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All YouTube Shopping ads and app ads must comply with our advertising policies and all products served within a YouTube ad must also comply with our Shopping ad policies. This article outlines the additional requirements that your products must meet to serve within YouTube Ads.
Automated content policy decision
We use a combination of automated and human evaluation to ensure that YouTube Shopping ads and app ads comply with these policies. Our enforcement technologies use algorithms and machine learning, modelled on human reviewers' decisions, to help protect our customers and keep our ad platforms safe. More complex, nuanced or severe cases are often reviewed and evaluated by our specially trained experts.
Quality checks
- Blurred, distorted, incomplete, unclear or poorly cropped images
- Images that contain overlaid elements
YouTube Shopping ads and app ads must meet the Google Ads editorial standards.
Prohibited categories
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Uncomfortable content
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YouTube Shopping ads and app ads depicting pornography, sexually suggestive content, nudity or unnecessarily exposed body parts
- Examples:
- Sex toys, erotic DVDs or sexually suggestive lingerie promotions
- Visible genitalia, female breasts or bare buttocks
- Examples:
- Dental procedures, images of organs or blood
- Animal and meat products
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Dating
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- Examples:
- Hook-up or fling dating content
- Coupons or gift cards for swinger dating sites
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Cash giveaways
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Nervous or unsafe content
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- Examples:
- Toys of wounded humans or animals, toys of scary animals or creatures
- Masks, clothes or accessories that contain dangerous or fearful symbols or images
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Violent or criminal content
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- Examples:
- Products that resemble firearms
- Products containing images of prisons, criminals or arrests
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Inappropriate substances
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- Examples:
- Drugs, tobacco or cigarettes
- Needles, intoxication, addiction or images containing these items and implying drug use
- Alcoholic drinks
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Misery or unhappy events
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- Examples:
- Products related to death or funerals, such as coffins, condolence flowers and graveyards
- YouTube Shopping ads and app ads related to divorce, breakups or family separation
- Images containing vehicle accidents, emergencies, injuries or hospital visits
- Depiction of natural or man-made disasters
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Media content
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- Examples:
- Video games containing shocking images
- T-shirts, hats or other products containing violent content from a TV show scene
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Political content
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- Examples:
- Products relating to political organisations, political parties, political issue advocacy or fundraising and individual candidates and politicians
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Gambling content
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If you're working with a third-party platform, some of these instructions may not apply to you. Refer to your third-party platform for instructions on how to resolve the issue or complete the task. Learn how to find support if you use a non-Google platform.