Ad copy or sitelinks rejected by Google

When Google reviews your campaign, individual ads or sitelinks can be rejected even if the campaign overall is approved. Rejection reasons are visible in Google Ads.

Where to see rejection reasons

1. Open Google Ads.
2. Find the campaign.
3. Click into the ads or assets tab.
4. Rejected items show a status of "Disapproved" with a reason.

The reason text is the most important thing. Google's reasons are usually specific. Read them.

Common rejection reasons

Trademark in headline or description

Google's trademark policy restricts the use of a third party's trademark in ad text to the trademark owner, authorized resellers, or informational sites about the trademark. Competitor mentions in your headlines or descriptions sit outside those exceptions, and the trademark owner can file a complaint that triggers a disapproval. The restriction usually applies on an ongoing basis to your domain, not just to a single ad.

This catches comparative phrases too. "Better than Salesforce", "Salesforce alternative", "Switch from Salesforce" all use the Salesforce trademark and are subject to the same rule, even though they're framed as comparison. They often pass automated approval. The risk is the complaint that comes later.

If you ran the campaign through Hero Marketer's wizard with the Competitor type selected, the generated copy avoids competitor names already. If you're seeing this rejection, the trademark crept in either through a manual edit or because the campaign was set up as Branded or Non-branded with a competitor name in your seed. Worth checking the campaign type selection in the wizard.

Fix:

• Rewrite without the trademarked term. "Top alternative", "Better legacy CRM swap", "Switch in minutes" all carry comparative weight without naming the competitor.
• If you genuinely have written permission from the trademark owner (rare), you can ask Google to authorize the trademark in your ads. See Google's trademark help for advertisers.
• Bidding on the competitor's name as a keyword stays allowed; only the ad text is the issue.

Misleading or unverifiable claims

Claims like "Best CRM in the world", "Guaranteed to double your sales", or "10x faster than X" trigger rejections unless you can substantiate them.

Fix:

• Remove the claim, or
• Soften it ("Built for fast moving teams" instead of "Fastest CRM").
• Add specifics that can be substantiated ("Used by 5,000 teams" if true and verifiable).

Unreachable or broken landing page

Google checks that your landing page loads, doesn't redirect to an unrelated page, and matches the ad's promise. If the page is down, slow, or fails Google's quality checks, the ad is rejected.

Fix:

• Open the URL in an incognito window. Confirm it loads.
• Make sure it doesn't redirect to a homepage or unrelated page.
• Confirm the page content matches the ad's promise. An ad about "pricing" should land on a pricing page, not the homepage.

Excessive capitalization or punctuation

ALL CAPS HEADLINES or excessive exclamation marks (e.g., "Free!!! Sign up!!!") get rejected.

Fix: rewrite in sentence case or title case with normal punctuation.

Health, finance, or regulated category claims

If your product touches healthcare, finance, legal, or other regulated categories, Google has stricter rules. Specific claims (medical outcomes, financial returns, legal advice) need disclaimers or certification.

Fix: review Google's policies for your category. Add disclaimers where required, or rewrite to avoid regulated claim language.

Restricted product or service

Some categories are restricted entirely (gambling, pharmaceuticals, weapons). Some are restricted to specific countries or require certification.

Fix: check Google's restricted product policies. If your product genuinely falls into a restricted category, certification may be required before ads can run.

Fixing a rejected ad

You have two paths:

• Ask Hero AI to draft a replacement RSA for the ad group. The copy assistant pulls your product context, the ad group's keywords, and your existing copy, then produces new headlines and descriptions. Confirm to apply, and Hero AI creates the new ad in the target ad group. Useful when the rejection is for trademark, claim, or relevance reasons and the rewrite is the fix.
• Edit in Google Ads directly when you want to make a small change to the existing ad rather than create a new one.

Either way, after the edit or new ad lands:

1. The ad re enters review automatically.
2. Re review usually completes within hours, sometimes a day.
3. Once approved, the ad starts serving.

Fixing rejected sitelinks

Sitelinks are reviewed independently of the main ad. A rejected sitelink stops showing but doesn't pause the campaign.

Fix in Google Ads' assets section:

1. Find the sitelink.
2. Edit text and destination URL.
3. Save. Re review starts.

For sitelinks generated by Hero Marketer, you can also rebuild them with different copy through the campaign or asset picker. See Add sitelinks.

Appealing a rejection

If you believe a rejection is wrong (Google sometimes flags ads incorrectly), you can request a manual review:

1. Open the disapproved ad in Google Ads.
2. Click Appeal or Request review.
3. Fill in why you believe the rejection is incorrect.
4. Submit. Manual review takes 1 to 3 business days.

Manual review reverses incorrect rejections about half the time. It doesn't reverse rejections that are policy correct.

Many rejections at once

If most or all of your ads come back rejected, the issue is usually:

• A landing page that's down.
• A category Google doesn't allow ads in.
• An account level suspension that's affecting all campaigns.

Check account status in Google Ads first. If the account itself is suspended, fix that before troubleshooting individual ads.

Still confused?

Contact support with:

• The exact rejection text from Google.
• The ad copy or sitelink text.
• The landing page URL.

We can read Google's policies with you and suggest a rewrite. We can't override Google's policies, but we can usually find phrasing that passes review.