Google Ads manager account suspended? How one client took down 53 accounts

Your account violated the Verification identity reuse policy.

In the case below, 53 client accounts under one agency’s manager account were suspended, and every one we opened showed this notice. Advertisers have posted the same wording in Google Ads Community threads since January 2026.

When one client’s Google Ads account is suspended, the damage doesn’t always stop there. In the case below, the agency’s manager account wasn’t suspended when we checked it, but 53 of the roughly 75 client accounts under it were. Google’s suspensions overview covers the closest case: if your account was suspended because other accounts verified using the same identity documents were suspended, your account will be automatically reinstated once those other accounts are successfully appealed. So everything turns on the account that started it.

Google can suspend manager accounts. Its third-party policy, which covers agencies that buy or manage Google advertising for clients, says that in cases of repeated or especially serious violations, your Google advertising accounts and manager accounts may be permanently suspended. In the Google Ads Community, though, “MCC suspended” doesn’t always mean the manager account itself. A post from January 2026 begins: “Our whole Google Ads MCC got suspended because we apparently violated the ‘Verification identity reuse policy’.” The poster then describes the accounts under it being suspended, and the thread doesn’t say how it ended.

Checked against Google’s help pages on 29 September 2026. Google changes them without notice, so check the linked page before relying on a detail. The case is anonymised: names, account numbers, places, websites and spend are left out, and some numbers are rounded.

At a glance

• One payer ties it together, in our experience

  When an agency pays for its clients’ ads, one client’s suspension can spread to the other accounts on that payment method.

• Manager accounts can go too

  Google’s third-party policy says an agency’s manager accounts may be permanently suspended for repeated or especially serious violations.

• It hit the client accounts

  In this case, 53 client accounts from at least eight developers were suspended after one client’s account was, while the manager account stayed open.

• Fix the source account

  Google says accounts suspended because others verified with the same identity documents were suspended come back once those are successfully appealed.

• Vet before you pay

  In our experience, five checks on a client’s website come before you take them on.

On this page10 sections

What agencies see

In our experience, agencies see a verification identity reuse suspension. It turns up on client accounts other than the one Google suspended first. In this case, the suspended accounts belonged to at least eight different developers, and none of their ads had been disapproved for Unacceptable Business Practices, the policy behind the first suspension.

We haven’t found a Google page that defines the policy; our guide to the identity reuse notice covers what is known. In our experience, the notice doesn’t show an appeal button, so the work starts with the account the problem came from.

The case: one website, 53 accounts

A Spanish property marketing agency came to us in September 2026. Here’s what happened, in order.

• Autumn 2025: one payer. The agency took over a book of existing property developers’ accounts. Over the following months it moved the billing on about 40 of them from the previous agency’s monthly invoicing onto its own payments profile, and from then on it paid for its clients’ ads. Each client was verified as itself, with the ads funded by the agency. One payments profile ended up paying for more than 50 client accounts.
• Spring 2026: a new development. One developer’s new account started advertising the website for a new housing development.
• Late July: the first suspension. That account was suspended for Unacceptable Business Practices. None of its ads or assets had been disapproved: in deciding whether this policy is broken, Google says it may review information from multiple sources including your ad, website, accounts and third-party sources.
• Two days later: a second account. Two days after the first account’s ads stopped, a second one was set up for the same client, with the same website and the same payer, and it was later verified as the same advertiser. It ran for five days and was suspended too.
• August: the spread. In early August another client’s account stopped serving. Then, on one day in late August, about 20 accounts from at least eight developers stopped together.
• By late September: 53 more accounts. Besides the development’s two accounts, 53 of the roughly 75 accounts under the agency’s manager account were suspended, and every one we opened showed “Your account violated the Verification identity reuse policy”. The manager account itself was still open.

About 10 Unacceptable Business Practices appeals were denied across the two accounts for the development. Alongside them came:

• repeated rounds of advertiser verification;
• both accounts for the development cancelled, the first to stop it causing further problems;
• billing set-ups added to dormant accounts, waiting to join the same payments profile;
• a new payments profile lined up on a suspended account.

None of it touched the cause. In our review, the development’s website didn’t meet Google’s rules, and none of these moves changed that. The agency also told us that front-line support first described one account as “suspended by association”, then named that same account as the “originating account”, and said the agency’s payments profile was “permanently closed” while it still showed as active. At the time of writing, the case is still open.

Why it spread: one payer and a shared identity

Google doesn’t publish how it links accounts in a case like this, and the notice doesn’t say. Its suspensions overview says accounts related to the suspended account may be suspended. Its billing help, answering whether a suspended advertiser can set up or use other accounts, gives accounts using the same email or payment method, or accounts linked to the same manager account as examples of related accounts, and says those will be suspended. Our guide to related account suspensions covers this in more detail.

Our reading, not Google’s words: the 53 accounts had many different verified advertisers but one payer. What they shared, and what the notice calls reused, was most likely the agency as payer. The same developer’s other accounts may have shared its verified identity too.

In our experience, it depends on the link between the accounts, not just on sharing a manager account. You’d think accounts under one manager account would all be suspended together. What we see is that it happens when the agency pays: then they can be hit with multiple bans. If each client pays for itself, it’s a different case entirely. A manager isn’t answerable for what the account owner does, but it is if it’s the one paying.

The second account made things worse, in our reading. Google’s Circumventing Systems policy lists creating new accounts to re-enter the system after a previous suspension, and both that policy and Unacceptable Business Practices are on Google’s list of egregious policies. Our Circumventing Systems guide explains that policy. Paying for its clients, a client website that didn’t meet Google’s rules, and a second account for the same client: in our reading, together they let one website take down most of the agency’s accounts.

What Google Ads support warned us about

When we set up Ad Restore’s own manager account, a support agent from Concentrix warned us to be careful with suspended accounts, because they could get the entire manager account suspended; they had seen it happen. Concentrix is one of the third-party partners that, in Google’s words, work on behalf of Google on Google Ads. As we understand it now, the risk they meant was paying. Most people whose suspensions we handle have one domain, one business and one payment method. An agency may have many accounts on one payment method. Our own manager account has held clients with suspended accounts without being suspended itself, and those clients pay for their own ads.

Google’s own policy goes further than payment. Google may suspend your advertising accounts if you enable significant or sustained policy violations, and one of its examples is a sustained pattern where a significant portion of an agency’s client accounts commit egregious policy violations and are subsequently suspended. Google says that indicates a failure to implement proper vetting processes. It works the other way round too: Google may pause a client’s account if it’s linked to a Manager account that is currently in violation of the third-party policy. So paying isn’t the only risk, but in our experience it’s the one that ties the accounts together.

What to do first

In our experience, an agency in this position shouldn’t file more appeals. It should speak to a specialist. Then, in this order:

1. Stop appealing.

   Google says if you file too many appeals for the same account suspension, it may not process them, and that submitting one appeal at a time ensures timely review. In this case, about 10 were denied.

2. Freeze the set-up.

   No new accounts, payments profiles, billing set-ups, manager changes or verification resets while the suspension stands.

3. Find the source account.

   Note the notice on every account: which were suspended under a policy of their own, and which carry identity reuse. In our experience, identity reuse doesn’t show an appeal button, so the source account is where the work goes.

4. Fix what the policy points at.

   For Unacceptable Business Practices, that’s the business and its website. One of Google’s best practices is a website with updated contact information and a clear explanation of what your company does.

5. Check every account it touches.

   Before appealing, Google asks you to make sure all linked (or previously linked) and all related accounts comply with its policies.

6. Appeal the source account, once the cause is fixed.

   Google’s route is the Contact us link in the notification at the top of your screen in that account. Send one appeal at a time, as in step 1.

What never to do

Beyond more appeals and a second account, these are the moves to avoid.

• Resetting verification and moving accounts. Google documents resetting advertiser verification for getting verified as the right organisation, and says only a Google Ads account admin can do this. Dodging a suspension isn’t a reason to reset. In our experience, the suspension doesn’t go away, because the reason isn’t the verification. It’s the site being advertised, the domain and the assets linked to the account.
• Closing a billing account and starting a new one. In our experience, that’s how people end up locked out (see the warning below). If Google has already closed a payments profile, see what a permanently closed payments profile means.
• Cancelling or unlinking accounts to cut the link. Our reading, not Google’s words: Google’s appeal guidance covers previously linked accounts as well as linked ones, so ending a link doesn’t take an account out of the picture. In this case, cancelling the two accounts didn’t touch the cause.

Can the accounts come back?

Going by Google’s suspensions overview, accounts suspended because others verified with the same identity documents were suspended come back once those are successfully appealed. Google doesn’t say how long that takes. The source account is the hard part. Google says accounts are only reinstated in compelling circumstances, and both policies in this case are on its egregious list. In our experience, if you don’t have access to the original suspended account, it’s kind of helpless, and that’s a case we’d turn down. If we review your case and can’t take it on, you get a full refund. Only Google decides whether an account is reinstated.

The five-point check before you take a client on

If you pay for a client’s ads, their website becomes your risk. In our experience, these are the five things to check first:

• The documentation is accurate: both the client’s company documents and the policies on its website.
• The site is cookie compliant.
• They’re not scamming people. They have a returns policy.
• They’re a legitimate, incorporated business, with incorporation documents to show for it.
• Their business details are on the site.

Then decide who pays. In our experience, if the client pays with their own payment method, a problem with their website doesn’t put the whole manager account at risk. If the agency pays, it gets more control but more risk. Either way, Google says if you manage ads for a client, make sure that you select Yes for “Is your organisation an agency?”, and warns: Otherwise, your account may be paused or suspended.

For agencies, we also check client websites against Google’s policies, before you take a client on and afterwards. If you’d like a second pair of eyes on a client, call us.

Frequently asked questions

Can a Google Ads manager account be suspended?

Yes. Google’s third-party policy says that in cases of repeated or especially serious violations, an agency’s advertising accounts and manager accounts may be permanently suspended. It also says Google may suspend an agency’s advertising accounts if it enables significant or sustained policy violations, for example when a significant portion of its client accounts are suspended for egregious violations. In the case above, though, the manager account stayed open while 53 client accounts were suspended.

If one client’s account is suspended, will the others under our manager account be suspended too?

Not always. Google’s suspensions overview says related accounts may be suspended, and its billing help gives accounts using the same email or payment method, or linked to the same manager account, as examples of related accounts that will be. In our experience, it depends on the link: our own manager account has held clients with suspended accounts without being suspended itself, and those clients pay for their own ads.

Should we unlink or cancel the suspended client’s account to protect the rest?

Not to get round the suspension. Google asks you to make sure all linked or previously linked accounts comply before you appeal, so in our reading, ending a link doesn’t make an account unrelated. The exception is when Google itself tells a client to unlink from a manager account that breaks its third-party policy: then follow Google’s instructions.

Will the identity reuse accounts come back on their own?

Google says that if your account was suspended because other accounts verified using the same identity documents were suspended, it will be automatically reinstated once those other accounts are successfully appealed. It doesn’t say how long that takes.

Is it safer for clients to pay for their own ads?

In our experience, yes, for the agency. If the client pays, a missed fee, a non-compliant website or a change that gets them suspended doesn’t put the whole manager account at risk. If the agency pays, everything is tied to the agency, so vet every client’s website first. Don’t change who pays while accounts are suspended, though: freeze the set-up until the suspension is dealt with.

Can we open a new account for the client and start again?

No. Google says new accounts a suspended advertiser tries to create may also be suspended, and its Circumventing Systems policy lists creating new accounts to re-enter the system as a violation.