When you create a new Campaign or Ad Group in Google AdWords and upload banner ads, they are immediately given the status of being “under review.” Presumably this is so that Google can ensure that your banner ads aren’t deceptive, malicious, broken, or just plain too obnoxious.

However, in our experience, this “under review” status is perpetual—that is to say, the ads are never reviewed. This strikes us as odd, but we don’t pretend to understand Google’s inner workings.

So…how do you get your banner ads out of “Under Review Purgatory?” What we’ve found works well is to log a support ticket—this usually clears the situation right up.

How to contact Google so they will review your ads:

1. While logged in, click the ‘help’ link in the upper right of the Google AdWords website.
2. A new window will pop up. At the very bottom of this window, click the link that says ‘Contacting us.’
3. Click ‘Ad Visibility, Approvals, and Performance’ along the left side.
4. In the sub-section that appears, click ‘Ad Approvals and Policies.’
5. In the sub-sub-section that appears, click ‘How long does it take for my ad to be approved?’
6. On the right, you will see a link that says ‘Email AdWords Support.’ Click it.
7. Fill out the fields (you will be asked for Campaign and Ad Group names) and hit ‘Submit.’
8. This usually fixes the problem and gets your ads reviewed (and hopefully approved) within about 24 hours.

Questions? Contact us.