Google Ads character limits and punctuation rules

A Google search ad is now a responsive search ad: you write several headlines and descriptions, and Google chooses which to show for each search, in different combinations and orders. Every piece has to fit Google's limits and make sense on its own. Here are the limits, and the editorial rules that get ads disapproved.

The limits

Spaces and punctuation count toward the limit. In Chinese, Japanese and Korean, each character counts as two.

Rules that get ads disapproved

Google's editorial policy covers how ads are written. The rules small businesses run into most:

• Capital letters have to be used normally. Google's examples of what's not allowed are FLOWERS, FlOwErS and F.L.O.W.E.R.S. Common abbreviations like ASAP, coupon codes and brand names are fine.
• Punctuation and symbols have to be used for their real purpose. Repeated punctuation like “flowers!!”, symbols standing in for letters like “fl@wers”, and decorative bullets or asterisks aren't allowed.
• Emoji aren't supported in ad text.
• Phone numbers can't go in the ad text. Add a call asset instead, and Google shows your number with the ad.
• Spacing has to be normal: no missing spaces, and no spacing used for effect.
• Repetition that's gimmicky or unnecessary isn't allowed.
• Spelling and grammar have to be standard, and the ad has to make sense.
• The ad or the page it links to has to name the business, product or service it promotes.

What about exclamation marks?

Google's current policy doesn't ban a single exclamation mark. It bans repeated ones and punctuation that isn't used for its real purpose. The safe habit is to leave them out of headlines and use at most one in a description.

Writing headlines that fit

• Count every character, including spaces. “Emergency Plumber in Austin” is 27.
• Write each headline so it works next to any other. Google may show your fifth headline first.
• Cover different ground: what you do, where, an offer or price, and a reason to choose you.
• Put the detail in the descriptions: what's included, the conditions on an offer, and, for real estate agents, your brokerage name.

The free ad checker counts every headline and description for you and flags the rules above.

Housing ads

If you advertise housing, Google also limits targeting in the United States and Canada. See Facebook and Google housing ad rules.