Destination not working: why Google cannot load your page.

Where it shows: in the Status column of the ads table.

• The page returns an error, such as a 404 after a site change or a server error.
• The site blocks Google's ad crawler, through robots.txt, a firewall or geo-blocking.
• A broken redirect or tracking template sends the click nowhere.
• The page is too slow to answer, or only works in some countries.

1. Open the final URL yourself, on a phone and a computer, and with the tracking template applied.
2. Fix the page or update the final URL to a working one.
3. Check robots.txt and any firewall or bot protection, and allow Google's AdsBot crawler.
4. Edit and save the ad, or appeal in the Policy manager, to send it for review again.

Once Google can load the page, the ad is usually approved within a day.

The same cause often hits many ads at once after a site rebuild. Check every ad using the broken address, and the sitelinks too.

Tell whoever runs the website that ads point at its pages, and agree that no page with ads behind it is moved or deleted without a redirect.

Test your landing pages after every site release and every change to the firewall or cookie banner. A weekly check of every final URL catches what a release missed.

Optizads opens the landing pages of your ads every day and raises an alert when one returns an error or does not answer.

Oppy runs these every week, so the status is found early.

• Ads pointing at pages that do not load: Ads sending paid clicks to pages that answer 404 or a server error.
• Landing pages that are slow on a phone: Landing pages that are slow on a phone, measured on mobile, with what the account paid to send people to each one.

• Final URL
• Landing page
• Tracking template