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Through our close relations with Google, we receive ongoing training from high-level representatives on new features often before public release. Our scale across high-spending accounts gives us real-time data on what's actually working.

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Our specialists are among the top professionals globally. At Ad-Lab we enforce stringent conditions to ensure each team member handles a minimal number of accounts, allowing unparalleled focus on each client.

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Why aren't you on Meta or TikTok?

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All templatesAudits2-4 hours per cycleUpdated 3 May 2026

GMC Suspension Recovery Playbook

The order of fixes, the failure modes, and the reconsideration language Google reviewers actually accept.

Who this is for

Brands suspended this quarter
Operators wanting a prevention checklist
Multi-country merchants navigating regional policies

Why this exists

GMC suspensions follow a small number of well-known patterns, but the reinstatement path is gated by a written reconsideration request that most brands phrase wrong. This playbook covers both the surgery on the feed and the language that gets reviewers to actually approve.

Read this first

A GMC suspension stops Shopping from spending. Smart Bidding can't optimise against zero impressions, PMax loses a major conversion lane, blended ROAS drops the day the suspension lands. Speed matters more than perfection. The order below is the order we run on every recovery: triage the reason, run feed surgery, write the reconsideration request, submit, then lock in the prevention checklist so the same pattern doesn't reopen.

Recovery order of operations

Identify the suspension reason exactly
Open Merchant Center, Diagnostics, Account issues. Read the suspension reason verbatim. Do not summarise it. The reason determines the surgery: misrepresentation needs different evidence than restricted-products policy, which needs different evidence than account-quality issues. If multiple reasons are flagged, treat each separately because reviewers handle them as separate cases.
Run the feed surgery against that exact reason
Misrepresentation suspensions hinge on price, refund policy, contact information, and shipping clarity. Policy suspensions hinge on product compliance (supplements, alcohol, healthcare claims). Account-quality suspensions hinge on landing-page experience and review history. Match the surgery to the cause, document every change with screenshots showing the before and after, and keep the evidence in a single shared doc.
Wait the 24-48 hour propagation window
Don't submit the reconsideration request the same hour you fix the feed. Google's index needs to re-crawl. Submitting early triggers a fast rejection because the reviewer sees the cached version. Wait at least one full crawl cycle, ideally two, before submitting.
Write the reconsideration request in the structure that gets accepted
Reviewers read hundreds of these. The structure that wins is: acknowledgement of the violation, list of changes made (numbered, specific, screenshot-referenced), evidence that the changes are live (link to specific product pages, GMC Diagnostics screenshot showing zero current issues), and a one-line commitment to the prevention checklist. Avoid: generic apologies, blaming the platform, requesting clemency, or padding. Reviewers reject padded requests faster than terse ones.
Submit and monitor every 24 hours
First decision typically lands in 3-7 business days. If approved, immediately deploy the prevention checklist below. If rejected, read the rejection reason, run additional surgery against that specific point, wait the propagation window, resubmit. Most accounts that recover do so on attempt 2 or 3.
Lock the prevention checklist post-reinstatement
The hardest reinstatements are second suspensions on the same account, because Google reads them as pattern violations rather than mistakes. Run the prevention checklist below within 48 hours of reinstatement, document compliance, and review monthly. The checklist takes 30 minutes a month and prevents 80% of repeat suspensions.

Suspension reason to root cause to surgery

The five suspension reasons we see most often, mapped to the surgery that resolves them. Reviewers' decisions correlate strongly with how cleanly the surgery matches the reason.

Suspension reason	Likely root cause	Surgery
Misrepresentation	Price mismatch, hidden fees, missing refund policy, unclear shipping cost	Reconcile feed price with landing page price for every flagged SKU. Add explicit refund policy + contact info to footer. Make shipping cost visible pre-checkout.
Restricted product policy	Healthcare claims, supplement language, alcohol, age-gated content miscategorised	Strip claims from titles + descriptions. Tag age-gated products correctly. Apply category-specific compliance flags. Remove cross-promotion of restricted SKUs.
Image / promotional overlay	Promotional text on product images, watermarks, placeholder graphics	Re-shoot or re-export every flagged image without overlay. Use additional_image_link for lifestyle shots, primary image stays clean.
Account quality	Landing page errors, slow load times, broken navigation, returns policy missing	Lighthouse audit on the top 100 SKUs by spend. Fix Core Web Vitals failures. Add returns + refund policy to the footer of every product page.
Untrustworthy promotions	Coupons that don't apply, bait pricing, advertised discounts not honoured at checkout	Validate every active promo code applies as advertised. Remove advertised discounts that aren't currently active. Document the audit before submitting.

Reconsideration request template that gets accepted

The structure reviewers read fastest. Replace the bracketed segments with your specifics. Keep it under 350 words. Reviewers reject padded requests faster than terse ones.

text

Subject: Reconsideration request, [Account Name], [Suspension reason]

Hello,

Our account was suspended on [date] for [exact suspension reason as
shown in Diagnostics]. We have reviewed the policy, identified the
root cause, and made the following corrections:

1. [Specific change 1, with the SKU or section affected. Reference a
   screenshot link if the change is visual.]
2. [Specific change 2]
3. [Specific change 3]
4. [Continue numbering. Five to eight specific changes is the typical
   sweet spot for a clean reconsideration.]

Evidence the changes are live:
   - Product page example: [URL of one corrected product]
   - GMC Diagnostics now shows [zero / N] active issues for this reason
     (screenshot attached)
   - Last successful crawl: [date], confirming the corrections are
     reflected in the current index.

We have also implemented a monthly prevention review covering [the
specific items from the prevention checklist relevant to this
suspension reason]. The first review is scheduled for [date].

We respect the policy decision and the time the team takes on each
review. Please let us know if any additional information would help
the reconsideration.

Thank you,
[Your name]
[Your role]
[Account ID]

Prevention checklist to lock in post-reinstatement

Monthly Diagnostics review on the 1st of every month, item issues + account issues both
Price-mismatch sentinel: weekly job that compares feed price to landing page price for the top 200 SKUs
Refund and returns policy linked from every product page footer in every country you sell to
Contact information (email, phone, business address) visible on every page, not just /contact
Shipping cost calculator visible pre-checkout, not gated behind login
Image audit before any seasonal promo: check for overlays, watermarks, prohibited promotional text
Compliance flags maintained for every restricted-category SKU as the catalog evolves
Returns policy and refunds policy text reviewed annually for regional compliance changes
Documented escalation path inside the team for the moment a new suspension lands (target: triage within 4 hours)
Backup paid acquisition plan during a future suspension (Search non-brand campaigns kept warm so spend can shift the same day)
Quarterly review of GMC's policy update log so changes don't surprise the catalog

What good looks like after the recovery

Account is reinstated, Shopping spend resumed within 7-14 days of the original suspension. Diagnostics shows zero active item or account issues. The prevention checklist is in place, scheduled monthly, and owned by a named operator. The team has a documented runbook so if a future suspension lands, the first 4 hours of triage are on autopilot. Total time from suspension to reinstatement on the second time: under 5 days.

External resources

Authoritative references we link to alongside the template. Read them before running the audit.

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