How does Google Ads advertiser verification work?

Google wants to know who is advertising. That is why it asks every advertiser, sooner or later, to verify: who you are, what you do and who pays. It rolls this out in waves, so not everyone gets the request at the same time. Some accounts get it sooner, for example with ads in sensitive sectors such as financial services, with ads on brand terms, or after behaviour Google finds suspicious.

Steps in your account

You see a notice in Google Ads listing the tasks to complete. These are questions about your organisation and your business operations, and sometimes documents. Which tasks you get depends on your account, your billing settings and what you advertise.

Documents that usually pass

For a UK limited company, a certificate of incorporation or another official document showing the registered name and number usually works. A sole trader verifies with identity documents and, where asked, proof of the trading address. What matters most is that the name matches exactly what you typed. That same legal name belongs on your site and in your privacy policy. A trading name in the form and a registered company name on the document is the most common reason for a refusal. An expired document, or a scan where the address is cut off, causes trouble too.

After a change of name or a merger you verify again. Keep that in mind if your company changes form while campaigns are running.

Consequences of a missed deadline

If verification has a deadline and you do not finish it, Google can limit part of your ads. In some cases Google pauses the whole account until verification is done, for example when it suspects ads break the rules. If you plan a campaign for a season or a launch, verify well ahead.

Details that become public

After verification Google shows your name, or that of your organisation, and the country next to your ads. Anyone can look up in the Ads Transparency Center which ads you run, since when and where. That is no cause for worry, but it is worth knowing: your ads are not hidden from competitors.

Financial services and other sectors with extra rules

In the UK, anyone advertising regulated financial services such as loans, insurance, investments or debt advice must be authorised by the FCA, or appear on its register, and complete a separate financial services verification with Google. That rule has applied in the UK since 2021, and Google has since extended similar checks to many EU markets. Health and medicines have rules of their own; the dental side is covered in Google Ads for dentists. Political ads follow yet another track; see are political ads allowed in the EU.

Verification through an agency

If an agency manages your campaigns, the account stays yours and the agency does not verify in your place as the advertiser. It can guide you through the steps. Never hand over your password; give the agency access through its own manager account. That way you keep the account if you change agency. A local business starting out finds the first settings in local advertising; a charity often uses Google Ad Grants, with its own eligibility check through Goodstack.

New to Google Ads? Read how to set up Google Ads and is Google Ads free first. Work out what a click costs with the Google Ads budget calculator, and draft an ad in the responsive search ad preview. What a small business usually runs is in Google Ads for small business.