Google this month announced changes on the content policies for all publisher products: AdSense, AdMob, and Ad Manager. Scott Spencer, Director of Sustainable Ads at Google, wrote that Google Publisher Restrictions will apply to all publishers, regardless of the products they use—AdSense, AdMob or Ad Manager.
Google is launching a change log for the content policies in AdSense, in AdMob, and in Ad Manager. The changes will take place in September 2019.
There will be Google Publisher Policies, and Google Publisher Restrictions. Google Publisher Policies outline the types of content that are not allowed to show ads through any of Google’s publisher products. Google Publisher Restrictions detail the types of content, such as alcohol or tobacco, that don’t violate policy, but that may not be appealing for all advertisers.
Google Publisher Policies
Google will not monetize Illegal Content, Child Sexual Abuse Material & Pedophilia, Sexually Explicit Content, Adult Themes in Family Content, Intellectual Property Abuse, Endangered or Threatened Species, Dangerous or Derogatory Content, Enabling Dishonest Behavior, Misrepresentative Content, Malicious or Unwanted Software, and Mail Order Brides.
Google Publisher Restrictions
Content with restricted sources of advertising will include Sexual Content, Shocking Content, Explosives, Guns, Gun Parts & Related Products, Other Weapons, Tobacco, Recreational Drugs, Alcohol Sales and Misuse, Online Gambling, Prescription Drugs, and Unapproved Pharmaceuticals and Supplements. Google Ads (formerly AdWords) will continue not to serve on any of this restricted content; it will only receive ads from other advertising products or via the use of direct deals between publishers and advertisers.
Google Ad Manager also restricted by policies
In Google Ad Manager, all deals, including direct deals, are required to adhere to the policies in the Google Publisher Policies. Google says that content that does not adhere to these policies cannot be monetized through Ad Manager. The attempt to monetize policy-violating content may result in the account(s) being suspended or terminated.
According to Google, 734,000 publishers and app developers were removed from their ad network last year.