Troubleshoot issues with Promote

Use this guide to fix issues with Promote on YouTube, including budget spend, promotion status, and access limitations.

Resolve issues with promotions spending little or no budget

Wait 1 to 2 days for policy review (“Pending” status)

If your promotion has a “Pending” status with no budget spent, it is still under review. Every promotion goes through an automatic ad review process to ensure compliance with Google Ads policies. This review may take up to 1-2 days. If your new promotion violated any of the video requirements, it will be disapproved and marked as inactive. Learn more about fixing promotions with “Disapproved” or “Active (Limited)” status.

If a promotion that's been marked active for 3 or more days shows no activity, contact the Google Ads support team for help.

Broaden targeting or increase budget

A promotion may sometimes serve slowly or not at all if the audience settings are highly specific or the budget is too low. While precise targeting is powerful, if an audience is too niche, our system can struggle to find enough of the right viewers to show your ad consistently.

To help your campaign find its audience and run smoothly, consider slightly broadening your targeting or increasing your budget in the “Promotions Details” page.

Fix promotions with “Disapproved” or “Active (Limited)” status

If your promotion has a “Disapproved” or “Active (Limited)” status, this means that a Google Ads policy violation was found during review. This process assesses the video content, headline, and description.

Hover over the status for details on the specific violation. To fix this:

Switch the video for promotion, or
Make the necessary changes to address the policy violations, then submit your video to be reviewed again for promotion approval.

Note: You cannot run promotions on only public or unlisted videos. Learn how to change your video privacy settings.

Fix common policy violations

Political content and election advertising

Google Ads policies state that any content featuring a public office holder (verbal mention or image) will qualify as an election ad. If this applies to your video and you would still like to promote it, we recommend you go through election advertiser verification. Learn more about political content policies and the election advertising verification.

Important: Starting on October 10, 2025, when new European Union regulations on political advertising come into effect, Google will no longer allow political advertising in the EU. If you are a creator whose promotions through YouTube Promote contain EU political ads, you will still be able to use YouTube Promote on your video. However, you will have to self-declare if your content contains an "EU political ad" and the promotion will not be available to viewers in the EU.

To self-declare your content as containing an "EU political ad," under the "Targeting" section, for European Union political ads, select Yes, this promotion has EU political ad. EU regulation requires Google Ads to ask you to declare if a promotion constitutes an EU political ad

Healthcare and medicines

Some content from Beauty/Health creators may be flagged by this policy. We recommend reviewing these policies in depth and choosing a different video that follows our guidelines. Learn more about healthcare and medicines policies.

Financial products and services

If this applies to your video and you would still like to promote it, we recommend you go through financial services verification. Learn more about our financial product and services policies and the financial services verification.

Editorial: Punctuation and Symbols, Capitalization

Please note that Google Ads policies prohibit emojis, some punctuation, as well as some capitalization in the spirit of professionalism. Learn more about punctuation and symbols policies and capitalization policies.

Fix Promote access issues

Access limitations are often caused by incomplete verification, missing channel permissions, or failed Google Ads account linking. Try these solutions to get started with YouTube Promote.

Complete advertiser verification

In some cases, Google Ads may ask you to go through advertiser verification to run promotions on your YouTube channel. This is a routine and part of a gradual rollout of Google’s transparency efforts. All advertisers will eventually be required to complete advertiser verification. If you receive this alert, follow the link to complete verification as soon as possible or your promotions may not run. Learn more about Google Ads advertiser verification.

Verify required user roles & account types

If you can’t use the Promote feature, review the below limitations to see if they apply to you:

YouTube account type: For channels using Brand account user permissions, only the primary owner can select a Google Ads account and set up the first promotion. Once done, other users can then view and create promotions.
YouTube account role: Make sure you have an Owner, Manager, or Editor role on the channel you’d like to use Promote on. Note that the channel Viewer role can only view promotions. Read more about channel permissions.
Google Ads account access: Promote is currently unavailable for Manager Accounts (MCC) and Google Grants accounts.
- Note: Make sure you are signed into the Google Ads account associated with Promote for your channel. Review how to gain Admin access and unlink or relink your Google Ads account.

Note: A channel owner can turn on 2-step verification for an extra layer of security.

Gain Admin access or unlink/relink Google Ads account

When you can’t find your Google Ads account in the selector list or receive an access error on a linked account, your user profile may lack the required access level and permissions. Here are a few ways to complete the linking process:

Add your primary channel owner email as Admin on the Google Ads account.
Request Admin permission from the account owner.
Unlink the current account and link a different one where you have Admin access.

Switch a linked Google Ads account

Note:

Updating your linked Google Ads account won’t unlink your Google Adsense account. Learn more on how to change your linked Adsense account.
Linking Google Ads account for Promote is distinct from product linking and brand partner access used to collaborate with advertisers.

To switch your linked Google Ads account in YouTube Studio:

Go to Settings Promotions.
Under “Google Account,” click UNLINK.
- Note: Unlinking will remove access to view or edit past or running promotions on that account.
Link a different account.

Fix billing issues through Google Ads

Resolve billing issues

Visit the Google Ads site to address any billing issues that may occur on your account.

Note: Promotions created from YouTube can only be managed on YouTube and are not accessible through Google Ads. Learn more about the difference between Promote and Google Ads.

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