Google Ads Appeals Now Limited to 6 Months — What Advertisers Must Know

Google Ads has introduced a 6-month time limit on policy violation appeals, effective July 21, 2026. Advertisers can no longer appeal a policy decision through the account-level Policy Manager if the decision was made more than six months earlier — older cases must now go through Google Ads support directly.

The short version

Google Ads quietly updated its appeals documentation on July 21, 2026, introducing a hard 6-month cutoff for policy violation appeals. If your ad violation is older than six months, the “Appeal” button disappears from the Policy Manager, and you must contact Google Ads support to request a manual review. The change is immediately in effect and applies globally across all Google Ads accounts. For violations under 6 months old, the appeals process remains unchanged — but the clock is now ticking.

Key facts

• Effective July 21, 2026, appeals for policy decisions older than 6 months are no longer available through the Policy Manager
• Older violations require contacting Google Ads support for manual review
• The change applies globally to all Google Ads accounts
• Google’s exact wording: “the option to appeal a policy decision directly from your Google Ads account will not be available”
• This is the latest in a series of 2026 Google Ads policy enforcement updates

What happened

On the afternoon of July 21, 2026, Google Ads updated its appeals guidelines and help documentation, first spotted by Search Engine Roundtable on July 22. The change is simple but consequential: the in-account appeals process now has an expiration date.

Google’s official language, now appearing in the Policy Manager help documentation, states: “Starting July 21, 2026, the option to appeal a policy decision directly from your Google Ads account will not be available for policy decisions made more than 6 months prior. For such issues, please contact Google Ads support.”

PPC Land also covered the change, confirming the 6-month cutoff applies to all policy violation types — ad disapprovals, account-level policy flags, and landing page compliance issues.

The Policy Manager remains the primary appeals channel for recent violations. The appeal process itself hasn’t changed for violations within the 6-month window: you navigate to the specific violation, review the reason, fix the issue, and submit. What’s new is that the window closes.

How does the appeals process actually work now?

If your violation is less than 6 months old, nothing changes. You can appeal directly through the Policy Manager by selecting the affected ad or policy issue and clicking “Appeal.” Google reviews the submission and either reinstates the ad or upholds the disapproval.

If the violation is older than 6 months, the “Appeal” option simply won’t appear. You’re redirected to contact Google Ads support — a process that typically involves opening a ticket, explaining the situation to a support representative, and waiting for a manual review. It’s slower, less predictable, and removes the self-service convenience advertisers have relied on.

The practical implication: don’t let policy violations sit. What might have been a low-priority fix in a paused campaign six months ago is now a problem you can’t resolve through the normal self-service channel.

Who is affected, and when?

Every Google Ads advertiser globally, effective immediately. There’s no rollout period or account-type exemption. If you have historic policy violations sitting unresolved in your account — disapproved ads from test campaigns, old landing page flags, expired promotions that triggered policy hits — and those violations are more than 6 months old, you’ve already lost the ability to appeal through the Policy Manager.

This is particularly relevant for agencies managing large portfolios of client accounts. Historical policy flags that were never escalated because they didn’t impact active campaigns are now stuck in a support-only resolution path. For accounts with complex policy histories, auditing what’s still appealable versus what’s now support-only should be a priority.

Greg Finn, a PPC specialist, noted on X that Google also recently removed the “All affected ads in the account” bulk appeal option, making the appeals process more granular and time-consuming even for recent violations. The combination of these two changes — the removal of bulk appeal and the 6-month cutoff — signals a deliberate tightening of Google’s self-service policy resolution tools.

What this means

This is a quiet but meaningful operational change. Google isn’t removing the ability to resolve old violations — it’s redirecting them to a higher-friction support channel. The subtext is clear: keep your account clean, address policy violations promptly, and don’t treat the Policy Manager as an archive of fixable-later issues.

For accounts that run afoul of Google’s advertising policies frequently — industries like health & wellness, financial services, crypto-adjacent businesses, or legal services — the 6-month window adds pressure to resolve flags before they age out of the self-service appeals system. Agencies should build a recurring policy audit into monthly or quarterly account maintenance to ensure nothing crosses the 6-month threshold.

The change also reinforces a broader trend in 2026: Google is systematically narrowing the paths for advertiser self-remediation. Earlier this year, Google rolled out the Limited Ad Serving policy for unfamiliar advertisers, which restricts impression delivery for new or unproven accounts. The company also expanded advertiser verification requirements to 24 EU markets, requiring proof of identity and business operations. The appeals limit fits squarely in this pattern — fewer self-service levers, more compliance gates.

What to do now

1. Audit your Policy Manager today. Open the Policy Manager in every active Google Ads account and note the date of each unresolved violation. Any violation dated before January 21, 2026, is now past the 6-month cutoff.

2. Appeal anything approaching the deadline. If you have violations from January through March 2026 that still need resolution, appeal them now — don’t wait. Once they cross the 6-month threshold, the self-service path closes.

3. Build a recurring policy audit into your workflow. Set a monthly or quarterly calendar reminder to review the Policy Manager. Catching violations within the 6-month window preserves your ability to self-resolve.

4. Document your support contacts. For older violations that can’t be appealed through the Policy Manager, know how to reach Google Ads support efficiently. Save the support contact page and prepare account IDs and violation details ahead of time.

5. Proactively fix compliance at the source. The best defense against this change is fewer violations in the first place. Review your ad copy, landing pages, and targeting for policy-sensitive language or practices, especially in regulated verticals.

FAQ

Sources

• Search Engine Roundtable — Google Ads Appeals Limits Set To 6 Months
• PPC Land — Google Ads kills appeals for policy decisions over 6 months old
• Google Ads Help — About Policy Manager and appeals