ReferenceGoogle Ads disapproval
Prescription opioid painkillers
Google Ads prohibits ads for prescription opioid painkillers. The one product exception is medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder, and a few advertisers may run other ads where local law permits. Google treats violations as egregious and can suspend the account on detection. Remove the mention from every ad, then check the destination pages.
At a glance
- Where it shows
- The Status column on the Ads & assets page, as Disapproved under this policy.
- What stops
- The ad stops serving. A violation found on detection stops the whole account.
- How serious
- Severe. Google treats this as egregious and suspends the account on detection, without a prior warning.
What it means
The policy bars ads for prescription opioid painkillers. An advertiser without a qualifying exception may not mention opioid painkillers in its ads at all, so the rule is about mentions as well as sales.
The exceptions are narrow and each needs its own basis: government or established nonprofit health campaigns, non-opioid pharmaceutical ads that mention opioids only in safety information, certified addiction treatment providers in the United States, and verified election advertisers where they may run election ads.
What actually triggers it
A mention in a headline or description
The rule is a ban on mentions. An ad that names an opioid painkiller can break it without selling anything, because the words themselves are the violation.
A product page that lists opioids
The destination counts. A site whose product pages or menus list prescription painkillers can have an ad disapproved for sending people there, even when the ad copy names none.
A non-opioid drug ad that names an opioid outside the safety text
A non-opioid pharmaceutical ad can mention prescription opioids only in its safety information. Anywhere else in the ad, the same mention is a violation.
Medication-assisted treatment without the other drug rules
Medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder is the one product exception. It still has to meet every other prescription drug requirement on the page.
Fix it in this order
- In Google Ads, go to Ads under the Campaigns menu, and find each ad or asset marked Disapproved in the Status column.
- Hover over the ad or asset, select Edit, remove every mention of opioid painkillers and select Save. Re-review typically takes 24 to 48 hours.
- Check the pages each ad links to for opioid products in listings or menus. Remove them or point the ad to a page that does not list them.
- If the business holds one of the exceptions, apply through the Google Ads healthcare application at the child account level, not the manager account level, with the customer ID and certified domain.
- If an ad cannot be fixed, remove it. The page says removing the ad helps prevent future suspensions for repeated violations.
When to appeal
Appeal only when the ad does not mention an opioid painkiller, or when the business holds an exception and the ad relies on it.
The page says reinstatement of a suspended account happens only in compelling circumstances, so an appeal after a suspension should be thorough and accurate. Some advertisers must complete advertiser verification first.
Often confused with
Also egregious and suspended on detection. The pharmacies page is about how a seller sells and where it is licensed. This page bans mentions of one product class.
A manufacturer's rule with a country list and certification. The page states that prescription opioid painkillers are not allowed for manufacturers either, so certification does not open this product.