ads paused with a destination not working policy? allow adsbot, clear security blocks, and appeal the review in minutes.
share this post
By Enzo Sison -- Founder of Prism
when a google ads (opens in a new tab) campaign (opens in a new tab) stops delivering with a "destination not working" notice, it means adsbot-google could not successfully load your landing page (opens in a new tab). the crawler treats that as a broken or unsafe experience and pauses the ads. once you understand what is blocking the bot, the fix is straightforward.
google reviews every landing page with adsbot-google. if the bot runs into a block, endless redirect, timeout, or unreadable response, the campaign is flagged. you will usually see a message like:
"the ads are appropriately marked for the destination not working policy as the landing pages can't be crawled successfully."
translation: the crawler could not reach your page, so google is protecting users until you resolve it.
google offers a crawler test to mimic adsbot. use it before you change anything:
errors like "robot error" or "http 403" confirm the bot is blocked. a timeout means the page never finished loading.
make sure the bot is explicitly allowed:
User-agent: AdsBot-Google
Allow: /
if you rely on cloudflare, godaddy, wp engine, or similar services:
adsbot-google and googlebot.rerun the adsbot test until both desktop and mobile versions respond with a clean load. if the crawl still fails, recheck redirects and server logs for 4xx or 5xx codes.
once the page passes the crawler test:
google will re-crawl the landing page. if everything works, the policy clears and ads resume.
destination errors look intimidating, but they simply mean google's crawler cannot reach your site. once you open the door for adsbot, appeal the policy, and confirm the page loads, your ads go back online. if you run campaigns for clients, add crawler tests to your pre-launch checklist so you never lose impressions over access issues again.
prism helps small businesses resolve google ads technical errors fast, from crawlability fixes and hosting tweaks to policy appeals. get in touch with prism →
stay in the loop
When we publish new experiments or playbooks, we’ll send you the highlights so you can apply them faster.
Your feedback helps us improve how we deliver practical playbooks.
Productized execution
Paid channels perform best when content, offer, and attribution are treated as one system. Prism aligns copy, landing pages, and campaign metrics into one execution loop.
Keep learning
More experiments and playbooks from the Prism team.
work with prism to apply these steps to your brand—fast, focused, and measured.