How does Google enforce policy violations?

Analysis of Correct Answer(s)

Google's enforcement for policy violations in Shopping ads operates at two main levels, starting from the most specific and escalating if necessary:

• Item disapproval: This is the most common and initial enforcement action. When a single product in your Merchant Center data feed violates a policy (e.g., prohibited content, inaccurate pricing), Google will disapprove that specific item. The disapproved item will not be eligible to show in ads, but the rest of your compliant products can continue to run.
• Account suspension: This is a more severe penalty. It occurs in cases of serious or repeated violations of Shopping ads policies. When an account is suspended, all items in that Merchant Center account are disapproved, and all associated Shopping ads are stopped. The entire account is prevented from participating in Shopping ads until the issues are resolved and the suspension is successfully appealed.

Analysis of Incorrect Options

• Ad disapproval and campaign suspension: In Shopping ads, the "ad" is dynamically generated from your product data. Therefore, enforcement targets the source of the data—the item—rather than a specific "ad" creative. While campaign performance is affected, "campaign suspension" is not the direct enforcement term; the penalty is applied at the Merchant Center account level.
• Feed disapproval and item suspension: While an entire data feed can be rejected for major technical or formatting errors, policy violations are typically enforced at the item level first. The term is "item disapproval," not "item suspension," which is a crucial distinction for the certification exam.
• Campaign disapproval and ad suspension: This is incorrect for the same reasons as the first option. The enforcement actions are centered on the product data within Merchant Center, making item and account the correct levels of action, not the campaign or ad structure within Google Ads.