Google Merchant Center Ad Policy Disapprovals: How to Fix Each Type (2026)
Important distinction. Ad policy disapprovals are different from account-level suspensions. A disapproval means specific products or ads cannot show in Shopping ads. Your account stays active. A suspension means your entire account is banned from Shopping. This guide covers disapprovals only. For account suspensions, see the full suspension guide.
Item Disapprovals vs Account Warnings vs Account Suspension
Google applies three levels of enforcement, and understanding which one you have determines what to do next.
An item disapproval is the narrowest. One or more products in your feed have been flagged. Those specific products cannot serve in Shopping ads or free listings. Your other products continue to run normally. Item disapprovals are common and often fixable within 24 to 48 hours by correcting the product data and requesting a re-review.
An account warning is a step up. Google has identified a policy issue that could escalate to suspension if not addressed within the stated deadline, typically 7 to 28 days. You will see a yellow warning banner in your Merchant Center dashboard. Account warnings require you to fix the underlying policy issue and confirm the fix through the Merchant Center interface before the deadline expires.
An account suspension is the most severe. Your account is banned from Shopping ads and free listings. All products are disapproved by default. You need to appeal and demonstrate compliance before reinstatement. The suspension appeal process is significantly more complex than resolving item disapprovals.
If you only see the red "Disapproved" status on individual products in your Products tab, you have item disapprovals, not a suspension. Read on for the seven most common types and how to fix each one.
The 7 Most Common Ad Policy Disapprovals
1. Prohibited Content
Google prohibits certain products from Shopping ads entirely, regardless of how they are listed. The main prohibited categories are weapons (firearms, ammunition, explosives), counterfeit goods (products misrepresenting brand origin), and dangerous products (substances that cause chemical burns, products with illegal drug use instructions).
How to fix it: If you believe your product was wrongly categorised as prohibited, the fix is an appeal with supporting documentation. Show clearly what the product is, include the product specifications, and explain why it does not fall under the prohibited category. If the product is genuinely prohibited, remove it from your feed. There is no appeal path for products that actually violate these policies.
Appeal timeframe: 3 to 5 business days for prohibited content appeals. Google reviews these manually.
2. Restricted Content (Pharmaceuticals, Alcohol, Gambling)
Restricted content can be advertised in Google Shopping, but only with prior certification and only in approved countries. The main restricted categories are prescription pharmaceuticals, over-the-counter drugs, alcohol products, and gambling services.
How to fix it: Apply for the relevant Google certification through your Merchant Center account under the "Promotions and policies" section. For pharmaceuticals, Google requires certification through LegitScript or a similar approved third party. For alcohol, you need to confirm you comply with the local laws of the countries you ship to. Approval timelines vary: pharmaceutical certification typically takes 2 to 6 weeks. Alcohol certification can be faster if your documentation is complete.
Appeal timeframe: Not an appeal process. This is a certification application. Once approved, the disapprovals lift automatically on certified products.
3. Misleading Content (Price Mismatch)
This disapproval triggers when the price shown in your Shopping ad does not match the price on your landing page at checkout. It is one of the most common disapprovals for e-commerce stores, and it is usually caused by a technical lag between your pricing system and your product feed.
Common causes: promotional prices applied in your CMS that have not yet propagated to the feed, currency conversion issues for multi-market stores, tax display inconsistencies (ad shows price excluding VAT, checkout shows price including VAT), or shipping costs added at checkout that change the total.
How to fix it: Check the price in your product feed against the price a user actually sees at checkout for that specific product. Update your feed to reflect the exact checkout price, including any required taxes. If you run frequent promotions, set up automated feed updates rather than manual batch uploads. After fixing, submit the affected products for re-review through the "Fix issue" button in the Products tab.
Appeal timeframe: 24 to 48 hours for most price mismatch re-reviews once the feed is corrected.
4. Destination Issues (Landing Page Down or Redirect)
Destination issues occur when Google's crawler cannot reach your landing page, finds a 404 error, or discovers that the product URL redirects to a different page (such as your homepage or a category page rather than the specific product).
How to fix it: First, test the landing page URL from your product feed directly in a browser and in an incognito window. If the page loads correctly for you but still shows a disapproval, the issue may be geographic: your store might block or redirect users from Google's crawling locations (usually the US). Check your .htaccess, Cloudflare settings, or any geo-blocking middleware. If the page genuinely does not exist, update the product link in your feed to the correct live URL. After fixing, submit for re-review.
Appeal timeframe: 24 to 72 hours after correcting the URL and submitting for re-review.
5. Editorial Issues (Excessive Capitalisation, Punctuation Errors)
Editorial disapprovals cover formatting violations in your product titles and descriptions. The most common are: ALL CAPS in product titles, excessive exclamation marks, promotional text in the title field ("FREE SHIPPING!!!", "BEST PRICE GUARANTEED"), and non-standard symbols or characters.
Google's Shopping policy requires product titles to read as product names, not as ad copy. "Nike Air Max 270 Men's Running Shoe Size 10" passes. "NIKE AIR MAX 270!!! BEST PRICE!!!" gets an editorial disapproval.
How to fix it: Review the affected product titles and descriptions. Convert ALL CAPS to standard sentence or title case. Remove promotional language, excessive punctuation, and symbols. Update your feed and submit for re-review. If you have many products with this issue, fix it at the feed template level rather than product by product.
Appeal timeframe: 24 to 48 hours after feed correction and re-review submission.
6. Trademark Issues (Competitor Brand Names in Your Ads)
Using a competitor's trademarked brand name in your product title, description, or ad copy will trigger a trademark disapproval. This applies even if you sell legitimate products that are compatible with that brand ("fits BMW 3 Series" is generally acceptable; "BMW quality replacement parts" in a way that implies brand affiliation is not).
The most common scenario: a third-party seller listing a product as compatible with a brand name product in the title, or using the brand name to describe quality rather than compatibility.
How to fix it: Remove the competitor brand name from the affected fields. Use generic compatibility language if needed ("compatible with standard 3-series models" rather than naming the brand). If you are an authorised reseller of that brand and have a trademark authorisation, you can apply for a trademark exception through Google's trademark complaint form. Google reviews these on a case-by-case basis.
Appeal timeframe: Trademark exception reviews take 5 to 10 business days. Editorial fixes (removing the brand name) resolve in 24 to 48 hours.
7. Adult Content in General-Audience Campaigns
Products with adult content, including intimate apparel, adult toys, and content intended for adults, cannot run in standard Shopping campaigns. They can only run in specifically enabled adult campaigns, which require account-level adult content enablement in your Merchant Center settings.
How to fix it: If your products are legitimately adult content, go to Merchant Center Settings and enable adult content for your account. Note that adult content is not available in all countries and not available to all account types. If your products were incorrectly flagged as adult content (for example, medical supplies or swimwear that does not meet the adult content threshold), submit an appeal with a clear explanation of the product category and why it does not qualify as adult content.
Appeal timeframe: Account-level adult content enablement is typically processed within 2 to 3 business days. Product-level appeals for incorrect adult content flags take 3 to 5 business days.
How to Appeal a Disapproval
For most item disapprovals, the process is: fix the product data in your feed, re-upload the feed or trigger a fetch, then click "Fix issue" on the affected products in the Products tab of Merchant Center. Google will re-crawl and re-review within the timeframes above.
For policy areas that require a formal appeal (prohibited content, trademark exceptions, adult content), use the appeal form linked from the disapproval notice in your account. Include:
- A clear description of the product and why it complies with the relevant policy
- Supporting documentation (product specifications, certificates, authorisation letters where applicable)
- Screenshots showing the corrected product page if you have made changes
Keep appeals factual and specific. Do not include promotional language or emotional arguments. Google's review teams work from documentation, not from persuasion.
When to Use Merchant Support Chat vs Email
Use Merchant Support chat for: disapprovals you believe are incorrect and where you need a faster response, feed technical issues, and situations where you want to confirm your fix approach before spending time on it. Chat agents can often escalate to a specialist team for complex cases. Access chat through the question mark icon in your Merchant Center dashboard.
Use Merchant Support email for: complex trademark or certification cases where you need to attach documentation, cases where you want a written record of Google's response, and situations where the chat agent has indicated a specialist review is needed. Email responses typically take 3 to 5 business days.
For persistent disapprovals that do not resolve through standard channels, the Merchant Center Help Center also provides a virtual agent that can route your case to the right team based on the specific disapproval type.
The most common mistake merchants make is appealing before fixing the underlying issue. Google will deny the appeal if the policy violation still exists in your account at the time of review. Fix first, then appeal.