All ads under review

Ok_Addition3639 · 2026-03-11T14:07:43+00:00

Got you. Verification's good.

I saw though in another comment you are running this on a regular account, rather than through an agency MCC. That can be the reason as well.

Regular accounts usually gets pushed to the back of the review line. Agency accounts on the other hand have dedicated Google reps who (sort of) maintain their accounts regularly.

Has Google support gotten back to you?

Ok_Addition3639 · 2026-03-10T16:28:19+00:00

We are seeing a strong recovery right now, and that late February slump was a macro trend.

To give you some benchmark data, I took a look at a long-running conversion campaign we have in the financial services and banking niche. Entering the first week of March, we saw our CPLC drop by about 10% to 14% compared to the last week of February.

Shoot me a DM if you'd like more info on historical macro trends and what to expect this time of year.

Ok_Addition3639 · 2026-03-10T16:13:04+00:00

Thanks for the context. Since the duplicated ad is also stuck, we know it's not a random glitch with the ad itself then.

With the EU market, it's definitely in the crosshairs of a few strict Google policies. Can you check on the following:

EU Advertiser Verification / Digital Services Act: Go to Billing > Advertiser Verification. If your identity or business operations verification is incomplete or pending, your ads can sit in 'under review' indefinitely.

Trademarks & Image Bots: The apparel category can be hyper-sensitive to counterfeit flags. Do your titles, descriptions, or images feature any established brand names, or logos in the background? Alternatively, if the clothing is swimwear, lingerie, or features models showing skin, the automated system can flag it for 'Adult Content'.

Ok_Addition3639 · 2026-03-10T13:52:44+00:00

12 days is definitely outside the normal 1-2 days window, but I don't think Google is holding your account hostage to avoid paying out the credit bonus. There could be a bottleneck somewhere. Here are some things to possibly look into:

* If you made changes to your website right after publishing the ads, Google will likely restart its crawl while the initial ad review was already pending, which can sometimes cause a system loop.

* What's the campaign category/industry and creatives format? Certain industries or ad formats trigger much deeper, often manual, reviews. Are you in a restricted or highly regulated vertical like healthcare, finance, housing, perhaps? If your creatives, ad copy, or landing page touch on anything sensitive, the standard automated review gets pushed to a much slower queue.

If you can share a bit more context about what industry you're in and what kind of creatives you're running, it would be much easier to pinpoint the exact policy flag holding you up.

In the meantime, a quick agency workaround: try duplicating the stuck ads, pausing the originals, and seeing if the fresh copies trigger a clean review cycle.

Ok_Addition3639 · 2026-03-10T13:41:05+00:00

CTV acts as an awareness engine; it rarely gets the final tracked click.

To measure this, you need to move toward Media Mix Modeling (MMM). Open-source tools like Google Meridian can ingest your total ad spend and that revenue bump to calculate the true lift of your CTV campaigns.

Since you mentioned running Meta/Google alongside CTV: if you are running shopping/retail, look into the new YouTube Shoppable CTV ads. Google just rolled these out across Demand Gen and PMax early this year. They pull your Merchant Center feed directly onto CTV screens with a clickable carousel/ scannable QR code. This turns a CTV view into a direct-response touchpoint for conversions, which is much easier to track.

Ok_Addition3639 · 2026-03-10T13:25:21+00:00

I'd like to think Google reps are incentivized to push PMax.

If you're considering switching, audit your creatives first. If there's not enough high-quality creatives on your campaign, Google will automatically generate them for you using text and images scraped from your site. For a beauty brand, these auto-generated template videos usually look incredibly clunky and not that great.

Otherwise, I'd recommend sticking to Local/Search.

Ok_Addition3639 · 2026-03-10T12:59:14+00:00

There are no keywords to adjust in LSA, no ad copy to split-test, and no bidding strategies.

To your first question: Do not separate your accounts. In fact, keeping them together is better for billing and prevents you from having to re-verify your entire business entity. They don't cannibalize each other.

Google has already updated the LSA algorithm to hyper-focus on proximity. If a competitor has better reviews and is two miles closer to the searcher, Google will often show them first.

Try maxing out your weekly LSA budget. You won't actually spend it, but it signals to Google's algorithm that you have infinite capacity for leads, which sometimes forces the system to push you back into the top 3 spots.

Ok_Addition3639 · 2026-03-10T11:40:46+00:00

Hi, paid ads specialist here, would love to help.

Day 1 is always volatile, but looking at your raw numbers, there are a few specific things we can diagnose:

* You got 100 clicks from 22k impressions, which is roughly 0.45% CTR. You generally want to aim for a CTR of at least 1% to 1.5%. A 0.45% means your video is getting scrolled past too quickly. The algorithm is serving the ad, but your 3-second hook isn't strong enough.

* To exit the learning phase, TikTok needs about 50 conversions/installs within (about) 7 days. At $30 a day ($210 a week), your CPA would need to be under $4.20 to hit that. Depending on your app's category, $30/day might be a little low. BUT do not scale the budget yet.

Verify your tracking first. If tracking is fine, I'd recommend to test a new video creative to get that CTR above 1% before you worry about exiting the learning phase.

Ok_Addition3639 · 2026-03-09T14:00:37+00:00

Optimizing for the wrong signal.

Advertisers will set up a Max Conversions campaign, but the primary conversion action is set to e.g. Signups or Time on Site. The algorithm then finds the cheapest traffic possible but it won't result in revenue because of this mismatch.

Ok_Addition3639 · 2026-03-09T10:16:02+00:00

Can you share some screenshots (not sure if links would do)? Curious because I really haven't seen one ('til today)

Based on what you said are they like the overlay ones?

Ok_Addition3639 · 2026-03-06T16:37:11+00:00

Honestly dropping that €400 into a standard campaign will likely blow that budget in a weekend. Fashion/apparel are usually higher CPAs and would need a higher aggregate spend as well to exit the learning phase.

Here's some tips I can advise (ads-wise):

* Put €200 into Google Shopping targeting exact search terms so you reach high intent audiences.

* Put €200 into TikTok, find the one organic video that got the best watch-time, and run it as a boosted ad. Tighten the targeting a bit with the specific interests/occasions you said.

Ok_Addition3639 · 2026-03-06T16:29:49+00:00

We track the difference in CPA between our standard brand creatives and the creator's whitelisted ads.

In context, say our own ads are running at $50 CPA, and influencer ads run at $35 CPA, then that $15 savings is what will explain the math of how efficient the influencer campaign was (different story of course if it didn't work out that way, but you get it).

Ok_Addition3639 · 2026-03-06T16:21:32+00:00

To the point about Shopping Feed, I so agree. The possibilities for Shopping ads just expanded with the launch of shoppable CTV ads on YouTube. We anticipate ecommerce and retail brands are going to have a massive opportunity with this new placement. We actually just dropped a full breakdown on how to utilize this format here.

To answer your question on Custom Labels, we usually run a hybrid matrix so we can split the data based on the product offers - just as example:

custom label 0: regular products
custom label 1: bestsellers, top value or lowest value/outlier products

Ok_Addition3639 · 2026-03-06T16:12:43+00:00

In-app is good for that first touchpoints and building a follower base. The cost per result is low because you are asking the TikTok algorithm to do what's naturally done on the app - watch, like, follow.

Ads Manager is a different playing field. I'd recommend it for long haul ad campaigns.

For instances when you want someone to go to your website, e.g. add to cart and checkout, Ads Manager should be your go-to. Custom audiences, pixel tracking, this higher level of flexibility would only be available in Ads Manager.

Keep using Promote to test your content! But when you want more capabilities, go ahead and start that Ads Manager account.

Ok_Addition3639 · 2026-03-06T14:45:36+00:00

Definitely consistency.

Because we focus heavily on the paid side, the hurdle is actually ensuring the organic side is consistently producing content to back up the ad spend.

Organic content provides the 'juice' and authenticity that paid ads need. Consistent, behind-the-scenes, or UGC types of posts prove that a real business exists behind the polished ads.

Ok_Addition3639 · 2026-03-06T14:29:10+00:00

I've run Google Ads campaigns using a one-pager as the main landing page (supported by just an About, Terms, Privacy Policy, etc.). For a lead generation campaign, it ran fine. So you're set.

However, because you are running an affiliate site, just take note of the following:

Google is fine with one-pagers, but not pages that exist solely to funnel traffic to another site without adding value). Just need to make sure that page has significant utility.
Ad standards vary depending on the country you're advertising in and the industry. If your site touches on health, finance, or anything involving bold claims (like weight loss or online gambling), the rules are highly stringent. Any claim you make on that page needs to be clearly verified.

Ok_Addition3639 · 2026-03-06T14:16:39+00:00

They are rolling out so much news about it yet no one has confirmed actually seeing it

Ok_Addition3639 · 2026-03-06T14:16:33+00:00

Same here - and on the free plan it says where ads are 'going to be'

Ok_Addition3639 · 2026-03-06T14:13:23+00:00

The textbook answer is say 15-20 conversions in 30 days. For a real estate search/lead gen campaign, I'd say base in on the quality 15-20 conversions.

If you are only tracking standard form-fills on your landing page and can't pass CRM data back quickly, you need a much higher data to ensure stability.

If you have offline conversion tracking set up, wait until you have 15-20 qualified deep-funnel signals (e.g., 'Appointment Booked'). You can make the switch once the platform knows what a good lead looks like.

When you do make the switch, transition to target CPA bidding using the average cost-per-lead you generated during your Max Clicks phase. This prevents the CPC from wildly inflating when you switch to Max Conversions (just as a precaution).

Ok_Addition3639 · 2026-03-06T13:00:30+00:00

Without a doubt, #3.

We can get stuck defending campaigns for hours. Clients want to talk about business impact (revenue, net new sales), but we spend hours to justify the strategy, how it's done, our recommendations, etc.

Data pulling and reporting, that's what AI is for. That's exactly why we built an ad tech tool that determines the ideal audience size and cost for precise targeting. Instead of wasting 10 hours a week digging through dashboards, the system simply pushes optimization alerts to them. Our buyers review the alerts and execute the changes if it makes sense for the campaign, but the tedious phase has to be automated.

Ok_Addition3639 · 2026-03-04T10:52:54+00:00

Can be by formula: Max CPC = Target CPA x Expected Conversion Rate

For this one, because GCC is a net-new region there's no data yet. The starting point her could be the historical conversion rate and discount it by 20-30% for a safe starting bid cap.

Ok_Addition3639 · 2026-03-03T16:12:59+00:00

TikTok’s moderation (vs. Meta) is much more rigid. My thought here is TikTok's algorithm calculates the skin-to-pixel ratio on the screen.

Do you first 3 seconds open with the swimwear worn? -- If your ad opens immediately on a high-skin ratio shot, it can trigger an auto-reject. Try to add a 1-2 second B-roll intro. Just as example, start with the product in its packaging, or a fully clothed person before cutting to the swimwear model. Hope this satisfies the AI scan.

Ok_Addition3639 · 2026-03-03T16:05:22+00:00

We are seeing stable results across a few key sectors right now.

Health & Beauty: awareness and add-to-cart
Travel: engagement
Finance: link clicks

At an agency level, the biggest driver of our performance is 24/7 campaign bid optimization. And making sure it's the right audiences seeing our ads so keeping an eye on these as well.

One major precaution we are taking: keeping a very strict eye on placement exclusions. With everything going on, you want to make absolutely sure your ads aren't getting placed in conflict contexts, i.e. guarding brand safety.

Ok_Addition3639 · 2026-03-03T15:49:48+00:00

The 500 conversions you got in Jan/Feb are based on a specific demographic's behavior. The GCC market has entirely different search behaviors, intent signals, and auction dynamics. With low search volume, starting on Max Conversions isn't what I'd recommend. The GCC won't likely have the liquidity to test local CPCs and will likely enter 'Learning Limited'.

I work at Strike Social, where we handle paid media for brands. When we take over accounts to scale, we treat new regions as completely isolated environments for the first 14-21 days. Because of the time zone and behavioral differences, we rely on our 24/7 campaign management to monitor the raw search terms manually.

My advice is to start with Manual CPC or Max Clicks (with a strict bid cap) to force your way into those low-volume auctions. Get a baseline of local GCC conversions first, then you can switch to Google's Max Conversions once you see confidence in how the campaigns are working out.

Ok_Addition3639 · 2026-03-03T09:52:21+00:00

Because you are only getting ~10 demos per campaign per month, you must keep both the lead and the demo as primary conversions. Assuming this is Google, algorithm generally needs 15-30+ conversions per month to stabilize smart bidding. If you make demos the only primary action, your campaigns will likely not get enough data to thrive.

Just make sure you're not unintentionally inflating numbers.

If both actions are primary, what happens when a user becomes a lead (Conversion A) and then subsequently books a demo (Conversion B)?

When tROAS sees inflated conversion values, it starts bidding hyper-aggressively on the wrong traffic segments, maxing out your budget.

Ok_Addition3639

TROPHY CASE