Why does Google Ads say “Destination not working”?

Google’s destination policy asks that the page a click lands on is functional, useful and easy to navigate. An ad or asset is disapproved as Destination not working when its page fails, and Google’s policy names the ways it can:

• An HTTP error, such as 403 Forbidden, 404 Not Found or 500 Internal Server Error.
• A domain that doesn’t resolve, a private IP address, a malformed response or a page that times out.
• A redirect loop, or a redirect URL that’s empty, malformed or too long.
• A page that needs a login, or one that says it’s under construction or reached in error.

Google checks with its own crawler, AdsBot, and asks that your page returns HTTP 200 to it from everywhere. That’s why a page can work in your browser and still be disapproved: a firewall, a country block or a bot filter can answer AdsBot differently.

A redirect is its own policy. A final URL that redirects to a different domain is disapproved as Destination mismatch, since the ad no longer says where the click goes. Google says it warns at least 7 days before it would suspend an account under the destination policy.

Start with what Google has already disapproved.

1. 01Go to Campaigns › Ads, and to Assets for sitelinks.
2. 02Hover over a Disapproved status in the Status column to see the policy.
3. 03For the whole list, select the columns icon, open Attributes, tick Policy details and select Apply.

Then check the pages before Google does. A page that breaks after its ad was approved can go on taking clicks until the next review.

1. 01Go to Campaigns › Insights & reports › Landing pages. Each row is a final URL that took clicks.
2. 02Open each one in Chrome with the developer tools open. In Network conditions, untick Use browser default under User agent and enter AdsBot’s, “AdsBot-Google (+http://www.google.com/adsbot.html)”.
3. 03Reload, and read the Status of the first request in the Network tab: 200 is what Google wants. A 301 or 302 means the page redirects; the address bar shows where to.

The report lists the pages that took clicks. A sitelink or a keyword with its own final URL can send clicks to a page no ad names, so check theirs too.

A page that’s gone. If it moved, redirect the old address to the new one on your site: that fixes every ad, keyword and sitelink that names it at once. If it’s gone for good, point the ads at a live page.

A page that works for you and not for AdsBot. Let AdsBot through whatever blocks it. AdsBot ignores the rules robots.txt gives every crawler (User-agent: *), so only a rule naming AdsBot-Google keeps it out.

A page that redirects. To another domain, change the final URL to the page it ends at, or Google disapproves it as Destination mismatch. Within your own site, the ad still works, but every click makes a round trip to the old address first; change the final URL to the new one.

Then have it reviewed again. Editing the ad and selecting Save sends it for review. If you fixed the page rather than the ad, appeal the disapproval from its status so Google looks again.

Every day Goldbeater opens every page your enabled ads, keywords, Performance Max asset groups, sitelinks, promotions and price assets name, whether or not it took a click, and the pages Google chose itself that took clicks that week. It asks as a visitor would, and asks a failing page again before counting it. A page that answers 404, 410, a server error, an unresolved domain or a refused certificate both times is raised; one that blocked the request or timed out isn’t, since that can be the site turning Goldbeater away rather than a broken page. It marks the finding high from $200 of clicks in 30 days, medium with any click.

It raises a final URL that redirects to another domain whatever the status, and one within your site where every step answered a permanent redirect (301 or 308). A change of only https, www, a trailing slash or the query isn’t raised.

The same reading of each page finds one more thing: a page that loads but carries no Google tag, where the rest of your site’s pages do, raised as a finding of its own so its conversions aren’t lost.

Why was my ad disapproved when the page works?

Google checks with AdsBot, not your browser, and wants HTTP 200 from everywhere. A firewall, a bot filter, a country block or a login can answer AdsBot with an error. Open the page with AdsBot’s user agent to see what it sees.

Does a redirect get an ad disapproved?

A final URL that redirects to a different domain is disapproved as Destination mismatch. A redirect within your own site isn’t a policy problem, but changing the final URL to where it ends saves every click a round trip.

Does robots.txt stop AdsBot?

Only a rule that names AdsBot-Google. AdsBot ignores the rules for every crawler (User-agent: *).

How do I get a disapproved ad reviewed again?

Edit the ad and select Save, which sends it for review. If you fixed the page instead, appeal the disapproval from the ad’s status.