policy violation	Search for line items with creatives that either have an active policy violation or have been re-scanned and cleared by Google. Select the "Policy violation" filter, and then select "Detected." Click a line item and then look for creatives with a status of "Inactive (Disabled for policy violation)" or “Inactive (Paused for policy violation; re-scanning)." Remove the policy violation, apply the Policy violation, and then the "Cleared" filter. Click a line item and then look for creatives with an "Inactive” (Cleared; eligible for serving)." Learn how to fix policy violations.
Policy violation updated	Search for line items with creatives whose * policy violation status has changed during a specific time frame. Select the "Policy violation updated" filter. “In the last”, select a time frame, such as 2 Days, Weeks, Months or Years. Click Apply to see line items with creatives whose policy violation status has changed during the specified time frame. ^{* Policy violation statuses are "Disabled for policy violation", "Paused for policy violation" and "Cleared; eligible for serving."}
Limited serving creatives	Search for line items with creatives that have restricted serving due to an active policy violation. Select the "Limited serving creatives" filter. Select "True." Click Apply.

Filter

Description

Policy violation

Search for line items with creatives that either have an active policy violation or have been re-scanned and cleared by Google.

Select the "Policy violation" filter, and then select "Detected."
Click a line item and then look for creatives with a status of "Inactive (Disabled for policy violation)" or “Inactive (Paused for policy violation; re-scanning)."
Remove the policy violation, apply the Policy violation, and then the "Cleared" filter.
Click a line item and then look for creatives with an "Inactive” (Cleared; eligible for serving)." Learn how to fix policy violations.

Policy violation updated

Search for line items with creatives whose * policy violation status has changed during a specific time frame.

Select the "Policy violation updated" filter. “In the last”, select a time frame, such as 2 Days, Weeks, Months or Years.
Click Apply to see line items with creatives whose policy violation status has changed during the specified time frame.

^{* Policy violation statuses are "Disabled for policy violation", "Paused for policy violation" and "Cleared; eligible for serving."}

Limited serving creatives

Search for line items with creatives that have restricted serving due to an active policy violation.

Select the "Limited serving creatives" filter.
Select "True."
Click Apply.

Warnings

Two warnings may display when serving creatives, as follows:

Warnings	Description	What you should do
Restricted serving	This creative will not serve in certain countries.	If you intend to serve this creative in the restricted countries, fix the policy violation and traffic a new creative.
Serving blocked	This creative is fully restricted from serving.	You need to traffic a new creative.

2. Fix policy violations

Once you find a line item under policy violation,

Click the "Creatives" tab.
Identify creative violating policies and click on each for more information.

Review the relevant policies for each violation type below.

To fix the violation, review both the ad content itself, the landing page, and any other domains the creative may link to. For more information on how to fix the violation, follow the steps below.

Policies

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