ReferenceGoogle Ads disapproval
Restricted targeting in Personalized advertising
Google disapproves ads that use a sensitive interest category, such as health, alcohol or religious beliefs, together with advertiser-curated audiences like customer lists or lookalikes. Remove those audiences from the ad groups, asset groups and campaigns first, then change any sensitive content. Predefined Google audiences and location targeting still work.
At a glance
- Where it shows
- The Status column on the Ads & assets page, as Disapproved under this policy.
- What stops
- The flagged ad stops serving. Custom segments with a sensitive landing page serve only on Display, to non-sensitive audiences.
- How serious
- Low on its own. Google warns at least 7 days before any account suspension, but repeated violations can lead to one.
What it means
Personalized advertising lets an advertiser target or exclude people by interest, by data or by the sites they visited. Google restricts that for a list of sensitive interest categories. The list includes abuse and trauma, alcohol, birth control, clinical trial recruitment, gambling, health, political affiliation, race and ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation and transgender identification, plus about a dozen more.
The restriction applies to the audience as well as the ad. The fix can sit in the targeting, the content or both, and Google's page gives the targeting change first.
What actually triggers it
A customer list or lookalike on a sensitive category
Advertiser-curated audiences cannot be used for a sensitive category. Customer Match, your data segments, audience expansion and lookalike segments are all listed as not allowed, even when the list is your own customers.
Discovery or Demand Gen with curated audiences on by default
Discovery and Demand Gen campaigns use advertiser-curated audiences by default and may be restricted. A campaign can carry a restricted audience without anyone choosing one, so check the audience settings on those campaign types before you blame the ad.
A custom segment with a sensitive landing page
A custom segment whose creative assets or landing page are sensitive serves only on Display, to non-sensitive audiences, or contextually. Other campaign types do not serve it at all. The campaign can keep running on Display with a much narrower audience than planned.
Targeting that reaches people under 18
Users under 18 are not eligible for personalized advertising of any kind. A personalized audience set to reach younger users breaks this rule whatever the category.
Fix it in this order
- Open Campaigns, then Ads, and read the status of each disapproved ad or asset.
- Remove every advertiser-curated audience from the affected ad groups, asset groups and campaigns. That covers Customer Match, your data segments, audience expansion and lookalike segments.
- If the ad, its landing page or the site it links to touches the sensitive category, change that content. Hover over the ad, select Edit, make the change and select Save.
- Check the status again after the review. Google reviews an ad again after each edit.
If you believe the policy does not apply to the ad, appeal from the account. If the category cannot be removed from the ad, remove the ad, which helps prevent a suspension for repeated violations.
When to appeal
Appeal when the ad does not touch a sensitive category and you can say which part of it you think is wrong. Start the appeal from the ad's status in the account.
An appeal does not change the targeting. If a restricted audience is still attached, remove it first, then appeal.
Often confused with
Housing, Employment and Consumer finance
A separate rule for US and Canada only. It limits gender, age, parental status, marital status and ZIP code targeting for those three categories, and it applies to narrower targeting than the sensitive list on this page.