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Understanding strike violations

Important

This page was last updated on April 14, 2025.

To guarantee a safe and positive experience for everyone, Microsoft mandates that all advertisers adhere to its advertising policies. We take repeated violations of our policies very seriously and will take action against advertisers who fail to comply.

Advertisers who violate policy may, at Microsoft's discretion, be given a “strike.” An advertiser is allowed up to three strikes for policy violations within a given policy category before their use of Microsoft Advertising is suspended. Policy categories group related policies under a common theme. These policy categories are linked below:

What Happens with Each Strike?

  • Strike One

    Upon a Strike one penalty, we will suspend all ads and associated ad components within the impacted advertiser account. If the advertiser has multiple accounts that violate our policies, we may apply a Strike one to each account independently. We will notify the advertiser via email with the details of the violation and the impacted account(s) with instructions on how to redress the violation. The advertiser will not be able to log in to their account through Editor or the Mobile app, but may access to their advertiser account(s) through the Web UI.

  • Strike Two

    We may issue a Strike two penalty if an advertiser violates the same policy category in any of their accounts within a year of the first violation.

    Upon a Strike two penalty, we will suspend all ads and associated ad components within the impacted advertiser account, and we will prevent the Manager Account from creating new accounts under the same Manager Account for the duration of the penalty. The advertiser will receive an email with the details of the policy category, the account(s), and Manager Account impacted. The advertiser will not be able to login to their account through Editor or the Mobile app, but the advertiser may access their account(s) through the Web UI.

  • Strike Three

    We may issue a Strike three penalty if an advertiser violates the same policy category in any of their accounts within a year of the first violation.

    When we issue a Strike three penalty, all the advertiser's ad accounts will be suspended immediately and without further warning. All content contained within the Manager Account will become read-only. The advertiser will not be able to login to their account through Editor or the Mobile app. The advertiser will be able to access their account information through Microsoft Advertising, but the advertiser will not be able to edit, add, modify, or delete any content contained therein. We will notify the advertiser with the details of the policy category, the account(s), and Manager Account impacted, with instructions to redress.

  • Strike Summary

    Column 1 Column 2
    Strike one All ads and associated ad components within the account are suspended.
    Strike two All ads and associated ad components within the account are suspended, and we will prevent the Manager Account from creating new accounts under the same Manager Account for the duration of the penalty.
    Strike three All the advertiser's ad accounts will be suspended immediately and without further warning. The advertiser will not be able to login through Editor or the Mobile app.

  • Are Strike Penalties Appealable?

    Advertisers may appeal any strike by Contacting Support within six months of the disapproval or suspension decision. If the advertiser redresses the violation, we will lift all applicable penalties from their account.

What Happens When an Ad Policy is Violated

The penalty varies by the nature of the violation, and the number of violations. Learn More

Additional resources

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