Promotion status FAQ

Follow the steps below:

1. Go to the Promotions dashboard in your Merchant Center account.
2. Review the 'Status' column to view the status of each of your promotions.
3. Click the speech bubble icon for information about disapproved promotions and helpful links.

Learn more about how to confirm your promotion status.

The most common reason why promotions have not yet been reviewed are:

• Promotion reviews are typically completed within 12 hours of the promotion effective start time (the time that the promotion becomes active on your site) but may take up to 24 hours.
• The promotion's effective start time hasn't yet been reached. Promotions don't go through SKU review until the promotion's start date and time are reached. 
• Learn more about the promotion approval process.

Your promotion could've failed the policy review or the validation review (promotion check). Listed below are the most common reasons for disapproval:

• My promotion was rejected during the policy review.
  • The promotion doesn't comply with Google's promotions policies or editorial requirements.
• My promotion was rejected during the validation review.
  • The promotion_id isn't mapped to the applicable items in your product data source.
  • The promotion_id [promotion_id] is mapped to ineligible items.
  • The promotion didn't provide the promised discount.
  • The discounted price is stated on the product's landing page.
  • The product's base price isn't on the landing page.
  • Gift isn't reflected in the basket or at checkout.

The promotion approval process involves two steps: policy review and SKU review. The status of the promotion will appear as 'under review' until both steps of the review have been completed.

Tip: We recommend that you submit promotions at least 24 hours before the effective start time to allow a smooth and timely review process. Otherwise, the promotion may be delayed by 24 hours.

There are a few factors that could affect your displayed promotions:

1. Items in your data source aren't fully processed.
2. The start time within the date attributes was incorrect.
3. The promotion_id values weren't in your product data source.
4. The promotion_id in the product data source doesn't exactly match the promotion_id in the promotions source.
5. Information wasn't submitted in time.

Note: In some cases, unique promotions may not be visible on mobile.

Submit promotions during opening hours from Monday to Friday. Once you've submitted a promotion, processing, review and validation can take up to 24 hours but typically is completed within 12 hours. It may also take a few hours for your promotion to go live after it's been fully approved, or to stop being shown in ads and free listings after you've stopped it.

Promotions that haven't yet been approved can be edited in promotion builder or by uploading an updated promotions source. After a promotion has been approved, it's still possible to edit certain information using promotion builder. This article explains how to edit a promotion or change promotion status.

If you upload a new promotions source to replace the current promotions, the new data source doesn't stop or delete existing promotions. Existing promotions will continue to run for their specified durations and expire as the promotions from the new data source are added.

Note: Expired promotions will remain in the Promotions dashboard for one year following the expiry date.

1. In your Merchant Center account, select Promotions in the left navigation menu.
2. On the 'All promotions' tab, select the promotion that you want to retest.
3. Select the pencil icon, make any edits and then resubmit.

Saving your edits will trigger another validation review.

If your promotion was submitted using promotion builder in your Merchant Center account, follow the steps below:

1. Navigate to your Promotions dashboard.
2. Find the promotion ID [promotion_id] that you want to check.
3. You can find your promo code in the 'Promo code' column.

If you submitted your promotion with a data source, check your last data source submission for redemption codes.

Promotion status refers to whether a promotion has been manually 'Ended' in the Promotions dashboard. Note that any promotion ID [promotion_id] that is 'ended' is permanently disabled and can't be reused or restarted.

If an approved promotion expires and it hasn't been manually ended, the promotion will remain in your dashboard as 'Visible', though it will no longer appear. Approved promotions that have expired also can't be reused or restarted.