Why we’re making these changes

One of the top requests that we hear from publishers is that they want us to simplify and streamline our policies. We know that many of you use several of our publisher products and we want to bring you a clear and easy way to understand how to interact with our policies and how they affect you, no matter which products you use.

Here’s what you can expect:

• Google Publisher Policies, which outline the types of content that we won’t monetise through any of our publisher products. These include: Illegal Content, Child Sexual Abuse Material & Pedophilia, Sexually Explicit Content, Adult Themes in Family Content, Intellectual Property Abuse, Endangered or Threatened Species, Dangerous or Derogatory Content, Enabling Dishonest Behaviour, Misrepresentative Content, Malicious or Unwanted Software and Mail Order Brides​.
• Google Publisher Restrictions, which outline the types of content which will receive restricted sources of advertising. These include: Sexual Content, Shocking Content, Explosives, Guns, Gun Parts & Related Products, Other Weapons, Tobacco, Recreational Drugs, Alcohol Sales and Misuse, Online Gambling, Prescription Drugs and Unapproved Pharmaceuticals and Supplements. Google Ads (formerly AdWords) will continue not to serve on any of this restricted content; it will only receive ads from other advertising products or via the use of direct deals between publishers and advertisers.
• Alignment across our publisher products, bringing simplicity, consistency and ease of understanding, regardless of the product(s) that you choose to use.

Monetising content that falls under the Google Publisher Restrictions will no longer be a policy violation; instead, we’ll restrict advertising on that content as appropriate, based on the preferences of each advertising product and/or advertisers’ individual preferences. In some cases, this will mean that no advertising sources are bidding on your inventory and no ads will appear on this restricted content. So while you can choose to monetise content covered by the Google Publisher Restrictions, doing so will mean that you’ll likely receive less advertising on this restricted content than you would receive on other, nonrestricted content.

Content that falls under the Google Publisher Policies is not allowed to be monetised and you should not place ads against that content. Attempting to monetise policy-violating content may result in your account(s) being suspended or terminated.

Please note that these policies and restrictions will apply in addition to any other policies governing your use of Google publisher products.

What you need to do

Nothing at this time. The Help Centre and Policy Centre will be updated in September 2019 when this takes effect with the full breakdown of policies and restrictions. At that time, please review the updated policies and restrictions and ensure that your content is in compliance.