Google Ads advertisers report wave of unexplained ad disapprovals

/dans
Google Local Services Ads vs. Search Ads- Which drives better local leads?

A growing number of advertisers say their Google Ads campaigns were suddenly hit with mass disapprovals tied to DNS and 500 server errors — even when their sites appeared to be working normally. The issue is raising fresh concerns about platform reliability and the risk of sudden performance disruptions.

Driving the news. PPC advertisers began flagging widespread problems this week across Google Ads accounts, with multiple agency leaders saying clients were affected at the same time.

  • Managing Director at Cornerhouse Media, Ryan Berry, said more than 1,500 ads were disapproved in a single account around 1:30 p.m. UTC.
  • Others said they received overnight emails warning that ads had been disapproved.

Why we care. Sudden mass disapprovals can instantly pause traffic, leads, and revenue — even if nothing is actually wrong with their website. If Google’s systems are incorrectly flagging DNS or server errors, brands could lose performance and spend valuable time troubleshooting an issue they didn’t cause. It also highlights the need for closer monitoring and faster escalation when platform glitches happen.

What advertisers are seeing:

  • DNS errors, even when internal IT teams found no website issue.
  • HTTP 500 errors, despite landing pages loading normally.
  • Repeated disapprovals across multiple accounts.

Google Ads trainer, Charlotte Osborne said she saw two separate cases this week — one tied to a DNS error and another to a 500 error — with no issues found on the client side.

Google Advertising specialist Joshua Barr said he received “lots of emails overnight” about disapproved ads and has been dealing with similar problems for weeks.

Several Paid Search experts also said they were seeing the same issue across accounts.

What’s likely happening. Google’s ad review systems use automated crawlers to test landing pages. If Googlebot encounters temporary server issues, DNS lookup failures, redirects, or timeout errors, ads can be automatically disapproved under the platform’s “destination not working” policy.

That means advertisers can be penalized even if:

  • their site is live for users,
  • the issue is temporary,
  • or the problem is on Google’s crawler side.

What to do now:

  • Check Google Ads policy manager for exact disapproval reasons.
  • Test landing pages using multiple locations and devices.
  • Review DNS uptime, redirects, and CDN/firewall settings.
  • Submit appeals for clearly incorrect disapprovals.
  • Document account-level impacts in case the issue proves platform-wide.

The bottom line. For advertisers, this is a reminder that campaign performance can be derailed by platform glitches as much as by strategy — and when Google’s systems misfire, spend and leads can disappear fast.

First spotted. The errors were first spotted by Ryan Berry in the UK and Founder Anthony Higman also spotted issues in the US.