A disapproved asset does not pause your ad. Microsoft reviews policy per asset, so budget keeps pacing while your strongest headline sits out, and the symptom is a slow decline that reads like a soft month.
One exception request has to cover every disapproved asset in the ad, so you cannot contest a single rejection and leave the rest.
The new fix-in-place path works at ad group and ad level only. Microsoft lists campaign and account support as a future release and excludes Performance Max.
An asset can clear most of your footprint and fail in one market. Rewriting it to the stricter market clears every association at once, and most editorial reviews finish within 48 hours.
Microsoft ads liaison Navah Hopkins announced the change, and PPC Land reported it on 6 August 2026 as live in all accounts for text and image assets. The button is not the story. What a disapproved asset has been doing to your delivery since 2025 is.
What changed in August 2026
The asset grid gained a Policy status column and an edit path. Microsoft’s asset reporting documentation sets out the flow. Add the column and you can see at a glance which assets are Disapproved or Approved (limited). Open the grid at ad group or ad level, select the asset, choose Edit on the ribbon, and rewrite the text in the side panel. Then apply it to all associations or just one. Confirm on the Bulk edit page under Tools.
Scope is narrower than account-wide. That page states the supported scope is ad group and ad level. Campaign and account support “will be available in a future release”, and Performance Max is not included. The page is dated 18 June 2026 and was updated on 27 July 2026.
Key Concept: Microsoft’s two help surfaces disagree on scope. The asset reporting doc says campaign level is still to come. The challenge a disapproval guide already documents a campaign level path. Check ad group or ad level first.
A disapproved asset does not pause your ad, and that is the expensive part
Microsoft moved to per-asset review in 2025. Search Engine Land reported it on 27 June 2025: headlines, descriptions and images are reviewed separately, and ads stay active as long as enough approved assets remain. The rollout was confirmed that December. One bad headline no longer takes a whole ad offline.
Nothing stops, though. Budget keeps pacing. The ad keeps serving on whatever survived review. You lose your strongest headline, and the only symptom is a slow decline in call volume that looks exactly like a soft month.
Geography sharpens it. Microsoft notes policies vary by country or region, so an asset can clear most of your footprint and fail in one market. Because assets are shared, that rejection spreads to every ad using it. Insurance and home services feel this hardest, because the headlines that pull hardest sit closest to the policy line. A senior-market advertiser on Bing can lose its best performer in one market and read the drop as a soft week, and so can anyone writing near Microsoft’s excluded content terms.
What a disapproved asset actually does to your account
Microsoft reviews policy per asset, so rejection degrades delivery instead of stopping it
Stage 1
The asset is rejected
Headlines, descriptions and images are each reviewed separately, not as one ad.
Stage 2
The ad keeps serving
Delivery continues as long as enough approved assets remain in the ad.
Stage 3
Spend continues
Budget paces normally against a rotation that just lost its strongest asset.
Stage 4
No campaign flag
The only symptom is a slow decline in volume that reads like a soft month.
Sources: Search Engine Land, 27 June 2025; Microsoft Advertising asset reporting documentation, updated 27 July 2026.
One exception request covers every disapproved asset in the ad
Appeals are scoped per ad, not per asset. Hopkins put it plainly in the announcement: “Because we conduct editorial review at the asset level, appeals must be done for all disapproved assets in an ad.” That is the price of the mechanic keeping your ad alive. Approved assets serve while the appeal runs, if the final URL is still approved.
So you cannot contest one rejection and leave the rest. Microsoft offers Selected asset(s) or All assets in this ad, each ending in a free-text reason box. Hopkins also said advertisers can request up to 5,000 ad exceptions, a figure that sits in the announcement rather than the asset reporting doc.
Images can only be replaced. There is no crop or resize path, so a format rejection needs a new file. A second disapproval is final.
Rejected in one market but selling in several? Edit rather than appeal. Rewriting to the stricter market clears every association at once. Appeal only when the call looks wrong everywhere, and remember it takes the whole ad with it. The scoping differs from Google’s appeal path and its limited serving rules, so do not carry habits across.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a disapproved asset stop my ad from running?
No, and that is the risk. Since the 2025 move to per-asset review, ads keep serving while enough approved assets remain. You lose the headline, not the ad, so spend continues while the rotation weakens.
Can I appeal a single disapproved asset?
Microsoft reviews at asset level, so one exception request has to cover every disapproved asset in the ad. You appeal all of it or none of it. That is the trade-off for letting the approved assets keep serving while the review runs.
Does the asset grid fix work for Performance Max?
No. Microsoft’s asset reporting documentation states Performance Max is not included in this version. Its assets are viewed through the campaign’s Asset groups page instead.
How do I find disapproved assets fast?
Go to Campaigns, then Ads & extensions, then Ads, and select View asset details. Choose Add Filter, then Policy Status, tick Disapproved, and Apply.
Disapproved assets are not a compliance chore. They are a silent delivery leak in an account you are paying to run. Put the sweep on the calendar. Nobody is going to send you the alert.
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Microsoft Ads Disapproved Assets Do Not Pause Your Ad. Now You Can Fix Them in Bulk.
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Quick answers:
Microsoft ads liaison Navah Hopkins announced the change, and PPC Land reported it on 6 August 2026 as live in all accounts for text and image assets. The button is not the story. What a disapproved asset has been doing to your delivery since 2025 is.
What changed in August 2026
The asset grid gained a Policy status column and an edit path. Microsoft’s asset reporting documentation sets out the flow. Add the column and you can see at a glance which assets are Disapproved or Approved (limited). Open the grid at ad group or ad level, select the asset, choose Edit on the ribbon, and rewrite the text in the side panel. Then apply it to all associations or just one. Confirm on the Bulk edit page under Tools.
Scope is narrower than account-wide. That page states the supported scope is ad group and ad level. Campaign and account support “will be available in a future release”, and Performance Max is not included. The page is dated 18 June 2026 and was updated on 27 July 2026.
A disapproved asset does not pause your ad, and that is the expensive part
Microsoft moved to per-asset review in 2025. Search Engine Land reported it on 27 June 2025: headlines, descriptions and images are reviewed separately, and ads stay active as long as enough approved assets remain. The rollout was confirmed that December. One bad headline no longer takes a whole ad offline.
Nothing stops, though. Budget keeps pacing. The ad keeps serving on whatever survived review. You lose your strongest headline, and the only symptom is a slow decline in call volume that looks exactly like a soft month.
Geography sharpens it. Microsoft notes policies vary by country or region, so an asset can clear most of your footprint and fail in one market. Because assets are shared, that rejection spreads to every ad using it. Insurance and home services feel this hardest, because the headlines that pull hardest sit closest to the policy line. A senior-market advertiser on Bing can lose its best performer in one market and read the drop as a soft week, and so can anyone writing near Microsoft’s excluded content terms.
What a disapproved asset actually does to your account
Microsoft reviews policy per asset, so rejection degrades delivery instead of stopping it
Stage 1
The asset is rejected
Headlines, descriptions and images are each reviewed separately, not as one ad.
Stage 2
The ad keeps serving
Delivery continues as long as enough approved assets remain in the ad.
Stage 3
Spend continues
Budget paces normally against a rotation that just lost its strongest asset.
Stage 4
No campaign flag
The only symptom is a slow decline in volume that reads like a soft month.
One exception request covers every disapproved asset in the ad
Appeals are scoped per ad, not per asset. Hopkins put it plainly in the announcement: “Because we conduct editorial review at the asset level, appeals must be done for all disapproved assets in an ad.” That is the price of the mechanic keeping your ad alive. Approved assets serve while the appeal runs, if the final URL is still approved.
So you cannot contest one rejection and leave the rest. Microsoft offers Selected asset(s) or All assets in this ad, each ending in a free-text reason box. Hopkins also said advertisers can request up to 5,000 ad exceptions, a figure that sits in the announcement rather than the asset reporting doc.
Images can only be replaced. There is no crop or resize path, so a format rejection needs a new file. A second disapproval is final.
The five minute weekly sweep, setting by setting
Run this weekly on any account buying leads through Bing.
Steps 1 and 2 come from Microsoft’s fix a disapproved status guide. Keep the cadence weekly, because Microsoft states most editorial reviews finish within 48 hours. A Monday sweep returns a verdict inside the week.
Rejected in one market but selling in several? Edit rather than appeal. Rewriting to the stricter market clears every association at once. Appeal only when the call looks wrong everywhere, and remember it takes the whole ad with it. The scoping differs from Google’s appeal path and its limited serving rules, so do not carry habits across.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a disapproved asset stop my ad from running?
No, and that is the risk. Since the 2025 move to per-asset review, ads keep serving while enough approved assets remain. You lose the headline, not the ad, so spend continues while the rotation weakens.
Can I appeal a single disapproved asset?
Microsoft reviews at asset level, so one exception request has to cover every disapproved asset in the ad. You appeal all of it or none of it. That is the trade-off for letting the approved assets keep serving while the review runs.
Does the asset grid fix work for Performance Max?
No. Microsoft’s asset reporting documentation states Performance Max is not included in this version. Its assets are viewed through the campaign’s Asset groups page instead.
How do I find disapproved assets fast?
Go to Campaigns, then Ads & extensions, then Ads, and select View asset details. Choose Add Filter, then Policy Status, tick Disapproved, and Apply.
Disapproved assets are not a compliance chore. They are a silent delivery leak in an account you are paying to run. Put the sweep on the calendar. Nobody is going to send you the alert.
Work with Elevarus
Are You Ready to Grow With a Proven Lead Generation & Performance Marketing Agency?
Get a free, no-pressure strategy call with our lead-generation team. We'll map the fastest path to more qualified leads for your business.
Book a free call →Ready to put this into action?
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SHANE MCINTYRE
Founder and CEO of Elevarus, specializing in paid media, lead generation, pay-per-call, and customer acquisition.
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