Google Ads Alcohol Policy
Compliance Checklist

Google allows alcohol ads in 61 approved countries. If even one country in your campaign targeting is not on the approved list, your ads will be disapproved. Check every location target in every campaign that promotes alcohol. Search "Google Ads alcohol approved countries" to find the current official list.

If you are running campaigns targeting countries like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Kuwait, or any other country where alcohol advertising is banned, you must remove those countries from your targeting before submitting any appeal. Targeting a single prohibited country is enough to get the entire campaign disapproved.

Some countries allow beer but not spirits. For example, Russia allows beer advertising but not spirits or wine. India has state-by-state rules — some Indian states allow alcohol ads and others do not. Simply being on the "approved" list does not mean all alcohol types are permitted. Check the specific rules for each country you target.

If you are running broad international targeting ("Worldwide" or large regions like "Asia"), use the Locations settings in your campaign to explicitly exclude prohibited countries. Do not rely on your campaign simply not reaching those countries — Google can serve ads in unexpected locations if exclusions are not set.

Google's policy requires you to follow local laws — not just Google's own rules. For example, the UK requires all alcohol ads to follow the CAP Code, Australia requires adherence to ABAC standards, and the US requires following DISCUS guidelines. If your landing page content would violate local law in a country you are targeting, that is a policy violation.

In most countries the legal drinking age is 18, but in some (like the USA) it is 21. Go into your campaign settings → Demographics and set your age targeting to start at 18 minimum (or 21 for US campaigns). Exclude the "18-24" bracket if you are targeting the USA or countries with a higher drinking age. Never leave age targeting set to "All ages."

In Google Ads, "Unknown" is a demographic group that includes users whose age Google cannot determine — and this group includes many minors. For alcohol campaigns, you must either exclude the "Unknown" age bracket entirely or set a bid adjustment that significantly reduces its reach. Leaving it enabled is treated as targeting minors.

If you have remarketing audiences built from website visitors or customer lists, check whether those lists include anyone below legal drinking age. A general website audience may include minors who visited a non-alcohol section of your site. Either rebuild the audience with confirmed adults or exclude underage users explicitly.

Google's January 2025 update tightened child-and-teen protections across all restricted categories including alcohol. Even if your age targeting is set correctly, placing ads on content designed for young audiences is a separate violation. Use placement exclusions to exclude content categories "Kids content" and "Family safe content" in your Display and YouTube campaigns.

If your website sells alcohol, an age gate (a prompt asking the user to confirm they are of legal drinking age before entering) is considered best practice and is required under local law in many countries. This demonstrates to Google that you are taking reasonable steps to prevent minors from accessing your purchase pages.

Language like "get wasted," "drink all night," "get buzzed," or imagery showing visibly drunk people is a direct violation. Your ads must not make excessive consumption look fun, desirable, or aspirational. Describe your product's quality, taste, or heritage — not what it does to people who over-consume it.

Claims like "drink this to perform better," "the wine that improves your mood," or "be the life of the party with [brand]" cross into territory Google considers irresponsible alcohol promotion. Your ads can describe flavour, quality, and occasion — they cannot position alcohol as a solution to life, health, or social problems.

This applies to all ad formats including image ads, video ads, and responsive display ads. If any person in your ad imagery could reasonably be interpreted as a minor, remove them from the creative. All models depicted consuming or handling alcohol must clearly appear to be adults of legal drinking age.

Images or language that link drinking with driving, operating vehicles, sports with high injury risk, or any dangerous physical activity are prohibited. Even imagery that shows alcohol bottles near a car, or ad copy that mentions "enjoy a drink before the drive," is enough to cause a disapproval.

For YouTube skippable ads, the first 5 seconds are shown to everyone — including users who might be below legal drinking age. Opening your ad with prominent alcohol consumption imagery before a user can skip exposes it to a broader audience than intended. Consider opening with brand visuals or context before showing consumption.

Several countries require health warnings or responsible drinking messages in alcohol ads — for example, France requires the message "L'abus d'alcool est dangereux pour la santé" (excessive alcohol consumption is dangerous to health). If you are targeting such countries, these disclaimers are legally mandatory and their absence counts as a policy violation.

Every rule that applies to your ad also applies to your landing page. Google's reviewers look at the full destination — not just the ad. If your homepage has a section showing young-looking people drinking heavily, or a blog post glorifying drunk driving culture, that will cause your ads to be disapproved even if the ads themselves are clean.

A statement such as "Please drink responsibly" or a link to a responsible drinking resource (like Drinkaware in the UK or DISCUS in the USA) signals to Google's reviewers that you are taking responsible promotion seriously. This is not always legally required but significantly helps during policy review.

If Google's reviewer visits your landing page and cannot see the content your ad promises because it is behind a login wall, the ad will be disapproved. The core content of any page linked from your ads must be publicly accessible to anyone — no account required.

Your Terms and Conditions should explicitly state that purchases are only available to users who are of legal drinking age in their jurisdiction. This is required by law in most countries and is a key signal Google looks for when reviewing alcohol advertisers. Link the T&Cs prominently from your homepage and checkout pages.

In the UK, USA, Australia, and most countries with alcohol licensing requirements, online alcohol retailers must display their licence or permit information. This includes your licence number, the authority that issued it, and any conditions. Displaying this prominently on your footer or About page demonstrates legitimacy during Google's review.

The Alcohol Sale policy (for ads that link to pages where alcohol is purchased) requires certification in several countries. Check Google's current Alcohol Sale policy page to see if your target country is listed as requiring certification. If it does and you have not applied, your ads will not be approved regardless of how compliant they are.

To apply: go to support.google.com/adspolicy → search "Alcohol certification" → find the certification request form. You will need to provide: your business name, website, the countries you want to target, proof of your alcohol licence or retail permit, and confirmation you understand and will comply with all age-targeting requirements. Processing typically takes several business days.

Google's certification review requires proof that you are legally authorised to sell alcohol in your target market. This typically means a copy of your alcohol retail licence, wholesale permit, or a distributor agreement from a licensed producer. Gather these documents before you start the application to avoid delays.

Running campaigns for online alcohol sales before your certification is approved will result in disapprovals that can complicate your certification application. Pause any campaigns that link to purchase pages until you have received certification confirmation from Google. Brand-awareness campaigns (not linking to purchase) may still run while the application is in review.

For alcohol violations, Google's reviewer will check your ads, targeting settings, and landing pages when they process your appeal. If the problems are still present, the appeal fails — and repeated failed appeals slow down future reviews. Fix everything in this list first. Then appeal once, with everything in order.

In your Google Ads account, go to Ads & assets → find the disapproved ad → click "Appeal" or "Request review." Alternatively, go to Tools → Policy Manager. Do not try to appeal through Google support chat or email — those channels cannot expedite or override a policy review. The official route is the only route.

When submitting your appeal, include: (1) the specific policy area that was flagged, (2) exactly what was wrong, (3) what you changed — for example, "removed targeting for India and Pakistan," "updated age targeting to 18+ and excluded Unknown," "removed the phrase 'get the party started' from ad headline." Be specific. Vague appeals fail.

If your disapproval is specifically because certification is required and you have not obtained it, appealing the ad before certification is approved will result in automatic rejection. Apply for certification first, wait for approval, then submit the ad appeal. Doing them simultaneously without the certification approved wastes your appeal opportunity.

Alcohol is a restricted category and often requires manual review rather than automated processing. This means reviews take longer than standard ads. Do not resubmit an appeal or request another review while one is still in progress — submitting again resets the queue and slows things down further.

An account-level warning is more serious than a single ad disapproval. If you received a warning email saying your account will be suspended, go to Tools → Policy Manager → find the account-level warning notice and submit your account-level appeal there. Fixing individual ads but not addressing the account-level warning will not prevent suspension.