Google Ads
Format Requirements Checklist

Each individual headline in a Responsive Search Ad must be 30 characters or fewer — including spaces and punctuation. Check every headline. A common mistake is writing descriptive headlines that read well but are too long — "Professional Plumbing Services London" is 38 characters. Count carefully or use a character counter tool. Abbreviate, remove prepositions, or split into two shorter headlines.

Each description line in a Responsive Search Ad must be 90 characters or fewer. This is one of the most common format violations — descriptions that start within the limit but exceed it after a word change. Count every description carefully. "We provide exceptional customer service and same-day delivery across all UK postcodes, guaranteed" is 92 characters — two over the limit.

A Responsive Search Ad requires a minimum of 3 headlines and 2 descriptions to be saved and reviewed. An ad with only 1 or 2 headlines, or only 1 description, cannot be approved. Google strongly recommends adding all 15 headlines and all 4 descriptions to give the system the most combinations to work with — and Google's own Ad Strength indicator rewards this. At minimum, 3 and 2 are required.

The two optional path fields in your display URL (shown after your domain in the ad) are each limited to 15 characters including any forward slashes. Path1 and Path2 are separate fields — each must individually be 15 characters or fewer. A path like "womens-clothing" is 15 characters exactly — that is fine. "womens-clothing-sale" is 20 — too long. Abbreviate: "womens/sale" works at 11 characters.

A landscape image in 1.91:1 ratio is required for Responsive Display Ads. The minimum accepted size is 600×314 pixels but Google recommends 1200×628 for sharper rendering across high-resolution screens. Images smaller than 600×314 will be rejected. Always export at the recommended size — this maximises the number of placements your ad can appear on.

A square 1:1 image is also required alongside the landscape image for Responsive Display Ads. Minimum is 300×300 pixels; recommended is 1200×1200. Many advertisers upload only a landscape image and then wonder why their ad reaches only a limited number of placements — the square image enables the ad to appear in many additional placement types and sizes.

Responsive Display Ads require a logo. The minimum accepted square logo size is 128×128 pixels but Google recommends 1200×1200. Your logo must fill the image frame — a logo placed on a white or coloured background with lots of empty space around it may be rejected for poor quality. Crop tightly around your logo symbol or wordmark and export at the recommended dimensions.

The maximum image file size for Google Ads is 5MB per image. High-resolution images from professional cameras or design software are commonly larger than this — especially uncompressed PNGs. Before uploading, compress your images using a tool like Squoosh, TinyPNG, or Adobe's export settings. You can usually compress JPGs to under 1MB with no visible quality loss, which also improves page load speed.

Responsive Display Ads have two headline fields. The short headline (used in smaller ad formats) has a 30-character limit. The long headline (used in larger formats as a single headline) has a 90-character limit. Both are separate fields — both have their own limits. A common mistake is spending time on the long headline and then leaving the short headline over the 30-character limit.

The business name field in Responsive Display Ads has a 25-character limit. If your full legal business name exceeds 25 characters, use a shortened brand name or trading name that users will recognise. For example "Muhammad Umair Consulting" is 27 characters — too long. "UmairConsult" is 12 — fine. The business name appears alongside your ad on many placements, so use a recognisable shortened form.

Google Merchant Center requires product images to meet a minimum size. For all products, this is 100×100 pixels. For clothing and apparel specifically, the minimum is 250×250 pixels — Google holds fashion product images to a higher standard because users rely heavily on the image to make purchase decisions. Using images smaller than these minimums will cause product disapprovals in Merchant Center, which prevents your Shopping ads from running.

Shopping ad product images cannot contain: promotional text overlaid on the image (e.g., "SALE 30% OFF"), watermarks, borders, placeholder images, placeholder text, or images that show a different product than what is being sold. The image must show the actual product being sold. Generic images (stock photos of similar products), promotional overlays, or images with text are all grounds for product disapproval in Merchant Center.

Product titles in your feed are limited to 150 characters. Google recommends using a structured format: Brand + Product type + Key attribute (colour, size, material). For example: "Nike Air Max 270 Men's Running Shoes Black Size 10." Titles that are just a product code or too vague ("Men's Shoes") will underperform, but titles that exceed 150 characters will cause feed errors. Find the right balance — informative but within limits.

Every product in your Merchant Center feed must have these required attributes: id (unique product identifier), title, description, link (product page URL), image_link, price (with currency), availability (in stock / out of stock / preorder), and condition (new / refurbished / used). Missing any required attribute causes a product disapproval. Go to Merchant Center → Products → Diagnostics to see which attributes are missing or incorrect.

Non-skippable in-stream ads have a hard 15-second duration limit (30 seconds is allowed in some markets — check your target country). Even a single frame over 15 seconds causes immediate rejection. This cannot be overridden by appeal. Export your video at exactly 15 seconds or shorter. Use a video editing tool to confirm the exact duration in frames, not just seconds — some tools round down and your exported video may still be 15.04 seconds.

Bumper ads are a strict 6-second format. A bumper ad of 6.1 seconds will be rejected — there is no flexibility here. When editing your bumper ad, export it and verify the exact duration. Check in the YouTube upload interface which also shows the precise video length. If your message does not fit in 6 seconds, use a skippable or non-skippable format instead.

Google Ads does not accept direct video file uploads for YouTube ad formats. You must first upload your video to YouTube — either as Public or Unlisted — and then link the YouTube video URL into your Google Ads campaign. A common mistake is trying to find a video file upload button in Google Ads and getting confused. Upload to YouTube first, then copy the video URL into your ad creation flow in Google Ads.

Skippable in-stream ads on YouTube can show a companion banner — a 300×60 pixel image that appears alongside the video player on desktop. You can upload a custom companion banner (JPG or PNG, max 150KB, 300×60px) or allow Google to auto-generate one. Not having a companion banner does not cause a disapproval — but it reduces your ad's visibility on desktop. Uploading a custom companion banner improves click-through rates.

In App campaigns, each individual text asset has a strict 25-character limit. These text assets are used across Google Search, Play Store, YouTube, and the Display Network — Google combines them with your other assets automatically. You can add up to 4 text assets. Every single one must be 25 characters or fewer including spaces. Short, punchy statements work best: "Download Free Today" is 19 characters — perfect.

App campaign images must match one of three accepted aspect ratios: 1:1 (square), 4:5 (portrait — common for mobile), and 1.91:1 (landscape). Images that are not in one of these ratios will be rejected regardless of their pixel dimensions. Each image must also be under 5MB and in JPG or PNG format. Adding images in all three ratios gives Google the most options for where to show your ad.

While there is no hard duration limit for video in App campaigns, Google recommends videos of 20 seconds or shorter for best performance across all placements — particularly on mobile where attention spans are short. As with other video formats, you must upload the video to YouTube first (Public or Unlisted) and then provide the YouTube URL in your App campaign. Vertical (9:16) videos perform especially well in mobile app placements.

HTML5 ad uploads are restricted to Google Ads accounts that have spent at least $9,000 USD (or local currency equivalent) over the past 90 days AND have a good policy compliance history. To check your eligibility, go to Display campaigns → Ad groups → Ads → click + → Upload display ads. If you are not eligible, Google will show a message indicating you cannot upload HTML5 files. If ineligible, use AMPHTML ads or Responsive Display Ads instead — both are effective alternatives.

The entire ZIP file — including all HTML files, CSS files, JavaScript files, and any images embedded within the creative — must be under 200KB. This is a very tight limit. Optimise all images inside the ZIP to the smallest possible file size (use compressed WebP or optimised PNG), minify your CSS and JavaScript, and remove any unused code or assets. A 200KB limit requires careful asset management.

Animations in HTML5 ads must stop after a maximum of 30 seconds and must not loop more than 3 times. After 3 loops or 30 seconds — whichever comes first — the ad must display a static final frame. An ad that continues to animate indefinitely is a format violation. Set your animation timing and loop count precisely in your code, and test it by watching it through 3 complete cycles to confirm it stops.

Your HTML5 ad cannot make any external HTTP requests to load fonts, images, scripts, or any other resources from external servers. Everything the ad needs to render and animate must be included inside the ZIP file. This means no Google Fonts web imports, no CDN-hosted JavaScript libraries, no externally hosted images. If you use a font — embed it as a base64-encoded file inside the ZIP. If you use icons — include them as SVG files inside the ZIP.

Google only allows certified third-party click trackers to be used in the Tracking Template field. Search for "Google Ads certified click trackers" in the Google Ads Help Centre to access the current list. Check whether your tracker (e.g., DoubleClick/Campaign Manager, Flashtalking, Innovid, Sizmek, or others) appears on that list. If it is not on the list, it is not permitted as a click tracker in Google Ads tracking templates.

Your certified click tracker must be entered in the Tracking Template field in Google Ads — not appended to your Final URL. The tracking template uses the {lpurl} parameter to pass the final URL through the tracker: your tracking template should look like "https://your-tracker.com/track?redirect={lpurl}&campaign={campaignid}". If you put the tracker URL in the Final URL field instead, Google will see the final destination as your tracker domain rather than your website, causing a disapproval.

Google checks that your click tracker's redirect destination matches the Final URL field in your ad. If your Final URL says "https://example.com/shoes" but your tracker redirects to "https://example.com/boots" — even if both pages are on your own site — the ad will be disapproved for destination mismatch. The redirect target of your tracker must point to exactly the same URL that is in your Final URL field.

Every click tracker in your redirect chain — not just the first one — must be Google-certified. For example, if your tracking template goes: Google Ads → CertifiedTracker → UncertifiedTracker → Final URL, the ad will be disapproved because of the non-certified tracker in the middle of the chain. This applies even if the non-certified tracker is the final step before your landing page. All trackers at every step must be on the certified list.

If your click tracker is not Google-certified and you cannot switch to a certified one, remove it from your tracking template entirely. Instead, place a server-side impression pixel on your landing page — this fires when the page loads and records the visit without needing to intercept the click URL. This approach avoids all click tracker format issues and is fully permitted by Google. Consult your analytics or ad server team to implement an impression pixel.

After making your format fix — shortening the headline, uploading the corrected image, fixing the tracking template — save the changes in your Google Ads account. Then go to Ads & assets, find the corrected ad, click on the three-dot menu or the status indicator, and select "Request review." Google's automated system reviews format violations quickly — most are reviewed within 1 business day. You do not need to contact support for a format fix review.

After making your changes and before requesting a review, use the Ad Preview and Diagnosis tool (Tools & settings → Troubleshooting → Ad preview and diagnosis) to preview your ad exactly as it will appear to a user. This catches any remaining issues — wrong display URL, missing image, incorrect character count — before the review is triggered. Catching an issue before review saves you another day of waiting.

In rare cases, an automated review will continue to reject an ad even after a correct fix — particularly for character counts where the automated system counts differently from your tool, or for image sizes where a rounding issue causes a borderline rejection. In this case, select "Appeal" (instead of "Request review") in the Ads & assets interface, choose "Dispute decision," and explain specifically what you fixed and why the ad now complies. A human Google policy reviewer will assess it manually.

Prevention is faster than fixing. Before any new ad goes live, your team should verify: character counts in all text fields, image dimensions and file sizes, video duration if applicable, tracking template format, and that the Final URL loads correctly. A simple shared document or spreadsheet checklist with the spec limits for each format you regularly use takes 30 minutes to create and prevents hours of disapproval firefighting per month.