Policy & compliance · also called AdSense for Search policies, AFS policies
AFS program policies
AFS program policies are Google's rules for anyone showing its search ads on their own site, covering where queries come from, how ads are placed and what traffic is acceptable.
When a publisher shows Google search ads through AdSense for Search, Google is lending out its advertisers. The AFS policies are the conditions of that loan. Break them and the search feed can be limited or switched off.
The core idea is that every search must reflect what a real person wanted. Google's policy page says queries may come from only three places: a user typing into a search box, a Product-Integrated Feature such as Related Search on Content, or an approved Alternative Search Query set-up. Publishers may not pay or reward users for searching or viewing ads, may not edit, filter or pre-fill queries, and may not alter the AFS code, frame the results or put the code inside toolbars or browser extensions. The page also caps search boxes at two per page.
For arbitrageurs these rules sit on top of the general AdSense Program policies and the Google Publisher Policies. Since November 2024 Google's own wording calls the product "Search ads" rather than Custom Search Ads, and since April 2025 AFS no longer supports mobile apps.
Think of it like this
It is like a franchise agreement: you may sell the brand's burgers in your own shop, but only using their recipe, their signage and customers who actually walked in hungry.
Related terms
AdSense for Search (AFS)
AdSense for Search is Google's programme that lets approved publishers show Google search and shopping ads on their own search results pages and share the revenue.
RSOC policies
RSOC policies are Google's rules for the related-search unit on content pages: real standalone content, honest search terms, honest upstream ads and a fully declared ad creative.
Policy violation
A policy violation is any breach of the rules set by a search feed or traffic source, from a misleading creative to non-compliant traffic or a wrongly declared parameter.
Feed suspension (account termination)
A feed suspension is when the search feed owner or feed provider stops serving ads to a publisher, pausing or permanently ending its ability to earn from that feed.
Implied functionality
Implied functionality means an ad or page element pretends to do something, such as play a video or download a file, when a click really opens ads.
Incentivised click
An incentivised click is a click or search someone makes because they were offered a reward, not because they wanted what the ad sells.
Sources: Google AdSense Help: AdSense for Search (AFS) policies, Google AdSense Help: AdSense for Search Product-Integrated Feature policies, Google AdSense Help: AdSense policy change log, Google AdSense Help: AdSense Program policies