Best Practices for Getting DV360 Creatives Approved: A Comprehensive Guide

Creating effective DV360 creatives that are approved without issues is a crucial part of a successful display advertising campaign. Whether you are working with Google’s Display & Video 360 (DV360) platform or using third-party ad servers, adhering to best practices ensures your creatives meet the requirements for approval, avoiding delays or rejections.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the essential steps and DV360 creative best practices to follow, so you can ensure a smooth and effective advertising experience.

 1. Upload and Activate Your DV360 Creatives Early

One of the first steps in the creative approval process is uploading your DV360 creatives into the system. Ensure that your creatives are marked as “active” once they’re uploaded. This step is crucial because creatives that are not marked as active won’t be reviewed, which can delay your campaign launch.

• Action Point: Always upload creatives in advance and make sure they are assigned to active line items. Doing so will allow you to target all relevant exchanges and ensure that everything is in place before the campaign goes live.

In the case of using a third-party ad server like Campaign Manager 360, DV360 creative best practices suggest adding backup ads for each placement. These backup creatives should also be marked as active for the full duration of your campaign.

 2. Utilise Backup Creatives and Monitor Rejected Creative Alerts

Creative rejection can sometimes be unavoidable, but there are ways to stay ahead of potential issues. Set up rejected creative alerts in your DV360 account to be notified whenever one of your creatives is rejected. This will allow you to address problems proactively before they affect your campaign performance.

Another DV360 creative best practice is to use backup creatives. These are additional creatives that are uploaded in case the primary creative is rejected or encounters any issues. Always ensure that backup creatives are available and marked active, just like your primary creatives.

 3. Ensure Accurate Creative Dimensions

When uploading creatives to DV360, make sure the dimensions of the asset you upload match the actual dimensions of the creative. This is important for creative review because discrepancies between the uploaded dimensions and the real dimensions can result in rejection.

• Action Point: Check that your uploaded creative file aligns with the exact dimensions of the creative, especially for non-high-impact formats. High-impact creatives, like skinned pages or interactive ads, have different requirements, so ensure they are correctly configured according to the platform’s specifications.

 4. Ensure Global Accessibility of Your DV360 Creatives

Before your creatives can be reviewed by Google’s Display & Video 360 creative review team or exchange review teams, they must be visible in all geographic locations and on google.com sites. If your creatives are not viewable or restricted, they could be banned or rejected.

• Action Point: Test your creatives to confirm that they can be viewed in all geographic locations and are accessible through Google’s review processes. Use a variety of devices and operating systems to ensure compatibility.

 5. Limit Each Creative to a Single Advertiser or Brand

In DV360, each creative should only promote a single advertiser or brand. This is especially important for creatives in e-commerce campaigns, which may feature multiple products. Even in these cases, the e-commerce site’s brand must be clearly visible in the creative, and the creative should not be used to promote unrelated third-party brands.

• Action Point: Double-check your creatives to ensure they are exclusively representing one brand or advertiser. Sites should always display their own branding clearly and prominently.

 6. Adhere to Google Ads Policies

Compliance with Google Ads policies is one of the most important DV360 creative best practices. If your creative violates any of Google’s advertising guidelines, it will be rejected. It’s critical to familiarise yourself with Google Ads policies before submitting any creative for review.

Ensure your creatives do not contain restricted content like:

- Pharmaceuticals (unless certified)

- Gambling (unless certified)

- Alcohol (must comply with local and international guidelines)

• Action Point: Review your creative against Google’s advertising policies to ensure it’s fully compliant. Pay particular attention to the content, imagery, and claims made within your creatives.

 7. Optimize for Cross-Browser and Cross-Platform Functionality

For HTML5 creatives and other interactive ad formats, it’s crucial that your creatives function properly on all major operating systems (e.g., OS X, Windows, Chrome OS) and browsers (e.g., Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer). Creatives that do not display or function correctly on popular browsers and platforms will be rejected.

• Action Point: Conduct thorough testing of your creatives across different operating systems and browsers before submitting them to DV360. Ensure all animations, interactions, and elements render smoothly on different devices.

 8. Review Your Landing Page for Compliance

While the creative itself is an important component of the approval process, many creatives are rejected due to issues with the landing page that the ad links to. The landing page must meet several important criteria to avoid rejections:

 Key Landing Page Requirements:

- Crawlable by Googlebot and Google Adsbot: Google must be able to crawl your landing page to assess its quality.

- Functional: Ensure there are no 404 errors, "session expired" messages or other technical issues.

- Relevant: The landing page must match the product or service shown in the creative.

- Accessible: The landing page must be viewable in all geographic locations where the ad is running.

- Compliance: The landing page must adhere to Google Ads’ policies. Pages that advertise restricted content must follow specific guidelines.

• Action Point: Double-check the URL set in the creative’s click tag to ensure it leads to a live, relevant, and policy-compliant landing page.

 9. Avoid Sign-in or Paywalls on Landing Pages

Landing pages that require users to sign in or are behind paywalls are often rejected. This is because Google cannot guarantee a smooth user experience or verify the content of such pages.

• Action Point: Ensure that your landing pages are freely accessible to all users without requiring sign-in or navigating through paywalls.

 Conclusion

Adhering to DV360 creative best practices is essential for ensuring your creatives are approved and your campaign runs smoothly. By following these guidelines from uploading creatives early and ensuring they meet dimension requirements, to ensuring compliance with Google’s advertising policies and optimizing your landing pages.  You can minimize creative rejections and optimize your campaign’s success.

Remember, successful DV360 creatives are those that are not only compliant but also technically sound and user-friendly. By investing the time to follow these best practices, you can enhance your chances of securing quick approvals and running more effective ad campaigns.