Google Ads Standard Rules

In this article, you'll find all Standard Rules included as part of the adnomaly monitoring framework for Google Ads campaigns.

These rules are available to all clients and are designed to help identify unusual activity, potential issues, and budget risks. If there are specific rules you would like to deactivate or reactivate, you can manage them through the Operations Center.

If you'd like to review the available advanced rules for your DSP, please refer to the Google Ads Advanced Rule Catalog.

Google Ads Standard Rule Catalog

The table below outlines each rule's scope, alert conditions, and real-life scenarios. For information on the Standard Rules, refer to the Rule Catalog table below.

RULE NAME	RULE DESCRIPTION	PRACTICAL EXAMPLE
Budget Rule	Ensures the campaign budget is within the usual range for the ad account to prevent unintended overspending caused by unusual budget settings.	A campaign is configured accidentally with a daily budget of €10,000 instead of €100. The campaign spends significantly more than intended before the mistake is noticed.
Geo-Targeting Rule	Ensures that campaigns target only the approved countries, postal codes, or regions configured for the ad account.	While duplicating a campaign, Italy is accidentally selected instead of Germany as a geo-targeting, causing ads to reach the wrong audience and reducing campaign performance.
Language Rule	Ensures that the campaign targets only the approved or usual languages for the ad account.	A campaign intended for German-speaking customers is accidentally configured to target Spanish, resulting in ads being shown to users who are unlikely to engage.
Placement Rule	Monitors the targeted placement distribution to ensure it aligns with historical account configurations.	A campaign is accidentally configured to target manual conversation placements instead of automatic delivery, shifting budget distribution into unintended ad positions (no alerts are triggered if they have selected fewer placements than usual).
Unusual URL Rule	Verifies that the primary landing pages (Final URLs) and sitelink extensions point to approved website domains rather than unapproved or staging links.	A campaign is accidentally configured with an incorrect or unrelated URL for the creative or sitelink extension, leading clicking users to the wrong landing page.
Broken URL Rule (404)	Regularly checks whether the landing page links are active and accessible to prevent traffic from being directed to broken URLs.	A landing page is misconfigured or removed entirely, causing users who click on the live ad to arrive at a '404 Page Not Found' error.
Start-/End Date Rule	Evaluates if a campaign is missing an end date based on historical advertiser patterns, serving as a safeguard against indefinite delivery.	A tactical seasonal campaign is configured but without selecting an end date, causing the campaign to keep running and consuming budget long after the promotion ends.
Content Exclusion Rule	Verifies that standard brand safety exclusions and content type restrictions are active to keep ads away from sensitive inventory.	A new campaign goes live without the account's standard digital content label exclusions applied, allowing ads to appear next to unrated or mature video inventory.

Google Ads Standard Rule Catalog

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