Boosting your Google Ads Performance with the help of Scripts
Google Ads Script to Receive Disapproved Ads Alerts
Ad Disapprovals happen.
There are many reasons why an ad can get disapproved and I had to deal with a lóóóóóót of them.
Most of which were my own “fault” (me trying to squeeze in that extra special symbol, or some more CAPS, or…).
Not last year though.
2019 showed a worrying increase in the number of ads being disapproved on multiple accounts.
For 3 of my accounts, the unexpected reason was “Disapproved: Malicious or unwanted software”.
There is nothing suspicious, nothing malicious, no malware anywhere on the sites at all.
The sites have not seen any changes for years.
Yet, Google Ads just decided to go bonkers all of a sudden.
It took 3 weeks and countless less-then-fruitful conversations with support reps to fix the issues.
But, in the end… we got it fixed! [sigh of relief]
[2020 update: The same thing seems to be happening right now with a lot of ads being disapproved during COVID19 period]
Here’s my theory on the story:
Google is adding more AI to the review process. Google is training its AI to enforce their policy.
And while the AI is learning, it is up to us to fix its mistakes -> endlessly contact support to convince them the machine is wrong.
Disapproved ads hurt your account.
They mess up your tests, reduce your reach and in the worst case prevent any ad from showing up for your keywords.
That’s why you want to fix them asap.
In order to do so, you have to know when they get disapproved AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!
Guess what… there’s a script for that!
➥ ACTION: Block Facebook for the next ten minutes and install the script.
Peace of mind is your BONUS. (Don’t worry if you have never run a script before. You do not need any coding skills. It is as simple as copy-paste.)
UPDATE June 2022:
- changed AWQL query to GAQL query
- updated the script to be compatible with new script environment
- added support for policy findings in the Google Ads API
INSTRUCTIONS:
See the script code below. Install the script in your account.
Don’t worry if you have never done this before. You do not need any coding skills. It is as simple as copy-paste. Simply follow these instructions on how to set up and schedule Google Ads scripts.
Create a new Google Sheet
(tip for Chrome users: simply type ‘sheets.new’ in the address bar)
Add the complete URL of the spreadsheet to the script (line 16)
varwhereClause = "WHERE ad_group_ad.policy_summary.approval_status = 'DISAPPROVED' AND campaign.status = 'ENABLED' AND campaign.serving_status != 'ENDED' AND ad_group.status = 'ENABLED' AND ad_group_ad.status = 'ENABLED' AND segments.date DURING TODAY";