Advertising Policy

We do not allow content that:

• is illegal, promotes illegal activity, or infringes on the legal rights of others.

We do not allow content that:

• infringes copyright. It is our policy to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). You can file a counter-notification via this form.
• sells or promotes the sale of counterfeit products. Counterfeit goods contain a trademark or logo that is identical to or substantially indistinguishable from the trademark of another. They mimic the brand features of the product in an attempt to pass themselves off as a genuine product of the brand owner.

We do not allow content that:

• incites hatred against, promotes discrimination of, or disparages an individual or group based on their race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, age, nationality, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or another characteristic that is associated with systemic? discrimination or marginalization. Examples: Promoting hate groups or hate group paraphernalia, encouraging others to believe that a person or group is inhuman, inferior, or worthy of being hated
• harassing, intimidating, or bullying an individual or group of individuals. Examples: Singling out someone for abuse or harassment, suggesting a tragic event did not happen or that victims or their families are actors or complicit in a cover-up of the event
• threatening or advocating for physical or mental harm to oneself or others. Examples: Content advocating suicide, anorexia, or other self-harm; threatening someone with real-life harm or calling for the attack of another person; promoting, glorifying, or condoning violence against others; content made by or in support of terrorist groups or transnational drug trafficking organizations, or content that promotes terrorist acts, including recruitment, or that celebrates attacks by transnational drug trafficking or terrorist organizations
• exploits others through extortion. Examples: Exploitative removals, revenge porn, blackmail

We do not allow content that:

• promotes cruelty or gratuitous violence towards animals. Examples: Promoting animal cruelty for entertainment purposes, such as cock or dog fighting
• promotes the sale of products obtained from endangered or threatened species. Examples: Sale of tigers, shark fins, elephant ivory, tiger skins, rhino horn, dolphin oil

Misleading representation

 Learn more about misleading representation

Unreliable and harmful claims

Learn more about unreliable and harmful claims

Deceptive practices

Learn more about deceptive practices

Manipulated media

 Learn more about manipulated media

We do not allow content that:

• helps users to mislead others. Examples: Creating fake or false documents such as passports, diplomas, or accreditation; sale or distribution of term papers, paper-writing or exam-taking services; information or products for passing drug tests
• promotes any form of hacking or cracking and/or provides users with instructions, equipment, or software that tampers with or provides unauthorized access to devices, software, servers, or websites.Examples: Pages or products that enable illegal access of cell phones and other communications or content delivery systems or devices; products or services that bypass copyright protection, including circumvention of digital rights management technologies; products that illegally descramble cable or satellite signals to get free services; pages that assist or enable users to download streaming videos if prohibited by the content provider

• enables a user, or promotes products and services that enable a user, to track or monitor another person or their activities without their authorization. Examples: Spyware and technology used for intimate partner surveillance? including but not limited to spyware/malware that enables a user to monitor another person’s texts, phone calls, or browsing history; GPS trackers specifically marketed to spy or track someone without their consent; promotion of surveillance equipment (e.g. cameras, audio recorders, dash cams, nanny cams) marketed with the express purpose of spyingThis does not include (a) private investigation services or (b) products or services designed for parents to track or monitor their underage children.

We do not allow content that:

• contains malicious software or “malware” that may harm or gain unauthorized access to a computer, device, or network. Examples: Computer viruses, ransomware, worms, trojan horses, rootkits, keyloggers, dialers, spyware, rogue security software, and other malicious programs or apps
• violates Google’s Unwanted Software policy. Examples: Failure to be transparent about the functionality that the software provides or the full implications of installing the software; failing to include Terms of Service or an End User License Agreement; bundling software or applications without the user’s knowledge; making system changes without the user’s consent; making it difficult for users to disable or uninstall the software; failing to properly use publicly available Google APIs when interacting with Google services or products

We do not allow content that:

• includes graphic sexual text, image, audio, video, or games. Examples: Sex acts such as genital, anal, and/or oral sex; masturbation; cartoon porn or hentai; graphic nudity
• contains non-consensual sexual themes, whether simulated or real. Examples: Rape, incest, bestiality, necrophilia, snuff, lolita or teen-themed pornography, underage dating

We do not allow content that:

• may be interpreted as promoting a sexual act in exchange for compensation. Examples: Prostitution; companionship and escort services; intimate massage; cuddling sites; compensated dating or sexual arrangements where one participant is expected to provide money, gifts, financial support, mentorship, or other valuable benefits to another participant such as “Sugar” dating

We do not allow content that:

• is made to appear appropriate for a family audience, but contains adult themes including sex, violence, or other depictions of children or popular children’s characters that are unsuitable for a general audience.

We do not allow content that:

• Sexually exploits or abuses children or content that promotes the sexual exploitation or abuse of children. This includes all child sexual abuse materials.
• Endangers children. Including but not limited to:
  • ‘Child grooming’ (for example, befriending a child online to facilitate, either online or offline, sexual contact and/or exchanging sexual imagery with that child);
  • ‘Sextortion’ (for example, threatening or blackmailing a child by using real or alleged access to a child’s intimate images);
  • Sexualization of a minor (for example, content that depicts, encourages, or promotes the sexual abuse or exploitation of children); and
  • Trafficking of a child (for example, advertising or solicitation of a child for commercial sexual exploitation).

We will take appropriate action, which may include reporting to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and disabling accounts. If you believe a child is in danger of or has been subject to abuse, exploitation, or trafficking, contact the police immediately. If you have concerns a child is being or was being endangered in connection with our products, you can report the behavior to Google.

Information provided by publishers to enable their use of or interaction with Google advertising systems:

• must be materially accurate and complete, without misleading omissions; and
• cannot be expressed deceptively or misleadingly.Examples: The personal information or payment details provided by a publisher are materially incomplete, obscured, or inaccurate. Information provided about a publisher’s website (e.g., in the ads.txt file) or app (e.g., in the app-ads.txt file) is inaccurate. Ad requests that contain partial or inaccurate URLs or AppIDs.

Google-served ads interfering with content or user interactions

We do not allow Google-served ads that:

• overlay or are adjacent to navigational or other action items and may lead to unintended ad interactions,
• severely interfere with the consumption of content including overlaying the content or pushing the content off the display,
• are placed on a “dead end” screen where the user is not able to exit the screen without clicking the ad.

Google-served ads on screens without publisher-content

Learn more about Google-served ads on screens without publisher-content

Out-of-context ads

Learn more about out-of-context ads

Google-served ads on screens with replicated content

Learn more about Google-served ads on screens with replicated content

More ads or paid promotional material than publisher-content

Learn more about More ads or paid promotional material than publisher-content

 Unsupported languages

Learn more about unsupported languages

Publishers must:

• have and abide by a privacy policy that discloses any data collection, sharing, and usage that takes place on any site, app, email publication, or other property as a consequence of your use of Google products. The privacy policy must disclose to users that third parties may be placing and reading cookies on your users’ browsers, or using web beacons to collect information as a result of ad serving on your website. To comply with this disclosure obligation concerning Google’s use of data, you have the option to display a prominent link to How Google uses data when you use our partners’ sites or apps.

Publishers must:

• not set a cookie on Google’s domains or modify, intercept or delete cookies set on Google’s domains.

Publishers must:

• not use device fingerprints or locally shared objects (e.g., Flash cookies, Browser Helper Objects, HTML5 local storage) other than HTTP cookies, or user-resettable mobile device identifiers designed for use in advertising
• not pass any information to Google data that Google could use or recognize as personally identifiable information; or that permanently identifies a particular device (such as a mobile phone’s unique device identifier if such an identifier cannot be reset).
• not use our services to identify users or facilitate the merging of personally identifiable information with information previously collected as non-personally identifiable information without robust notice of, and the user’s prior affirmative (i.e., opt-in) consent to, that identification or merger. Irrespective of users’ consent, you must not attempt to disaggregate data that Google reports in aggregate. For more information, please refer to Guidance for complying with the Identifying Users Policy.
• comply with the EU user consent policy.

If publishers collect, process, or disclose information that identifies or can be used to infer an end user’s precise geographic location, such as sourced from GPS, wifi, or cell tower data then,

Publishers must:

• disclose to the user, via an interstitial or just-in-time notice, the purposes for which their data may be used (including, ad personalization, analytics, and attribution, as applicable), including that the data may be shared with partners;
• obtain express (i.e., opt-in) consent from end-users before collecting, processing, or disclosing such information;
• send such information to Google in an encrypted state or via an encrypted channel; and
• disclose such information collection, processing, or disclosure in all applicable privacy policies.

If the partner processes personal data that originated in the European Economic Area, UK, or Switzerland and that is made available by Google in connection with the partner’s use of Google Ad Manager, then:

• partner must only use that personal data in a manner consistent with the consent provided by the data subject to whom it relates;
• partner must provide a level of protection for that personal data that is at least equivalent to that required under the SCCs; and
• if the partner determines that it cannot comply with the above requirements, the partner must notify Google in writing, and either cease processing the personal data or take reasonable and appropriate steps to remedy such non-compliance.

If you implement any Google advertising service on a site or section of a site that is covered by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), you must:

• notify Google of those sites or sections of sites covered by COPPA using the Google Search Console, tag the ad request using the AdMob SDK, or tag your site, app, or ad request for child-directed treatment;
•  not use interest-based advertising (including remarketing) to target:
  • past or current activity by users known by you to be under the age of 13 years or
  • past or current activity on sites directed at users under the age of 13 years.

You must not:

• place Google-served ads on screens that don’t follow the Webmaster Quality Guidelines.

You must not:

• place Google-served ads on screens that contain abusive experiences.

You must not:

• place Google-served ads on screens that do not conform to the Better Ads Standards. For more information about the types of disallowed ad experiences, please visit the Coalition for Better Ads website.

You must not:

• place Google-served ads on a domain that uses ads.txt where you are not included as an authorized seller of the inventory in the ads.txt file.

For syndication partners, Parents must ensure Children promptly add an ads.txt file to Child domains with Parents as authorized sellers of Child Inventory.

Google must comply with sanctions and export controls maintained by the United States Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the United States Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry & Security, and other applicable sanctions. As a result, Google publisher products are not available to publishers in the following countries or territories:

• Crimea
• Cuba
• So-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR)
• Iran
• North Korea
• Syria

Google publisher products also may not be used for or on behalf of a party located in the above-listed sanctioned countries or regions.

In addition, Google publisher products are not eligible for any entities or individuals that are restricted under applicable trade sanctions and export compliance laws. Google publisher products are not eligible for entities or individuals owned or controlled by or acting for or on behalf of such restricted entities or individuals.

Publishers must also comply with applicable sanctions and export regulations, which include OFAC sanctions, and agree to not cause Google to violate these regulations. You cannot use Google publisher products for or on behalf of restricted entities or individuals. You cannot use Google publisher products for or on behalf of entities or individuals located in sanctioned countries or regions.

Effect of the policy

If your ad is eligible and meets the requirements of the policy, serving may be affected by the following factors.

Certification

Advertisers need to apply for certification from Google in order to run certain types of gambling-related ads.  If your Manager Account has had a significant volume of gambling certificates revoked from accounts under its management, or if significant volumes of accounts under your management are found to have violated the gambling policy while relying on a gambling certificate, you will lose the ability to apply for any new online gambling certificates for any account under your management.  Certification is not available for sites hosted on free platforms, those using a sub-domain whose root domain is a third party platform host, those with no association with gambling or those with a second-level domain not owned and operated by the advertiser.

Country

Refer to the requirements above to learn where certain kinds of gambling ads can and cannot run. If your ad campaign targets only countries where we don’t allow these ads, your ad will be labeled “Disapproved” and won’t run at all. If your ad campaign targets allowed and disallowed countries, your ad will be labeled “Eligible (limited)” and won’t run in the disallowed countries (but can run in the allowed countries).

Ad Formats
Acceptable ad formats can vary depending on factors such as the platform you’re using, the status of your ad, and whether a publisher or partner has opted to show such ads.  Ad formats that cannot promote gambling (non-exhaustive): Gmail ads Shopping ads Reservation display ads Google TV masthead ads (outside of the USA, Brazil, and UK)