Good question, and I’ll answer it in a way that doesn’t get you or anyone else here into trouble.
Short version, yes, Google Ads and YouTube Ads are under the same Google Ads policy umbrella, so the review systems, crawlers and manual checks are basically part of the same ecosystem. Display, Search and YouTube all feed into the same compliance logic, even if the ad formats are different.
Now the important part. Cloaking in the classic sense, showing one page to Google and another to users, is against Google policy on all of those platforms. Same rule, same risk, same outcome when it’s detected. It doesn’t matter if it’s Search, Display or YouTube, if they flag it as deceptive practices, the account is done, not just the ad.
Yes, people talk about “white pages”, “prelanders”, filters, trackers and all that, but there’s a big difference between legit funnel structures and actual cloaking. A compliant setup is something like ad → informational prelander → offer, where all pages are accessible to both users and reviewers and follow policy. A non-compliant setup is ad → safe page for Google, but real users get redirected to something else based on IP, user agent, etc. That’s the line you really don’t want to cross with Google if you care about account longevity.
With crypto offers specifically, Google is extra strict. You usually need certified advertisers, approved domains, compliant copy, proper disclaimers, and no misleading claims. Even then, a lot of offers simply won’t pass, no matter how clean your tech setup is.
So process wise, yes, the concept is the same across Google properties, they all expect transparency, same destination for bots and users, and policy compliant content. You don’t get a “free pass” just because it’s YouTube instead of Search.
If your goal is to make this work long term, the safer routes are
using compliant prelanders that educate before sending to the offer
working with networks that provide Google-approved crypto funnels
or using traffic sources that are more tolerant of aggressive offers instead of trying to force them through Google
Plenty of people make money with crypto offers, but the ones who survive are usually the ones who adapt the offer to the traffic source, not the other way around.
If you want to dig deeper, check the paid ads and affiliate sections here, there are some solid case studies about running sensitive offers in a compliant way and also plenty of horror stories about burned Google accounts. Both are useful lessons if you read between the lines.
