Member Avatar for rproffitt

Start with https://www.google.com/search?q=google+banned+all+apple+repair+ads and there it is. It appears to be mostly about Apple products and when two juggernauts, dare I write collude even if openly, we all lose.

Apple's repair system is OK when your device is under AppleCare but beyond that we see the repair price climb to levels where they essentially tell you to buy a new unit.

I've had no qualms about many third party repair companies but Apple seems to have declared war.

Edited by rproffitt because: Spelling correction.
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kashioz commented: So I'm running a cell phone and laptop repair service in Vancouver and recently my ads stopped showing up for the keywords like: cell phone repair iP +0

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Quick clarity for everyone here: the recent disapprovals is seeing are coming from Google’s “Other restricted businesses: Third-party consumer technical support” policy — not from Google “selling out” to any manufacturer. That policy explicitly lists hardware repair services (phones, laptops, etc.) as not allowed to advertise, and as of Aug 31, 2025, it is still in force. ()

Practical options that have worked for repair shops:

  • Run ads only to product-sales pages (accessories, refurbished devices). Google permits ads for selling consumer tech even if that page also has basic navigation to support content. Keep repair CTAs off the final URL. ()
  • If you truly serve businesses only, you can advertise B2B tech support; make sure landing pages, forms, and messaging are clearly “for businesses” to avoid misrepresentation flags. ()
  • For everything else, lean on organic: optimize your Google Business Profile with the most specific categories and accurate details, and reinforce with LocalBusiness structured data on your site. (, developers.google.com)

Starter JSON-LD you can drop on your contact/location page:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": ["LocalBusiness","ElectronicsStore"],
  "name": "Your Shop Name",
  "url": "https://example.com/",
  "telephone": "+1-604-555-0100",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "123 Main St",
    "addressLocality": "Vancouver",
    "addressRegion": "BC",
    "postalCode": "V5K 0A1",
    "addressCountry": "CA"
  },
  "openingHoursSpecification": [{
    "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
    "dayOfWeek": ["Monday","Tuesday","Wednesday","Thursday","Friday"],
    "opens": "09:00","closes": "18:00"
  }]
}
</script>

For context on ’s Apple point: since 2019 Apple expanded official repair pathways (Independent Repair Provider, later Self Service Repair and further 2025 additions), improving parts/manuals access — helpful for operations, but it does not lift Google’s ad restrictions. (apple.com)

Google has reiterated the restriction multiple times since the initial rollout and has not launched a public verification path for consumer repair ads. (blog.google)

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Member Avatar for kashioz

So I'm running a cell phone and laptop repair service in Vancouver and recently my ads stopped showing up for the keywords like:

cell phone repair
iPhone repair
Samsung repair
laptop repair and others

Google got sold to Apple and other manufacturers? What is going on? I'm not selling drugs or something like that, industry is fully legal.

Anyone encountered this?

commented: If you want to try, avoid mention of any Apple product. Don't use the iphone word. +15
Member Avatar for rproffitt

. You can google up Louis Rossmann to find his encounters with Apple and more. Apple has declared war (my choice of words) on the repair industry by blocking access to spare parts and now this. As to legal, I'm not a lawyer but it appears to be legal until there's a court case or legislation.

commented: its sadly not just Apple sadly. Its all search terms including non-branded ones as well as Google's own Pixel terms. Check out my article below +0
Member Avatar for phoneninja

A rundown of everything that has happened with the Google Ads crackdown on third-party repairs over the past 9 months: http://phone-repairs-perth.com.au/google-declares-war-on-repairs/

https://medium.com/@bradleypenniment/google-declares-war-on-consumer-electronic-repair-service-centers-6d3d8238929a (for those who prefer not to share a repair business website)

· 31st August 2018 Google bans “third party technical support” from its advertising platform. This includes hardware repairs (computers, laptops, mobile phones) and the electronic service industry even with brick and mortar stores.
· 13th May 2019: After experiencing declining visibility for most major search terms, repair shops across the globe report the disapproval of adverts (including non-branded ad copy) due to “other restricted businesses”
21th May 2019: Still no verification program has been announced despite the claims made by Google’s David Graff that the program would be introduce “in the coming months” 9 months previously.

The article is a work in progress. I'm still looking for more screenshots and quotes from those within the industry as I believe it adds extra credibility. If anyone would like to submit any additional info you can message me or reply on this thread. Any critique or feedback is welcome. I'm sure there are grammatical and proof reading errors in the article as well, so if you would be kind enough to point them out.

For those in the industry, you can file a complaint with Google at The more complaints Google receives the more likely it is that the industry can pushback on google’s policy change.

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