Business verification across the major ad platforms

A few years ago, verification was something that happened to large advertisers and sensitive categories. Today every major ad platform runs some form of it, and most will ask at some point in an account's life: at signup, at a spend threshold, or when an account starts advertising in a new category. The forms look different. The questions underneath are the same: is this a real business, is this person connected to it, and does the website match?

The questions every platform is asking

• The business: legal name, registration and address.
• The person: who is applying, and can they act for the business?
• The operations: what the business sells, where, and through which website.
• The payment: who pays for the ads, and does that match the business?

Platform by platform

Names and steps change over time, and each platform's help center is the source of truth. As of this writing, this is how the major platforms approach it.

Meta

Business verification lives in your business portfolio's settings (formerly Business Manager), in the Security Center. Meta asks for the legal business name, address, phone number and website, then a document that shows the legal name, such as articles of incorporation, a business license or a tax document. It may also ask for a document that shows the address or phone number, like a utility bill or bank statement. You confirm the connection by email on your domain, by phone, or through domain verification. Domain verification is also worth doing on its own, early: it proves you control the website your ads link to.

Google Ads

Google runs an advertiser verification program. When an account is selected, Google sends a notice with a deadline to begin. You confirm whether you are the advertiser or an agency acting for one, then provide the legal name and address with documents that match, and in some cases answer questions about how the business operates. If verification is not completed in time, ads can stop serving. The verified name also appears in Google's advertiser disclosures, so the name you verify is the name people see.

Microsoft Advertising

Microsoft verifies advertisers' identity on its own network too, asking for the business's legal details and supporting documents when it requests them. If you import campaigns from Google Ads, the campaigns come across but the verification does not. Plan to complete Microsoft's process separately, with the same documents.

TikTok

TikTok asks for business details when you set up an advertiser account (legal name, registration details, website and industry) and may request a document such as a certificate of incorporation or a business license to confirm them. Verification in TikTok's Business Center covers the organization that manages the assets. Ads then go through TikTok's own review, which checks the landing page against the business you described.

Reddit, Quora, X and the rest

Smaller platforms often ask for less at signup, then add checks for specific categories (political and issue ads, financial services, health) and at higher spend. Assume you will be asked eventually, and keep the same documents ready.

One U.S. document set for all of them

The fastest path is to prepare once and reuse. For a U.S. business, the set usually looks like this:

Matching is the whole game

Verification systems compare text. 'Northwind Supply LLC' and 'Northwind Supply, L.L.C.' are the same company to you and two different values to a form. Pick the exact form on your formation document and use it everywhere: the platform form, the website footer, your invoices and your payment method.

• Addresses: '100 Main St, Ste 200' and '100 Main Street #200' should become one format, used everywhere.
• Names on IDs: the applicant's name should read the same way as on the state's officer or member records.
• Website: the legal or trade name, a physical address, a way to contact you, and privacy and terms pages that exist as real pages.
• Payment: where the platform asks, a card or bank account in the business's name rather than a personal one.

Where agency verification fits

If you advertise through an agency, you are verified twice: once by the agency before it opens your account, and once by the platform under its own program. They are different checks, and one does not replace the other. A good agency asks for the same document set, so you only prepare it once.

At Krög, accounts are usually ready within 48 hours of business verification. The part that takes time is almost always gathering documents, which is why we send the list before anything else.

If a platform rejects the verification

1. 1Read the reason. It usually names the field or document that failed.
2. 2Fix the mismatch at the source (the document, the website or the form), not only on the form.
3. 3Resubmit once, with the corrected document attached.
4. 4If the reason is unclear, contact the platform's support with the case reference. An agency can help you prepare the request, but the platform makes the decision.

Verification rewards boring consistency: one name, one address, one format, everywhere.