Fix Google’s
Personal Loans
Policy Violation

Check the inbox of the email address connected to your Google account. Google always sends a message that names the exact policy — in this case, "Personal Loans" under Financial Products and Services. The notice will often reference specific campaigns or ads involved. Keep it open while working through this checklist as you will need specific details from it when writing your appeal.

Go to your Google Ads account, click the tools icon (wrench) at the top right, then select "Policy Manager." Find the specific disapproval or account action, read every word of it, and take a screenshot. Write down every ad, campaign, and landing page URL that appears in the notice — each one must be fixed individually before your appeal can succeed.

Google's Personal Loans policy requires all loan advertisers to: hold the required licences in every market they advertise in, disclose the Annual Percentage Rate (APR) in ads and on landing pages, disclose the minimum and maximum loan terms and amounts, avoid misleading claims about approval chances or loan costs, and not advertise payday loans or high-cost short-term loans where banned. Understanding the full scope of requirements is essential before making any changes.

Write down every specific item mentioned in the violation notice — ad names, campaign names, and website URLs. You must fix all of them. Google's review team checks each item separately during your appeal, and leaving even one unfixed will result in rejection. This will require you to wait another 3 to 14 business days before you can submit again.

Visit support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2464998 and read the Personal Loans section in full. This page lists the exact requirements by country, which loan types are prohibited, what must be disclosed in ads and on landing pages, and what certifications may be required. Reading it helps you spot violations you may have missed that could still cause your appeal to fail even after other fixes are made.

Every country and in many cases every state or region has its own licensing requirement for lenders and loan brokers. Check that your licence is current, covers the specific type of lending you advertise (consumer credit, personal loans, loan brokering, etc.), and covers every geographic area your ads are shown in. If any licence has expired or does not cover a market you currently advertise in, you must renew it or restrict your ad targeting before attempting any appeal.

In the UK, advertising personal loans requires Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) authorisation. You must be either directly authorised by the FCA or an appointed representative of an FCA-authorised firm. Check your FCA registration at register.fca.org.uk. Your FCA registration number must appear on your website, in your ads (where required), and on all financial promotions. Advertising personal loans without FCA authorisation is illegal and will result in a permanent Google account suspension. If you are not authorised, stop all UK-targeted loan advertising immediately.

In the United States, consumer lending is regulated at the state level, and most states require a separate consumer lending or consumer finance licence for every state in which you lend or broker loans. Use the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System (NMLS) at nmlsconsumeraccess.org to check your licence status. If you advertise across multiple states without holding the required licence in each one, adjust your geographic targeting immediately to only include states where you are properly licenced.

In the United States and several other markets, Google prohibits advertising personal loans with an Annual Percentage Rate (APR) of 36% or higher. This threshold is based on consumer protection standards and applies regardless of whether the loan is technically legal in your state. If any loan product you advertise has an APR at or above 36%, you cannot advertise it on Google in markets where this restriction applies. Check the APR of every product in your range and stop advertising any product that exceeds this threshold.

Payday loans — short-term loans typically due on the borrower's next payday and often carrying very high interest rates — are permanently banned from Google Ads globally. If your business offers payday loans, those specific products cannot be advertised on Google under any circumstances. Delete all campaigns, ads, and landing pages promoting payday loans from your Google Ads account. If you also offer standard personal loans, those may be advertisable separately provided all other policy requirements are met.

Beyond Google's own policy, your lending business must comply with national and local consumer credit laws. In the UK this means the Consumer Credit Act and FCA Consumer Duty rules. In the US this means the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rules, and applicable state laws. In other countries, equivalent legislation applies. Confirm that your loan products, your marketing practices, and your application process fully comply with all applicable consumer credit regulations — not just Google's advertising policy.

The Annual Percentage Rate is the total cost of borrowing expressed as a yearly percentage, including all fees and interest. Google requires this to be clearly disclosed in all personal loan advertising. On landing pages, the APR must be prominently visible without the user needing to scroll far down the page. In ad copy, include the APR where the ad format allows. If your loan has a range of APRs depending on the borrower's credit score, disclose the representative APR (the rate offered to at least 51% of successful applicants in the UK, or the range in other markets).

Google requires that the shortest and longest repayment periods available for your loan products be clearly stated. For example: "Loan terms from 12 to 60 months." This information must appear on every landing page linked from your ads and ideally within the ad copy itself where character limits allow. If you offer different term ranges for different loan products, each product page must show the specific terms applicable to that product — a generic "see website for details" note does not satisfy this requirement.

Clearly state the smallest and largest amounts available to borrow. For example: "Borrow from £1,000 to £25,000." If your ads promote a specific loan amount, make sure the landing page clearly confirms whether that specific amount is actually available, what the eligibility requirements are, and what the cost would be at that amount. Advertising a headline loan amount that is only available to a small subset of applicants without disclosing this clearly is considered misleading and violates both Google's policy and consumer protection laws.

The true cost of a loan includes more than the interest rate. You must disclose all fees that a borrower may incur, including: origination or arrangement fees, early repayment or settlement fees, late payment fees, any mandatory insurance or protection products, and any other charges applied during the life of the loan. These must be disclosed in plain language on every product page. Hiding fees in terms and conditions documents, or listing them only in the small print, does not satisfy Google's disclosure requirements or consumer credit law in most markets.

Many markets — including the UK, EU, and Australia — legally require a representative example on all loan advertising. This example must show a typical loan amount, the loan term, the monthly repayment amount, the APR, and the total amount repayable. For example: "Representative example: Borrow £5,000 over 36 months at a representative 12.9% APR. Monthly repayment: £167.85. Total amount repayable: £6,042.60." Place this example prominently on every loan product page and in your ad copy where format allows. Even where not legally required, adding it strengthens your compliance and speeds up Google's review.

Your company registration number (the number assigned when your business was incorporated), your regulatory body authorisation number (such as your FCA registration number in the UK, your NMLS ID in the US, or equivalent in your market), and your registered business address must all be clearly displayed on your website — at minimum in the footer of every page and on your About or Contact page. Google's reviewers and regulatory bodies both check for this information. Its absence is an immediate red flag that can cause your appeal to fail.

"Prominent" means a reasonable person visiting your landing page will see the disclosure without needing to scroll far, click a pop-up, or open a separate document. Disclosures hidden in grey text at the very bottom of a page, inside collapsible sections, or only available in a PDF terms document do not meet Google's requirements. On mobile devices especially, key disclosures including the APR, representative example, and loan terms must be visible within the first two screens of content. Test your pages on a mobile phone to confirm this.

No legitimate lender can guarantee loan approval to every applicant, as lending decisions depend on individual creditworthiness and affordability assessments. Claims like "guaranteed approval," "100% accepted," "all applications welcome," or "we never decline" are considered misleading and are prohibited. Go through every page on your website and remove any such language. Replace it with honest, accurate statements that reflect your actual approval process, such as "Subject to eligibility and affordability checks" or "Apply online — decision in minutes."

Advertising "no credit check loans" when a credit check (or a soft search that still affects lending decisions) is in fact carried out is a direct misrepresentation and violates consumer protection law as well as Google's policy. If your business performs any form of credit assessment — hard search, soft search, open banking check, or affordability assessment — you cannot advertise your loans as "no credit check." Remove all such claims and replace them with accurate descriptions of your actual assessment process.

Advertising a headline interest rate that only a small number of applicants will actually receive — without disclosing the representative APR — is misleading. Similarly, advertising a monthly repayment figure without disclosing the APR and total repayable amount is a violation. Review every piece of rate or repayment information on your website. Ensure every figure shown is accurate, achievable for a significant portion of your actual applicants, and is accompanied by the full representative example as described in Step 3.

Every landing page linked from a loan ad must deliver exactly what the ad promises. If your ad promotes a £5,000 personal loan at a specific rate, the landing page must show that loan product with that rate and all required disclosures. If the ad offers "loans for bad credit," the landing page must specifically address that claim with accurate information. Any inconsistency between an ad's promise and its landing page — including differences in the loan amounts, rates, fees, or terms shown — will cause the ad to be disapproved regardless of what other fixes have been made.

Potential borrowers have a right to know whether they are likely to be eligible before they apply. Add a clear eligibility section to every loan product page that states: the minimum age requirement, residency requirements, minimum income thresholds, employment status requirements, credit score requirements or criteria, and any other conditions that must be met. This information helps borrowers self-select appropriately, reduces the number of declined applications, and demonstrates to Google and regulators that you are treating customers fairly and transparently.

Regulated lenders are required to have an accessible complaints procedure that customers can use if they are unhappy. Add a complaints page or section to your website that explains how to make a complaint, what timeframe you will respond in, and — if the complaint is not resolved to their satisfaction — how they can escalate it to the relevant ombudsman or regulatory body. In the UK this means the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). In the US it means the CFPB. Include the contact details of the relevant body. This is both a legal requirement and a factor Google's reviewers check.

Go through every active, paused, and recently ended campaign. Identify every ad that: promotes payday loans, lacks the required APR disclosure, contains a "guaranteed approval" or "no credit check" claim, has a misleading rate or fee representation, links to a non-compliant landing page, or targets a prohibited audience. Pause or delete all of them. Keeping policy-violating ads in your account — even in a paused state — negatively affects your account standing during the review process and can extend your suspension period.

For every ad you plan to keep running, include the representative APR and an indication of the loan terms available. In Google Search Ads, add the APR in the description lines. For example: "Personal loans from £1,000–£25,000. Representative 12.9% APR. 12–60 month terms." While character limits in ads may require abbreviation, the key disclosure must be present. Google's automated review system checks for APR disclosure in loan ads, and ads without it will continue to be disapproved even after other account issues are resolved.

Review every headline and every description line in every loan ad. Remove: "guaranteed approval," "guaranteed loan," "100% accepted," "no credit check," "always approved," "instant approval guaranteed," or any variation of these. Replace with accurate, honest language that correctly represents your application process. Phrases like "apply online," "quick decision," "subject to eligibility," and "competitive rates" are acceptable because they are accurate. Any form of approval guarantee is not.

Click through every final URL used across your loan campaigns from an incognito browser window, exactly as a visitor arriving from an ad would see the page. On each page confirm: the APR and representative example are prominently visible, all required disclosures are present, no misleading claims exist, the content matches the ad, your registration and regulatory numbers are displayed, and the eligibility criteria are clear. An ad with fully compliant copy linked to a non-compliant landing page will still be disapproved every time.

Ad extensions — sitelink extensions, callout extensions, structured snippet extensions, and promotion extensions — are subject to the same Personal Loans policy as your main ad copy. Go through every active extension at account, campaign, and ad group level. Remove any that contain: guaranteed approval language, no credit check claims, misleading rate information, or links to non-compliant pages. Extensions set at account level apply to every ad in your account and are frequently forgotten during compliance reviews. Check them all.

Personal loans are only available to adults, and advertising financial products to minors is both illegal and a policy violation. In your Google Ads account, go to each loan campaign's audience settings and add an age exclusion for the under-18 demographic. If you use audience lists based on website visitors or customer data, ensure those lists are also filtered to exclude anyone who is or may be under 18. In markets with specific financial marketing rules (such as the UK), consider also limiting targeting to audiences more likely to be in a stable financial position, as Google's policies increasingly align with financial vulnerability standards.

Open an incognito window (Chrome: Ctrl+Shift+N, Mac: Cmd+Shift+N) and visit every page that was flagged or that you have changed. Check that: the APR and representative example are clearly visible without excessive scrolling, the required disclaimers are present, no guaranteed approval or no-credit-check language exists, your company registration and regulatory numbers are displayed, the eligibility criteria are clear, and the complaints procedure is accessible. Repeat the full check on a mobile phone on a mobile network — not just Wi-Fi — to see how the page loads for most of your actual visitors.

Before contacting Google, document every fix in a specific, numbered format with dates. Example: "1. Removed all 'guaranteed approval' language from 8 landing pages on [date]. 2. Added representative APR example (12.9% APR) to all 6 loan product pages on [date]. 3. Added minimum/maximum loan term disclosures (12–60 months) to all pages. 4. Added FCA registration number XXXXXXXX to website footer. 5. Deleted all payday loan campaigns and removed the payday loan product from ad targeting on [date]. 6. Set under-18 age exclusions on all 4 remaining loan campaigns." Specific, dated evidence is far more convincing to Google's review team than general statements.

Log in to Google Ads → click the tools icon (wrench) → select "Policy Manager" → find the disapproved item or account action → click "Appeal" → paste your numbered evidence list into the text box provided. Submit once and wait. Submitting the same appeal multiple times does not speed up the process — it can trigger additional scrutiny and slow things down. If your appeal is rejected, read Google's response carefully, address any remaining issues, and then submit again. Google typically responds within 3 to 14 business days.

Set calendar reminders 90 days before the expiry date of every licence, registration, or authorisation your business holds — FCA authorisation, NMLS registration, state lending licences, and any others. If any authorisation lapses, your Google Ads will be suspended again automatically, even if you were previously in full compliance. Google periodically re-checks advertiser credentials for regulated industries like lending, and an expired registration will trigger a new disapproval without any additional warning.

Financial services advertising compliance is one of the most regulated areas in digital marketing, with requirements that change frequently and vary significantly between markets. If your business operates across multiple countries, if you repeatedly receive violations despite making changes, or if you are unsure whether your current setup fully meets both Google's requirements and applicable financial regulation, work with a specialist in financial services marketing compliance. The cost of professional guidance is consistently far less than the revenue lost during repeated campaign downtime and the reputational risk of being seen as non-compliant by regulators.