Make Sure Your Ads Are Still Running with Adwords’ Disapproved Ads Tool

Paid Media / June 05, 2009

How do you know if all your ads are actively running in your campaigns? Have they been disapproved for editorial or trademark violations? Find out using an often overlooked tool in Google AdWords – the Disapproved Ads Tool.

This simple tool can quickly tell you when your ads stopped running and in which adgroups they stopped running in.

Large portions of your campaigns can become dormant because for one reason or another, your ads may have been disapproved. So if you notice a sharp drop in traffic, this is one place in your campaigns that you’ll want to take a closer look at.
Here’s how to do it:

For those of you using the old AdWords interface, simply click on the Tools link in the Campaign Management tab as shown here:

If you’re using the new interface which is currently in public beta, you’ll find the disapproved ads tool by clicking on the Tools Tab and then on the “More Tools” link from the drop down menu as seen here:

Also be sure to keep an eye out for emails from Google letting you know that some of your ads have been deactivated. They typically send email alerts when your ads become disapproved (unless you’ve opted out of email notifications), but as we all know, it’s sometimes easy to miss emails so it would be good to automate the Ad Performance report and check it regularly.

You can do this from the Reports section in your account:

Just remember to add in a filter to show you disapproved ads only so you can quickly see which ads are no longer active:

Depending on the reason given for why your ads were disapproved, you can call the AdWords team and ask for a review or simply make the necessary changes and wait for the editorial team to review your ads which usually takes a day or two. You can find more information on what to do once your ads have been disapproved here.

Have a question or need something clarified? We’d be more than happy to help – simply submit a comment!