ryanman

Loads of adword accounts using CPA'S have been banned recently- My Google Adwords Account Was Banned! | Inside the Secret Life of a Super Affiliate - Zac Johnson dot Com .

And from personal experience...Google stopped all my campaigns promoting biz offers and ringtone offers even on the content network. Without any reason...All of a sudden no impressions when the offers were running well for months.

I went through adwords policies recently- AdWords Help
------------------------------

Data Entry Affiliates


Don't advertise for data entry affiliate programs.

Advertising is not permitted for the promotion of data entry affiliate programs. This includes ads directing users to sites that promote the creation/data entry of more ads that direct users to the same site.
There are no exceptions to this policy, which is intended to protect both advertisers and AdWords users.



Mobile Content Services
Mobile content services ads are restricted.
We allow ads for mobile content services only upon the conditions noted here. Mobile content services include, but are not limited to, sites that promote downloading ringtones, wallpaper, or text messages for predictions, love life advice, news, personality quizzes, or other entertainment services.
For all types of mobile content services, the promoted website must clearly and accurately display the pricing of the mobile content service. In addition, all the relevant site requirements below should be located in a prominent place on your webpage and should be easy to find, read, and understand.

So promoting ringtone offers is messing with delicate grounds.

And from a recent conversion with an adword rep I have also realized they hate any offers which tell people how to make money online. So sooner or later they are going to hammer a lot of affiliates. And also acai berry and a lot of trial offers.


It's basically because most trial offers have lead to massive media complaints across the board...Because a lot of these companies keep on rebilling the customer and make it ultra hard for the end user to unsubscribe from the monthly payment plan.

Saj Gupta

Thanks for sharing. Most likely it also applies to email/zip submit offers. Once someone provides their email to these type of freebie offers, its a road to hell for that email addresss.

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ryanman

Yes this is true...The issue here is that when you are on the content network a google adword rep goes through your landing page manually and checks the offer. When he sees you have to keep on signing up for offer after offer...He is obviously going to disapprove your ad.

Soflyy

Google is concerned about quality. In the long run people will learn to not click their ads when the sites they lead to are useless.

Don't advertise phony products and you have nothing to worry about.

Emily Meeks

Goes to show that those types of companies that keep charging your card really don't pay off in the end. Is that extra $39 a month worth it?

In all that you do, know your True INTENT...

BrightLife

Google wants to make money too, but they can only do it with lucky customers. If their customers get fooled this is not good for Google too. Completely understandable.

ChrisBa

Rule #1 - Don't reach Zac Johnson

But yeah - Google is setting up there anti-affiliate game

ryanman

Here is another interesting post I came across on this topic- “Big Brother” Google…. Are we Back in the USSR??

deu12000

Google has been very rough lately, I'm not one of the big boys that spends thousands a day, but I do spend a few hundred per day with them and they have banned some of my best converting campaigns due to their TOS. The products I mainly advertise are physical products though.

ryanman

Did it involve health supplements?

Vawriters

Google has banned some of your CAMPAIGNS Or Your Account? Were you promoting CPA "Free trial offers"..Please let us know..

deu12000

It wasn't a CPA offer. It was a product that is not technically against the TOS, but might be borderline. Not health supplements or free trials.

They didn't suspend my account, they banned all of my ads on a few occasions. Then they sent me a warning saying if I put the ads back up they'd ban my account and all future accounts.

dropship

Pretty soon, there won't be any Adwords advertisers because people that get their accounts banned have no way of getting it reinstated.

Those that are playing by the rules will have a huge competitive advantage in some highly competitive niches.

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ryanman

Google made approx $12-20 Billion in Just Dec last year. They have a huge database of buyers from all over the planet. Even if they were to ban all small players they would still have giant corps funding their pockets. And this is the main reason why google doesn't really care.

ChrisBa

Google doesn't care about affiliates - IMO move on to another way of advertising that doesn't screw you

Zach Booker

You'd be surprised how much 'super affiliates' use Adwords.

Of course most of them do, but usually it is only 10-20% of their actual business.

On a side note I made sure the biz op I was promoting, although a CPA offer, was good. And not a 'scam'.

It was one of my best campaigns by far, was spending upwards to 250 a day on it.

Than I see my CPC went to 10 dollars, than a few hours later the campaigns were cancelled.

Honestly Google is doing the right thing, even if it's costing me a boatload. They are generalizing a lot and due to that it wouldn't surprise me if Acai free trials and all the others are soon going to be taken out within the next year. Yes, i'm serious.

Zach

naonline

They have actually added affiliate guidelines to their TOS (I think this is new). I maintain that if you build real sites that add value you want have a problem.

It is true that they don't like affilaites and only want to deal with 'real' companies but because so many large companies rely on affiliates to generate their leads, Google can't just wipe us off the map.

Nick

ChrisBa

Very true..

Until they decide to take it to the next level

ryanman

I had the same issue...I was promoting a biz opp too but after a couple of days no impressions and all the ads were stopped without no reason. They are strongly cutting down on anything which deals with how to make money online.

Zach Booker

Yup...

I have a feeling the FTC and them probably are working out an 'action plan' for taking out some of the "scams".

dropship

That just makes you want to spend your time working on SEO instead of spending money with Adwords.

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jcaviani

I can talk about promoting bull**** offers and engaging in fraud until I'm blue in the face (as I have before), but nothing works for people quite like getting banned.

If you promote real value you will NEVER be banned. If you persist in promoting to the desperation markets by any means possible including fraud, you'll get what you deserve.

Seeking shortcuts will only cost you in one way or another. The real opportunity on the internet is not seeking shortcuts or moving from one fad to another, but providing value - clarity, focus and execution. So many people are trying to game the system that anything REAL has virtually no competition.

Guys/Gals there are no shortcuts to making real money. It takes a lot of a four letter word many people in the IM realm seem allergic to - work.

Greg Jacobs

I am not sure when it was added to their TOS or if it was always there. But Adwords does in fact state that "Bridge" pages are not allowed

A Bridge Page being defined as something that is designed to drive the user to another site.

Now if this is properly enforced, they just wiped clean a good portion of the entire affiliate marketing industry.

Makes me chuckle because they also own Google Affiliate Network which depends on "Bridge Pages" to bring it profit.

lulz...

...hide your kids...hide your wife. A MONSTER is in the House.

dropship

They don't just ban you for promoting "bad" offers. There are actual affiliates promoting good offers, however because of other things like getting quality score penalties and constant slaps will also ban you.

Those affiliates that are just learning how to build a good landing page and promoting real value offers suffer from this and its a shame because they'll never learn how powerful adwords is.

**WSO** - How to Make $250 Per Day With CPA Offers (ONLY $9.97 - Act FAST!)

Zach Booker

Exactly! Over the next year many small to medium affiliates will simply move on.

With PPV and Facebook getting more developed etc Google is no longer the place where "all the traffic is" you can easily go and get the same converting traffic for half the price. It just isn't as convenient as going to Google and signing up.

Zach

Dan Sherman Marketing

Yes just happened to me. I was doing cpa for months on google content and doing well. Poof, all of a sudden no impressions for ten campaigns. I called them and they emailed me saying the landing pages were low quality, with a link to an article which says basically that arbitrage pages, sites built to show ads, will always have a low score, blah blah blah. So big g has ended my nice little business. Plan B where are u?

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Jeff Noel

Maybe with all of the CPA and PPC courses coming out over the last year there are so many newbie’s that Google is just being bombarded with complaints.
This is their way of filtering out the hobbyists from the serious marketer.

Zach Booker

But serious marketers are getting harmed more, Jeff.

Hobbyists simply move on to the "next great thing." Serious marketers have to adapt and change and in the process lose thousands of dollars due to Google slapping them.

Not saying that serious marketers will quit, but they will lose a big portion of money that will take them some time to re-gain.

And once they have re-gained it more people will release products and the cycle will most likely start again!
Zach

Jeff Noel

Ya I hear you Zach loud and clear. I have currently stopped using PPC until the dust settles and Google figures out exactly what they want. I focus more on Yahoo and MSN to refine my skills and become a better PPC marketer. I am fairly new and still learning but the one thing that I have come to understand about Google is they really don't give a rats ass about the small guy.
The one thing that I think is bound to happen is that smart marketers will create better systems to deal with to deal with Google ever change rule over the internet.
Just like recessions some see them as the downfall of business while others see them as an opportunity to grow and become better.
I think the saying "Only the strong shall survive" applies in both cases.

ryanman

Yes this is absolutely true so basically here is what google needs-

1- Do not just have one landing page which directs users to the merchants page. Have multiple pages full of extra content...And yes this means high quality content.

2- Your ad text must clearly state what you want the user to do on the page. If you want them to enter their email then you must mention something like "Sign up Now" right in the ad.

-------------------------
Here is what google says-


Accurately represent your product or service.
Your ads and keywords must directly relate to the content on the landing page for your ad. When users see your ad, they should be able to understand what kind of product, service, or other content they will find on your site. Products or services promoted in your ad must be reflected on your landing page; ads can be disapproved if a promoted product is not offered or available for sale as promised.



Support advertised prices, discounts, and free offers.
If your ad includes a price, special discount, or 'free' offer, it must be clearly and accurately displayed on your website within 1-2 clicks of your ad's landing page.


-----------------------------------




3- Google checks what you are selling and what sort of experience it gives to the end user. So there is nothing to be surprised if google shut down traffic because you were promoting zip submits, biz ops because after entering the zip or email the user is forced to join offer after offer till he gives up and leaves angry.

4- Don't use testimonials on your landing page or else you will be in an even bigger trouble. Now google will ask you to produce proof to back up those testimonials.

5- Don't use the terms..."Best" in your ad. I was using it in one of my ad and I was asked whether I can prove that I am offering the best offer out there. If not...You will be either slapped or emailed to make changes.

--------------------
Here is what google says-

Support competitive claims.
Competitive claims are statements implying that your product/service is better than a competitor's. If your ad text contains competitive language regarding other companies, specific support for this claim must be displayed on the landing page for your AdWords ad.
----------------------

6- All those affiliates promoting google kits were obviously banned because.

Don't imply inaccurate affiliation or partnership.

• Your ads may not imply an affiliation, partnership, or any special relationship with Google. Ads and sites cannot contain language that is likely to cause confusion as to the association between Google's services and your services.

7- They are very very careful with anything which revolves around muscle building, weight loss etc. So there is no big surprise that so many people were taken down with those acai and other health supplement offers.

Don't promote anabolic steroids.
Advertising is not permitted for anabolic steroids, muscle-enhancing stacks and cycles, bodybuilding steroid supplements, and related content, irrespective of an advertiser's claims of legality.

8- Here is a policy for all those weight loss & miracle cure ebooks-

Don't promote miracle cures.

Advertising is not permitted for the promotion of health claims or miracle cures, such as "Cure cancer overnight!"
In addition, the advertisement of weight-loss related products is not permitted for ads targeting Spain.

9- Don't promote ringtones...They allow it with restrictions but doing it would be playing with dangerous grounds.

Mobile content services ads are restricted.
We allow ads for mobile content services only upon the conditions noted here. Mobile content services include, but are not limited to, sites that promote downloading ringtones, wallpaper, or text messages for predictions, love life advice, news, personality quizzes, or other entertainment services.


For all types of mobile content services, the promoted website must clearly and accurately display the pricing of the mobile content service. In addition, all the relevant site requirements below should be located in a prominent place on your webpage and should be easy to find, read, and understand.

10- Here is the big one for quality score-

Affiliate Policy

We do not allow data entry affiliates to use AdWords advertising, but all other affiliates may participate in the AdWords program. However, we monitor and don't allow the following:

• Redirect URLs: Ads that contain URLs that automatically redirect to the parent company.
• Bridge Pages: Ads for web pages that act as an intermediary, whose sole purpose is to link or redirect traffic to the parent company.
• Framing: Ads for web pages that replicate the look and feel of a parent site. Your site should not mirror (be similar or nearly identical in appearance to) your parent company's or any other advertiser's site.

So now...You can't have the same template as the merchant page as then it will seem like a frame page.

So in a nutshell...Don't promote- Ringtone offers, acai or other similar offers, Make money online offers, zip or email submits.

Adbeat

This has been in the TOS for years, they are enforcing it much more recently.

dropship

I wonder how many people that got their account banned will try and just sign up with another account? It's obviously not going to be easy as you can't use the same name, email, address, CC info, IP, domains, etc.

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routonc38

Isn't a "bridge page" a landing page? So you can't direct link because of the rule about the same domain name being used and you can't use a landing page to get to the order page? So what can we do?

Christina in GA
Freebies / Affiliate Info Blog
Best of the South Magazine

routonc38

(quote)So in a nutshell...Don't promote- Ringtone offers, acai or other similar offers, Make money online offers, zip or email submits. (/quote)

So what's left? Personally, I have only been promoting zip and email submits and and something like car insurance. I've stayed away from the flog type. I did try to promote a weight loss product with a poll about the UFC, but the ads were never approved. Probably because of the product it linked to and I wasn't aware of the weight loss thing.

So if you can't promote weight loss or muscle building, how are all those ads being listed?

Christina in GA
Freebies / Affiliate Info Blog
Best of the South Magazine

dropship

You have to provide a good quality content site for those types of ads to be approved. The one page landing review sites will be gone by the waste side soon...

It's going to be about building high quality mini sites at least 5-10 pages of good content.

**WSO** - How to Make $250 Per Day With CPA Offers (ONLY $9.97 - Act FAST!)

Zach Booker

Or, for those less tech-savvy, WP blogs with a dedicated LP but with a separated blog for SEO/QS purpose.



Zach

ryanman

You will discover that most of those ads are by merchants themselves and not the affiliates or the sites which those ads lead to aren't landing pages but proper sites with pages after pages of content.

Zach Booker

Exactly and if these acai, colon cleanse, etc, companies can afford to pay you 30-40 bucks when the consumer is only paying $4.95 than imagine how much money they're making per customer.

Why pay you when they can make it all just as easily.

Zach

P.S- Of course they can't build 1000 blogs targeting keywords or do any big social media stuff. So it's not like affiliates are screwed or anything, millions and millions still out there to be made.

gabibeowulf

Well .. just don't use CPA with google .. I find YSM is much more friendly .. although their interface is much more ugly and heavy to use. They like taking your money unlike google.

And there's also media buys, banner advertising in different networks and so on. Google may be the biggest but it's not worth the headache.

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dkblair

Hey
Its not only Google, its the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) who is really cracking down on affiliate continuity offers. eg Acai, Google Money Tree and Government grants. etc etc.
Go to the FTC website and look at all the CPA offers that companies were promoting.
These are going to court.
It even affected me on a foreclosure product I was promoting, when myself and every affiliate promoting the offer had there accounts frozen with one of the biggest CPA networks in the USA, pending a court order from the FTC.
And this really hurt me as I was cleaning up on this offer.
I did not do anything wrong myself.
So whatever you do, do not even think about doing a website with a fake testomonial or a blog with a ficticious character.
The FTC will come after you.
The moral of this story, don't dupe and think global.

dblgdee

Do you have a link?

I have aslo noticed that a well known network has cut the number of offers by 50%.
So something is happening...

Show off your website
shorten long ugly links

Bob007

Basically Google reacts after they get enough complaints from customers and adsense websites. Best rule of thumb is promote offers that you, yourself would be happy to sign up for.

Saj Gupta

Yup they are. They only issue is that FTC is slow in getting to all these complaints from consumers and advertisers find loopholes in coming up with these new offers everyday that are borderline banned. Affs are stuck in the middle and need to decide if they should make money by promoting it or refrain and some just do not know what happens behind the scene after a sale is made.

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ryanman

Even my affiliate manager confirmed today that a lot of these companies offering trial offers have almost non-existent customer support which makes it almost impossible for the customer to cancel after subscribing.

No wonder it has lead to complaints on a massive scale.

Zach Booker

The key is that only some do this.

I hate when people group these all together: One Acai product doesn't have support so that means none of them must have support.

A lot of fulfillment houses have call centers built in to handle customer support. They even are Americans!

That's the difference between a real business and a 'fly by night' operation.

There's no excuse for not having any customer support though, those that don't should be shut down.

Zach

ryanman

I agree with you on this one...But it seems like they are not blaming a couple of apples but rather the whole bunch. If one apple is rotten...They are going to take the whole cart out.

AffiliateMax

I agree. But that rules out 90% of cpa offers then.

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Zach Booker

Yeah man.

It sucks but whenever bad stuff like this happens it makes you branch out more and go into different areas, which in the long run might be better.

Zach

ChrisBa

the days of 1 page wonder landing pages as well over.. its time to start building high quality high content websites with the focus on user experience and build the ads in the back of them.. imo that's going to be the new way of affiliate marketing

ryanman

I would say 95%...The only one I can think of is dating at the moment.