Google Ads has redrawn where alcohol brands can and cannot run campaigns. The company expanded its Alcohol help center article to name six formats now off-limits: Discovery ads, dynamic search ads, Gmail ads, both image and video app-install ads, and consumer-ratings annotations. Those join reservation display ads and Google TV masthead ads, the only two formats the policy previously named.
Search Engine Roundtable’s Barry Schwartz surfaced the change. Google’s own note on the update states it “does not change enforcement of the policy,” positioning the expanded list as clarification of rules that already applied rather than a new restriction.
One format moved the opposite direction. Digital-out-of-home inventory, the ad screens in transit hubs and public spaces, now qualifies for alcohol campaigns, a reversal from its earlier exclusion.
Any advertiser running alcohol accounts should re-check active campaigns against the six newly named formats before the next billing cycle. A format that cleared review last month could now register a policy violation, even under Google’s own no-enforcement-change framing.
Search Engine Roundtable’s Barry Schwartz reported the change on July 9, 2026, covering Google’s updated Alcohol ad format policy.
