When it comes to running Google Ads, you might have come across an email from Google recently about a new Destination requirements policy. The email uses strong words like “enforcing,” “disallowed ad experiences,” and “this policy change may affect your account,” which can be a little alarming.

So, what’s it all about? What exactly are these “disallowed ad experiences,” and how do you even know if your ads fall into that category? I’ve taken a deep dive into the details of this policy to bring you everything you need to know. And don’t worry, it’s not as intimidating as it might seem at first glance.

Table of contents

• The short version and why
• Terms to know
• What ads will be disapproved?
• What happens with a disapproval?
• What you need to do
• Better Ads Standards cheat sheet

Decoding the New Google Ads Destination Requirements Policy

The quick and easy explanation:

In essence, starting from October 2022, Google will disapprove any ads you run that direct users to landing pages containing certain types of ads—specifically those that are annoying, disruptive, or pose security risks. While Google has always had policies in place regarding this, they’re now clarifying what constitutes a negative ad experience based on their Better Ads Standards (more on this a bit later). Fortunately, there’s a tool at your disposal that can help you pinpoint and replace any elements on your site that might violate this policy (we’ll delve into that later as well).

But why this change?

The most apparent reason is to eliminate those irritating ad experiences from the web. You know the ones—flashing pop-ups that interrupt your browsing, or video ads that automatically start playing with sound when you land on a page. Another reason is that these annoying ad experiences often drive people to install ad blockers. When ad blockers become widespread, publishers lose out on revenue. This, in turn, disrupts the entire online advertising ecosystem.

A Look at the Destination Policy Update Email

Instead of a formal blog post, Google chose to communicate this update through an email sent to Google Ads users. Here’s what the email conveyed:

Breaking Down the Terminology

Let’s break down each term used in the email to provide clarity and peace of mind:

• Destination: This refers to the location users are taken to when they click on your ad. It could be a homepage, landing page, app store page, or even directly within an app. **

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• Destination requirements policy: Google Ads has a policy to ensure that users have a good experience after clicking an ad. Much like how Google values expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (EAT) in organic search results, they also value paid results that are functional, useful, and easy to navigate. We’ll delve into Google’s destination requirements page in more detail later in this article.
• Disapproval: If your ads don’t align with Google Ads’ advertising policies, including the Destination requirements policy, they will be disapproved. Disapproved ads won’t be allowed to run until you’ve addressed the issue or successfully appealed the decision (more on this later).
• Coalition for Better Ads (CBA): The Coalition for Better Ads is a non-profit organization established to improve the user experience (UX) of online ads. Its members comprise major companies and international trade associations such as Google, Facebook, Index Exchange, the International Advertising Bureau (IAB), and many others.
• Better Ads Standards (BAS): Developed by the Coalition for Better Ads based on feedback from users on a wide range of ad experiences, the Better Ads Standards are a set of global standards aimed at promoting pleasant and safe ad experiences for consumers. These standards specifically identify 18 ad types (typically secondary ads appearing on the content where the primary ad led) that will be disallowed. We’ll cover these specific disallowed experiences in detail later.
• Ad Experience Report: This handy tool helps you identify ads on your site that don’t adhere to BAS and provides recommendations for user-friendly alternatives. Here’s Google’s own Ad Experience Report page that you can use. We’ll explore this tool in more detail later in this post.

Ads Facing Disapproval: Understanding the Criteria

Your ad is at risk of disapproval if the destination it leads to—whether it’s a landing page, video content on that page, app, or app store page—violates Google Ads’ destination requirements policy, which now incorporates the CBA’s Better Ad Standards. We’ll summarize these standards at the end, but they’re mostly based on common sense and shouldn’t come as a surprise. The key takeaway is to steer clear of any ads in your ad destinations that are disruptive, unskippable, unexpected, or obstruct the user’s experience. If you have any of these ads currently running, it’s best to remove them before October to avoid any issues.

Consequences of Violating the Destination Experience Policy

Similar to any other policy violation, violating this policy will result in your ad being disapproved. This means your ad will be paused (or prevented from running in the first place), you’ll receive a notification, and you won’t be able to run the ad until you’ve resolved the reason for disapproval. We’ve got you covered if you’d like to learn more about Google Ads disapprovals. You do have the option to appeal disapprovals. Since ads go through an automated approval process, they are sometimes disapproved even if they haven’t actually violated any policies. So, if your ad is disapproved, you’ll have the opportunity to either submit a revised version or challenge the decision, as illustrated in the example below:

It’s important to note that serious violations or repeated disapprovals (you can read about the 3-strikes policy here) can lead to the suspension of your account. Here’s what Google says about policy violation.

Taking Action: Steps to Ensure Compliance

If your Google Ads direct users to high-quality, trustworthy landing pages on your site, and your site itself is free of ads, you’re likely in the clear. However, it’s always best to be proactive. Here are two key steps you can take to ensure your ads don’t get flagged for disapproval.

1. Familiarize yourself with the Better Ads Standards

As mentioned earlier, the Better Ads Standards, developed by the Coalition for Better Ads, provide a framework for ensuring your ads’ destination landing pages, apps, mobile sites, and videos are free from disruptive, unexpected, intrusive, or frustrating ads. The standards page outlines 18 specific experiences that fall short of the Better Ads Standards, offering clear definitions and helpful GIFs to illustrate each one. For instance, consider video ads that play automatically with sound enabled. Or those large, persistent banner ads that cling to the bottom of the screen, occupying more than 30% of the viewport. My summary below will help you grasp the essentials, but the standards page itself remains the most comprehensive resource for all the details.

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2. Utilize the Ad Experience Report

Another valuable tool at your disposal is the Ad Experience Report. This report helps you identify any subpar ad destination experiences on your site and offers suggestions for user-friendly alternatives. There are four possible review statuses defined by Google:

• Not reviewed: This status means your site hasn’t been reviewed yet. Your best course of action is to manually go through your ad experiences and address any potential violations proactively.
• Passing: Congratulations! This means your site is free of any bothersome ad experiences.
• Failing: This status indicates that Google has found experiences on your site that violate or fall short of the Better Ads Standards. If this happens, the site owner will be notified via email. Once you’ve addressed the issues, you can resubmit your site for review. If the issues aren’t fixed within 30 days, Chrome will start filtering your ads until they are.
• Review pending: This status will appear after you’ve resubmitted a previously failed site for review.

It’s important to note that this report is integrated into Google Search Console, so you’ll need to verify ownership of your site to access it. Here are Google’s instructions to verify site ownership.

Understanding the Better Ads Standards: A Closer Look

As promised, here’s a breakdown of the types of ad destination experiences you should remove from your current ads and avoid in future campaigns.

Destination requirements policy

Let’s start with Google’s official Destination requirements. The policy page lists several reasons for disapproval, providing helpful examples. Here’s a summary of why your ad destination might be flagged:

• Destination experience: This includes destinations that offer a difficult, frustrating, or abusive user experience, or those that initiate direct downloads (more on this in the next section).
• Insufficient original content: Pages with thin content, those overloaded with ads compared to actual content, or those that fail to provide any real value or service.
• Destination mismatch: Ads that don’t accurately reflect or align with the final destination they lead to.
• Destination not working, accessible, or crawlable: Users need to be able to access the page securely, and Google Ads needs to be able to crawl and index it for approval.
• Unacceptable or unverified information: This includes URLs, apps, or phone numbers that are inaccurate, unverified, or non-functional.

The Better Ads Standards: Destination Experiences to Avoid

The The Better Ads Standards page (BAS) does an excellent job of illustrating and explaining these undesirable ad experiences. However, we’ve broken them down for you here:

Desktop Destination Experiences that Fall Short of BAS

• Interstitial pop-up ads: Ads that appear unexpectedly after the page content has loaded, obstructing the main content either partially or by taking up the entire screen.
• Prestitial ads with countdown: These ads appear before the page content has even started loading, forcing users to watch them for a predetermined number of seconds before they can dismiss them. This doesn’t include ads that offer the option to be dismissed or skipped immediately.
• Auto-playing video ads with sound: I think this one speaks for itself—we’ve all been there, and it’s not a pleasant experience!
• Large sticky ads: These are those large banner ads that often appear at the bottom of a page. They take up a significant portion of the screen (over 30%) and annoyingly persist as the user scrolls.

Mobile Destination Experiences that Fall Short of BAS

• Pop-up ads: The same as their desktop counterparts.
• Auto-playing video ads with sound: Again, we’ve all been there, and it’s even more frustrating on a smaller screen!
• Large sticky ads: These are equally bothersome on mobile, obstructing content and hindering navigation.
• Prestitial ads: Similar to desktop, but on mobile, even those without a countdown timer are included in this category.
• Ad density higher than 30%: Pages where ads take up more than 30% of the vertical space, overwhelming users with ads.
• Flashing animated ads: Need we say more? This is a relic of the past that needs to stay there!
• Postitial ads with countdown: These sneaky ads interrupt users who are trying to navigate to another link on the page, forcing them to watch for a set time before they can proceed to their intended destination.
• Full-screen scrollover ads: These ads take up the entire screen and require users to scroll through them before they can access the actual content, obstructing their experience.

Short-Form Video Destination Experiences that Fall Short of BAS

These apply if your ad directs users to watch a video.

• Long pre-roll ads that can’t be skipped: Imagine having to sit through 31 seconds or more of ads before you can even get to the video you clicked on, with no option to skip!
• Mid-roll ads: Any video ad that interrupts the flow of the main video content, regardless of its length or whether it offers a skip option.
• Large display ads: These are static or animated ads that appear over a significant portion of the video (more than 20%) or obstruct the middle third of the video player.

Mobile App Destination Experiences that Fall Short of BAS

These standards apply when your ad leads users to a mobile app or app store.

• Interruptive interstitials: Ads that pop up unexpectedly, interrupting the user’s flow within the app (excluding ads at natural breaks like the end of a level, after a score screen, or upon launching the app).
• Interruptive video interstitials: Similar to the above, but in video format—disrupting the app experience with video ads.
• Non-skippable video interruptive interstitials: The most intrusive of all—full-screen video ads that users are forced to watch without the option to skip.
• Video interstitials when opening an app: Video ads that play before the app even has a chance to load. Static ads were acceptable, but video ads create a barrier to entry.

Quality Content Reigns Supreme

It’s important to understand that this update isn’t about prioritizing privacy or surrendering to automation. It’s about reinforcing the value of high-quality content. If your Google Ads point to landing pages on a website that doesn’t rely on disruptive ads, you have nothing to worry about. If you do use ads in your ad destinations, take the time to review them and ensure they don’t fall into any of the annoying categories outlined above. Ultimately, adhering to these standards benefits everyone by creating a better web experience and safeguarding your brand’s reputation.