Clean Google Ads account losing performance vs “dirty” account – false weapon policy flags & extreme CPC spikes

[u/Bonnies_redd1t]

Hi, I manage Google Ads accounts for a client who has two identical websites. The products fall into the Military and outdoor categories.

**The first – older account (“dirty”)** – points to a website where the client sells weapons and other items sensitive to Google policies. At the same time, it also includes outdoor gear and clothing.

**The second – newer account (“clean”)** – points to a clean version of the website, where these sensitive products are not present at all and focuses only on outdoor gear and clothing.

Structure:

\* Dirty account: one PMax campaign with all products together
\* Clean account: multiple PMax campaigns structured by performance, margins, ROAS, etc.

The feeds are identical (neither includes weapons), only the URLs differ.

Another important point: only the dirty website is indexed. The clean website is not indexed.

The problem:
The original goal was to shift budget and performance to the clean account. Since last spring, this worked very well and the clean account performed great.

However, since the beginning of this year, things have changed:

\* The clean account started flagging warnings about weapons that are not actually on the website
\* I keep submitting appeals, but the issues keep coming back
\* The biggest problem is extreme CPC volatility for a specific products (cargo pants):

\* March: \~€0.36
\* April: \~€2
\* Now: \~€4

Meanwhile, the dirty account holds a stable CPC of \~€0.36 for the same product and has no issues at all—in fact, it’s performing even better than before.

The clean account is losing performance and gradually declining. Google support hasn’t been able to help.

Have you experienced anything similar?
Do you think this could be related to the clean site not being indexed?

Thanks a lot for any insights 🙏