Unapproved Substances: How Google Applies the Policy to Peptide Keywords, Ad Text and Landing Pages

How does Google apply the Unapproved Substances policy to peptide advertisers?

Google applies the Unapproved Substances policy to three surfaces independently — the keywords you target, the text and assets in your ads, and the landing page and site behind them — and a violation on any one is enough to disapprove the ad. For peptide advertisers the landing page is usually decisive, because the policy bans non-approved products marketed as safe or effective for a disease, and that marketing typically lives on the product page rather than in a 90-character headline.

The policy sits inside Google’s Healthcare and medicines policy. Its core list, in Google’s wording, bans promotion of these “regardless of any claims of legality”:

• Items on Google’s non-exhaustive list of unapproved pharmaceuticals and supplements
• Products containing ephedra, and hCG in connection with weight loss or anabolic steroids
• Herbal and dietary supplements with active pharmaceutical or dangerous ingredients
• Products implying they are as effective as prescription drugs or controlled substances
• Non-government-approved products marketed as safe or effective for preventing, curing or treating a disease or ailment
• Products that have been subject to government or regulatory action or warning
• Products with names confusingly similar to an unapproved pharmaceutical, supplement or controlled substance
• DHEA products, except in campaigns targeting the United States

Notice what is not there: the word “peptide.” The policy regulates how products are presented and what regulators have said about them, not a chemical class.

Are specific peptides on Google’s prohibited list?

We checked Google’s published Google Ads example list on 23 September 2026. It is dominated by branded weight-loss capsules, “herbal” erectile products and prohormones; the common research peptides are not named. The Merchant Center version of the list is longer and includes items such as kratom and DNP products.

That does not make any compound safe to advertise, for three reasons:

1. The list is non-exhaustive by design. Google says it is “intended to provide examples of the types of content monitored.”
2. Google defers to LegitScript. The policy says that for additional information on the unapproved or misleading products it monitors, refer to LegitScript. LegitScript has published guidance for payment processors describing unapproved peptides as a growing risk category and noting that “not for human consumption” disclaimers are often a red flag rather than a protection.
3. The regulatory-action clause is live. Products that have been subject to government or regulatory action or warning can be disallowed. The FDA published a batch of warning letters to online peptide sellers on 24 August 2026, and several peptides spent years on the FDA’s Category 2 compounding list before 12 were removed in April 2026.

What does Google review on each surface?

Google’s ad review covers the headline, description, keywords, destination, images and video, and restarts whenever you edit an ad or asset. For peptide advertisers each surface fails in a characteristic way.

Surface	What is evaluated	How peptide advertisers typically fail	What the fix looks like
Keywords	The terms you target, including match-type expansion into search terms	Bidding on compound names, prescription drug names, dosing or “buy [compound]” queries	Target company, brand, service and B2B supply intent; negative lists for compound and drug names
Ad text and assets	Headlines, descriptions, sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, images, video	Benefit words in callouts, product names in sitelinks, lab imagery with syringes	Assets that describe the company, quality process and service, not effects
Landing page and site	The destination and the content it presents	Effect copy, dosing guides, reconstitution supplies, customer results in reviews	Domain-wide remediation — see the remediation checklist

The independence of the three surfaces is the part operators underestimate. A perfectly written ad pointed at a product page that describes appetite or tissue-repair effects is disapproved for the page. A clean page does not rescue a keyword list full of compound names. And sitelinks and callouts are reviewed as their own assets, so a single benefit word in a callout can disapprove an otherwise compliant ad.

Can you bid on peptide compound names?

We cannot tell you any compound-name keyword is safe, and we are sceptical of anyone who does. The policy’s regulatory-action and marketing clauses make compound names a moving target, and keyword review is separate from whether your ads happen to serve today.

What is clearer is the prescription drug case. Google’s Restricted drug terms policy states that for campaigns targeting Canada, New Zealand or the United States you may use prescription drug terms in ads and landing pages for promotional purposes in accordance with local law without certification, but you must be certified to keyword-target those terms. Certification exists for business types such as online pharmacies, telemedicine providers and pharmaceutical manufacturers — not for research suppliers. Outside those three countries, prescription drug terms may not be used in ads or landing pages at all, except non-promotionally.

So for a research supplier, keywords like semaglutide, tirzepatide, retatrutide or tesamorelin are off the table, and codes or abbreviations that point at them run into the “confusingly similar names” clause. Intent a research or B2B supplier can realistically work with tends to be:

• Your own brand and company name
• Service intent such as custom synthesis, analytical testing or bulk supply, where you genuinely offer it
• Institutional procurement language, where your business actually serves institutions

We make no claim about how these convert for any given business; that depends entirely on your model. See campaign structure for research peptides for how we separate intents and build negative lists as a compliance control.

What happens when you violate the policy?

Enforcement escalates. Google’s Unapproved Substances page states that violations “won’t lead to immediate account suspension without prior warning,” and that a warning will be issued at least 7 days before any suspension. The practical ladder looks like this:

1. Ad or asset disapproved. It cannot show. Most reviews complete within one business day.
2. You fix or appeal. Edit the ad, asset or landing page, which triggers automatic re-review, or appeal if you believe the decision is wrong.
3. Repeated violations. Google advises removing ads you cannot fix “to help prevent your account from becoming suspended in the future for repeated policy violations.”
4. Warning, then suspension. At least 7 days’ notice for this policy.

Contrast that with policies Google treats as egregious. Circumventing systems — for example creating new accounts after a suspension, or cloaking — is handled far more severely. Many peptide accounts turn a recoverable Unapproved Substances problem into an unrecoverable one by reacting to disapprovals with workarounds.

How is this different in Merchant Center?

The Shopping version of the policy is broader. It disallows products that make false or misleading health claims, sites whose primary purpose is selling products claimed to be as effective as anabolic steroids, prescription weight-loss drugs, controlled substances or prescription erectile dysfunction drugs, and any product that has been the subject of government or regulatory action or warning. Merchant Center also evaluates the account as a whole and can suspend it, not just disapprove items.

Search ads disapprove an ad; Merchant Center can suspend the store. That is why a peptide business can have some compliant search ads running while its Shopping presence is suspended. See why Merchant Center suspends peptide stores for the account-level picture.

If you are unsure which surface is blocking you, the Google Ads Readiness Score separates site, product-data and account issues, and you can book a strategy call to walk through your disapprovals. No one can promise an approval outcome; we can help you stop spending reviews on the wrong surface.

Sources

• Google Advertising Policies Help — Unapproved substances and Unapproved pharmaceuticals and supplements (list)
• Google Advertising Policies Help — Restricted drug terms
• Google Advertising Policies Help — About the ad review process
• Google Merchant Center Help — Healthcare and medicines
• LegitScript — The Growing Risk of Peptides (October 2025)
• U.S. FDA — Warning letter 735127, 24 August 2026; Orrick — Removal of 12 peptides from Category 2

Checked 23 September 2026. The July 2026 advisory committee outcome is as reported by news outlets; the FDA has not issued a final decision.

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