Google Ads Location Asset Compliance: A Practical Guide

Your location asset is disapproved, a store is missing, or an ad is showing the wrong phone number. Rebuilding the asset in Google Ads may feel like the obvious fix, but it often targets the wrong system.

The fastest route is to identify which of three layers has failed: the business listing that supplies the data, the Google Ads settings that select locations, or the policies that determine whether a location can serve. Work through those layers in that order and you can fix the problem without repeatedly unlinking accounts or changing accurate business information.

Key takeaways

• Use Our locations when the advertiser owns the sites. Use Affiliate locations when products or services are available through sites the advertiser does not own.
• A Google Ads account can use only one location asset type, so settle the ownership model before connecting a location provider.
• The location owner must approve the use of the location. The address must be recognized, the site must be available, and the business and advertised offer must match the location.
• Correct addresses, phone numbers, hours, names, and photos in Google Business Profile or Google Maps. Google Ads consumes that information but generally is not where you edit it.
• A missing location can be a source-data problem, a filter or exclusion problem, a synchronization delay, or a policy disapproval. Waiting helps only with the delay.

Choose the asset type before you connect locations

Location assets can add an address, phone number, opening hours, ratings, directions, and other local details to an ad. They may appear across Search, Maps, Search partners, YouTube, and eligible Display inventory. On Display, availability is limited to Local campaigns or Performance Max campaigns using store goals.

There are two location asset types, and the distinction is based on ownership:

• Our locations is for premises the advertiser owns. This is the current name for what was previously called location extensions.
• Affiliate locations is for stores or other premises the advertiser does not own but through which its products or services are available. This replaces the older affiliate location extensions terminology.

This is an account-level decision, not a label you can casually switch for each campaign. Only one of the two types can be used in an account. If the same organization promotes its own branches and independent retailers, decide which location relationship the account represents before adding assets. Choosing the wrong type can produce disapprovals and can restrict which location providers are available.

The ownership decision also determines where the locations can come from:

• For owned locations, use Google Business Profile, a supported chain-store set, or as many as 10 selected Google Maps locations.
• For locations the advertiser does not own, use a supported chain-store set or Global Location Groups.

Google Business Profile is usually the most controllable choice for owned premises because the business can manage its name, address, phone number, hours, and media there. You need access to the Business Profile manager containing the intended locations. If you do not have that access, Google Ads can initiate a request using the profile email or a domain search.

Google Maps is the narrower alternative when Business Profile and chain-store options do not fit. Its 10-location limit makes it unsuitable as a substitute for managing a large owned-location estate. The selected Maps locations must belong to the advertiser, and their phone numbers must represent the business being promoted. Do not use a convenient nearby listing merely because it resolves to a valid address.

Pass the location compliance test before troubleshooting delivery

A technically successful connection does not make every linked location eligible. Test each location against the actual requirements before investigating bids, budgets, or campaign performance.

1. Confirm that the owner approved the use

You cannot use a business location in advertising without the location owner’s explicit approval. This deserves special attention in agency accounts. A Business Profile connection inherited from a previous agency, employee, or account structure is not proof that the current advertiser remains authorized to use every location.

Verify the authorization and the current Business Profile access before launch. Keep the owner, approved account, covered locations, and responsible contact in your account documentation. That gives the next account manager something more reliable than an unexplained legacy link.

2. Confirm that the location is real and available

Google must recognize the address, and a permanently closed business is not an eligible active location. Also inspect temporary-closure status when an established asset suddenly stops serving. A valid address is not enough if the underlying listing says customers cannot currently use the location.

3. Match the business and offer to the premises

For Our locations, the site must belong to the business running the ad. The product or service promoted in the ad must also be available at that location. A real branch does not become eligible for every offer in the company’s catalog merely because the business owns it.

Check availability at the offer level. If a campaign promotes an in-person service delivered only at selected branches, its location group should contain those branches rather than every listing linked to the account. For affiliate assets, select the supported retailers where the promoted product or service is genuinely available.

4. Apply ordinary Google Ads policies as well

Location assets still have to comply with the wider advertising rules. Editorial requirements, tobacco restrictions, recreational-drug policies, personalized-advertising targeting restrictions, and unsupported-language rules are among the policies that can cause a location asset disapproval. Passing the ownership and address checks does not override them.

Read the policy reason literally. If the business information is correct but the asset is disapproved under an advertising restriction, changing the address or relinking the Business Profile will not resolve the underlying issue.

Diagnose the symptom at the right layer

Location delivery becomes easier to reason about when you separate three functions:

• The source layer stores the business facts in Google Business Profile or Google Maps.
• The selection layer determines which linked locations a campaign or ad group may use through accounts, labels, groups, filters, and exclusions.
• The eligibility layer applies location-specific requirements and the broader Google Ads policies.

Start with the layer that controls the symptom. This prevents a common failure pattern: changing correct listing data to compensate for a campaign filter, or rebuilding a valid connection when the actual issue is a policy decision.

The ad shows the wrong name, address, phone number, hours, or photo

Correct the listing in Google Business Profile or Google Maps. Those systems generally supply the business identity, contact details, opening hours, and merchant media shown through the asset. Google Ads displays the data but does not control those fields.

For a capitalization or punctuation disapproval, edit the business name in Google Business Profile. Use normal title case and remove decorative or unnecessary symbols, then unlink and relink the Business Profile so the correction can synchronize. If the disputed styling is part of a legitimate brand name or trademark, request a review instead of changing the brand to an inaccurate version.

The same upstream rule applies to an incorrect address or phone number. Make the correction in Business Profile or Maps and allow the accepted change to flow into Ads. Editing ad copy does not repair the location record.

A location is missing after the profile was linked

Do not immediately delete and recreate the connection. Check the listing and selection chain in this order:

1. Confirm that the location is active and has an address Google recognizes.
2. Check whether it is marked temporarily or permanently closed.
3. Confirm that you connected the Business Profile manager account containing that location, not another manager with a similar business name.
4. Inspect business-name and label filters. Make sure the missing listing actually matches the filter applied to the campaign or ad group.
5. If the listing was recently corrected, allow up to one day for a Business Profile change to appear in Google Ads.
6. If the source, connection, filters, and synchronization window are all accounted for, inspect the location’s policy status.

The timing distinction matters. Business Profile changes can take up to a day to appear in Google Ads, so a short wait can resolve a genuine synchronization delay. It cannot resolve a disapproved asset. Once the expected synchronization period has passed, more waiting is not a troubleshooting strategy.

A previously active location stopped serving

Begin with the listing status. A location marked temporarily or permanently closed will not continue to show as an available open business. If the listing is active, move to the selection layer.

An asset can remain connected at the account level while being unavailable to a particular campaign or ad group. Review its location group, applied filters, and the No location asset setting. Account-level presence proves that a connection exists; it does not prove that every campaign is permitted to use the location.

A filter change altered location coverage

Compare the current location-group conditions with the labels attached to the locations in Google Business Profile. A filter is a rule, so changing a label can add or remove every listing that depends on that rule even when no campaign settings were edited directly.

Before a bulk label or filter change, export the existing associations and performance data. The export gives you a recovery map and lets you identify which results belong to the previous location set. Without it, a technically valid change can silently alter campaign coverage across a large account.

Use a repair workflow that prevents the problem from returning

Make the current repair in a controlled sequence

1. Record the symptom precisely. Note whether the problem is incorrect data, a missing location, a disapproval, or an asset that stopped serving.
2. Preserve the current configuration. Export location associations and performance information before changing labels, filters, or a large group of linked locations.
3. Confirm the account’s ownership model. Verify that Our locations or Affiliate locations is correct before touching individual listings.
4. Reconfirm permission. For agency-managed accounts, check that the present location owner still approves the use and that the linked manager account is the intended one.
5. Validate the listing at its origin. Check its name, address, phone number, hours, media, recognized-address status, and closure status in Business Profile or Maps.
6. Verify offer availability. Make sure the service or product in the ad can actually be obtained at each selected location.
7. Inspect selection controls. Compare Business Profile labels with location-group and campaign or ad-group filters, then look for an explicit No location asset setting.
8. Allow the synchronization window only when source data just changed. After as much as one day, move on to policy status rather than restarting the same wait.
9. Request a review when accurate brand information is being rejected. Do not deliberately corrupt a legitimate business name to force it through an editorial check.

Assign ownership to the data and the advertising controls

The durable fix is operational. Give one role responsibility for the accuracy of Google Business Profile or Maps data and another for Google Ads selection and policy status. The people may be the same in a small business, but the two responsibilities should remain explicit.

Route changes to business names, addresses, phone numbers, hours, closure status, photos, and labels through a simple approval process. The advertising owner should know when those changes are made because they can affect what customers see or which locations pass a filter. The listing owner should know which fields feed paid campaigns because an apparently harmless label edit can change campaign coverage.

For an agency handoff, verify three things instead of accepting the inherited setup at face value: current authorization from the location owner, access to the correct Business Profile manager, and a documented map of labels to campaigns or ad groups. That turns an opaque connection into a configuration the next person can audit.

Start your next location-asset check at the system that owns the failing fact. Correct business data upstream, correct coverage in the selection settings, and address disapprovals through the applicable policy. That sequence is faster, safer, and easier to verify than rebuilding the entire connection whenever a location disappears.

References

• Search Engine Land – Google location asset requirements: What you need to know