Weight & build
Creative animates longer than 30 seconds
- Published limit
- 30 seconds of animation
What Google's rule says
Google's stated rule is that the ad animates longer than the maximum duration of 30 seconds, and that animation cannot loop beyond that timeframe.
What actually causes it
- A short animation set to loop indefinitely, which accumulates past the limit within the first minute.
- A carousel or product rotator with no stop condition.
- A subtle ambient effect — a pulsing button, a drifting gradient — left running under an otherwise static frame.
- An animated end card that begins after the main sequence has already used the budget.
How to fix it
Set an explicit stop, not a long loop count. The creative should reach a final frame and hold it, which also gives the ad a legible end state rather than one that scrolls past mid-motion.
The part that is not obvious
The measured quantity is elapsed animation, not the length of the animation file, and Google states plainly that looping counts against the same thirty seconds. So "it is only a six-second loop" is not a defence — five passes and the creative is over. This is also why the fix is a hold frame rather than a shorter animation: the limit constrains how long anything moves, so removing the loop solves it and shortening the sequence does not.
Related reasons
Reason name, threshold verified against Troubleshoot creatives rejected by Display & Video 360 or Google Ad Manager on 30 July 2026. The causes and fix above are practitioner guidance, not Google policy text.