Google strikes again!

[richgrad]

So I was running some campaigns on my 2 year+ adwords account and it was running fine... google chalked up $600+ on those campaigns and then suddenly no more ad impressions... I tried to top up the account and they accepted payment but still my ads weren't showing.

Then I sent in an email to them and got back a "Please refer to these FAQs" standard response. After ding-donging here and there, finally someone looked into it and told me the account got suspended/disabled because there were ads that pointed to domains that were "inappropriate"... basically those are domains owned by very legitimate internet marketers.

And without any warning, without any explanation, without any 2nd chances (by the time i wrote in, I already paused all my campaigns), they told me I'm banned for life.

So tell me... Google... wasn't your motto "Don't be evil"?

*****

Google's response to ads not running:

Thank you for your email.

We apologize for the delayed response. Google AdWords is experiencing
rapid growth. We're doing our best to respond to all email requests within
24 hours (Monday to Friday). Thank you for your patience.

I understand you are concerned about your ads not showing. Let me check it
for you.

Your Google AdWords account has been suspended due to submissions of ads,
for the sites, 'abc.com', 'xyz.com', and '123.com' (domain names changed due to protect the innocent) that promote an Unacceptable Business
Practice. In response to the many complaints that we have received from
users and publishers, we've decided not to allow ads which promote "get
rich quick" sites.

As you know, we are committed to making the AdWords experience safe and
effective for our users and our advertisers. We disabled your AdWords
account after a review of your landing page quality evaluations because we
believe that this kind of poor-quality site creates a seriously negative
or possibly harmful user experience.

The decision to disable your AdWords account was not taken lightly, and we
appreciate your cooperation in this matter.

Your ads will no longer run on Google. Future accounts you open will also
be suspended.

While we regret any frustration or disruption this update may cause,
providing our users with the highest quality ads is integral to the
long-term success of our program. As noted in our advertising Terms and
Conditions, Google may refuse any ads or terminate any of your ad
campaigns at any time, for any reason.

You can find links to additional information about our advertising
policies and landing page guidelines below:

* AdWords Advertising Policies:
AdWords Help
* Landing Page and Site Quality Guidelines:
Landing Page and Site Quality Guidelines - AdWords Help

To view our Terms and Conditions, please visit
https://adwords.google.com/select/tsandcsfinder.

We appreciate your cooperation.

****************

[richgrad]

Internet marketing

[tonis]

Sad to hear that Google has dig another hole for themselves... I think with all those restrictions they are sending marketers to facebook and other PPC channels.
Were your sites internet courses or mlm sites ?

[richgrad]

internet courses... legitimate internet courses...

i would never touch mlm

[Oscar D]

I know exactly how you feel, I had my Adwords account running for a few months and then after focusing on another project I decided to pause the campaigns.

The account had been dormant and not used at all for about 6 - 7 months, and then all of a sudden out of the blue I got a banned notification.

Its shocking, but maybe Google sees us smaller Adwords users as not worth it? Who knows, but I am not letting this set me back!

[tonis]

Google also bans the Big adwords users... and i think they are mad at people who are trying to make money online.

For the thread started: have you tried other PPC networks? like yahoo, bing, facebook etc...

[richgrad]

I spent over US$30K on that account but I guess to google it's small change. And like I said, the least they can do is 1) tell me the problem 2) let me fix it 3) review and let me know if there are any other problems, if not, run those ads they approve...

and not just disable your account and wait for u to email them to ask whats wrong and then tell u we r sorry, u have ads with domains we don't approve of and thus... we don't care... you're banned for life.

Just for info, the 3 domains they frowned upon are all domains of established warriors here

[Alexandre Valois]

Originally Posted by richgrad

I spent over US$30K on that account but I guess to google it's small change. And like I said, the least they can do is 1) tell me the problem 2) let me fix it 3) review and let me know if there are any other problems, if not, run those ads they approve...

and not just disable your account and wait for u to email them to ask whats wrong and then tell u we r sorry, u have ads with domains we don't approve of and thus... we don't care... you're banned for life.

Just for info, the 3 domains they frowned upon are all domains of established warriors here

Hope you've already contacted them to give them the heads up...

[charu.seo]

you just cant trust google for anything..My a/c has been banned also.

[robsterhews]

I was banned also. But not for internet marketing stuff - but for my English Tutoring Website. I wanted to do a PPC campaign (first time i ever tried to use PPC).

I found my keywords, and paid $100. My website (robthetutor.com). After about 7 days of seeing the campaign not start, I contacted Google and they told me I was banned also, but would not say why. My guess is they don't have humans checking the websites the PPC gets sent to, instead they have some spider program.

In bold at the top of my website - it used to say "I work with adults only" - meaning I do not do tutoring for children. My guess is that the "adults only" text triggered something, and Google thought it was a porno site.

Anyway, after multiple attempts to find out why, they just said refer to the terms of service, we can't tell you anything more specific, but don't ever try to use our advertising service again."

[naughtyneo]

Like you mentioned $30K is small change for Google and they are aiming for big shots.
Google don't care about small advertisers, they care about their surfers.

But when it comes to big corporte business who are ready to spend tons of money on adwords, google bend the rules.

[Myles Sinclair]

You're not the only one that's miffed with Google at the moment - BBC News - EU launches antitrust probe into alleged Google abuses

[richgrad]

Originally Posted by Alexandre Valois

Hope you've already contacted them to give them the heads up...

u mean google or the warriors?

[Martin2010]

Yes sorry to hear this Rich and it's also happened to me unfortunately.

I think the main deal with them is that they don't want to be seen in a bad light but you know come on we are trying to make money online here and why should it bother them if it's a bloody IM niche.

If they look at the content then they'll see that they are not all get rich quick schemes but in fact programs to actually help people make money, what's the harm in that????????????

I've had it a few times that it's actually squeezepages that they don't like so if it was then this is probably the reason why they stopped it.

[Alexandre Valois]

Originally Posted by richgrad

u mean google or the warriors?

The warriors obviously

[gittar1122]

All this is due to monopoly of Google while having a largest online advertising network. Sorry to hear about your loss

[jigney]

Google has their ad policy and they strictly follow.They have written you that they have received complaint against this ad. you are requested to inquire about your client's business practice.For Google, AdWord business is money making machine they will not do unless there is legitimate reason.

[richgrad]

Originally Posted by Alexandre Valois

The warriors obviously

their sites are listed in the search engine... only affiliates will promote them thru ppc...

[HTMweb]

To those whose accounts got banned, did they at least give you your money back?

[tryinhere]

Originally Posted by richgrad

Internet marketing

that has been out of favor for a long time along with many other topics as well, some people have them running but so is the fuse burning before they explode.

Buddy I am sorry to hear about what has happened, and in comment i suppose things could be done better and i never understood why the system just can not ban the ads to those sites rather than the people placing the ads ?

now if they are your sites, then i believe there is provision to have the suspension lifted by changing the site.

If it is an affiliate site then it makes it harder and is the black hole nobody wants to talk about openly, but those sites who knowingly send affiliates to the gallows should stop promoting SEM creatives as an option.

ra already said enough on this topic / people will put a stop to it one day / i hope.

[sbucciarel]

I think Google is making it pretty clear that they don't like Make Money Online sites. If that is what you are promoting, I would choose something other than Adwords to promote it.

[Rsberg]

Yet another reason to start targeting other traffic sources. I know Google is the big boy on the block but they arent the only game in town either.

Sorry to hear about your account!

[derekwong28]

Still, Google could have given some sort of warning before banning someone for life.

The truth is that Google has been coming down like a ton of bricks on small publishers for the past few years. it is as if economic conditions aren't bad enought already.

Large sites can get away with anything, including scraping content like thefind.com, sell links with impunity, or have more than 4 Adsense units per page.

I hope that Google gets thoroughly investigated for their greedy practices.

[richgrad]

that's the thing I don't get...

no matter what, you should at least give a warning... just because you have a t&c doesn't mean anything... if someone makes a mistake u point it out and let them rectify it... if they do it again then u can punish them...

[sbucciarel]

Originally Posted by derekwong28

Still, Google could have given some sort of warning before banning someone for life.

The truth is that Google has been coming down like a ton of bricks on small publishers for the past few years. it is as if economic conditions aren't bad enought already.

Large sites can get away with anything, including scraping content like thefind.com, sell links with impunity, or have more than 4 Adsense units per page.

I hope that Google gets thoroughly investigated for their greedy practices.

I've heard of multi-million dollar Adwords spenders also getting banned for the same reasons. It isn't just small publishers. It is about landing page quality and promoting what they consider dodgy Make Money Online or Get Rich Quick programs, along with other dodgy programs like White Teeth, Belly Fat, Colon Cleanse, etc.

The fact is that they don't think these pages provide users with a good experience and in fact, many of them are scams.

Google Adwords Shuts Down Million Dollar Affiliate Account

Google Adwords Continues To Ban Accounts

[tpw]

Google is a dominatrix. Every time she speaks, hordes of marketers get down on their knees to kiss her boots.

There is a great big huge Internet out there, where Google is just one advertising channel.

Rather than to put all of your eggs in the Google basket, diversify your traffic sources.

I hope the OP will quickly bounce back, prepared to move forward in a world without Google.

[derekwong28]

Originally Posted by sbucciarel

I've heard of multi-million dollar Adwords spenders also getting banned for the same reasons. It isn't just small publishers. It is about landing page quality and promoting what they consider dodgy Make Money Online or Get Rich Quick programs, along with other dodgy programs like White Teeth, Belly Fat, Colon Cleanse, etc.

The fact is that they don't think these pages provide users with a good experience and in fact, many of them are scams.

Google Adwords Shuts Down Million Dollar Affiliate Account

Google Adwords Continues To Ban Accounts

I am not against Google not showing ads for sites that they consider as scam.

What I am against is them banning people for life without any warning.

I would suspect those mult-million dollar Adwords spenders would have been warned but I am not sure. Of course, nobody would know except them and Google.

[thinkahead]

Originally Posted by tonis

Sad to hear that Google has dig another hole for themselves... I think with all those restrictions they are sending marketers to facebook and other PPC channels.
Were your sites internet courses or mlm sites ?

It certainly seems that way. It would also be nice if the defection of so many Adwords users to FB or elsewhere would make an imprint on Google's profits to make them change their ways, but methinks it wouldn't even scratch the surface!

It also seems to me that Google detests anything to do with internet marketing, assuming that every single offer out there is a fraudulent 'get rich quick' scheme to the point where I've personally struggled to promote legitimate IM products through Adwords. They seem to see an IM product and all manner of alarms go off in the Google Command Center!

[John Romaine]

Rich, as far as Im aware you use PPC heavily yes?

If so, what's your contingency plan? How will this affect your business?

[dbarnum]

Future accounts you open will also be suspended.

That just sounds too harsh. I mean, if you were a repeat offender, OK. But first time for this type offense, wow.

[richgrad]

Originally Posted by ramone_johnny

Rich, as far as Im aware you use PPC heavily yes?

If so, what's your contingency plan? How will this affect your business?

Yes... and I'll just have to figure something out... as always... business is never always smooth... just as is life... as entrepreneurs we have to accept that... but when things are unfair we have to voice it out and I personally think what google is doing is certainly unfair...

u have any suggestions?

I tested out fb ads but I'd have to admit... the technology they are using seriously can't be compared to google's...

[Bane]

Originally Posted by richgrad

that's the thing I don't get...

no matter what, you should at least give a warning... just because you have a t&c doesn't mean anything... if someone makes a mistake u point it out and let them rectify it... if they do it again then u can punish them...

Almost reminds me of CPALead...wait...aren't they the leaders in a specific section of the net also?

Wow...what a coincidence.

[scortillion]

You would think Google would at least have some type of dispute service and give you a chance to fix the problem. It’s like getting a speeding ticking and not being able to drive for life because of it.

[thegabrieljibril]

well thats google for you, that why i have never just looked into ppc, i know its good but its not just my thing, and google even discourages me further.

[richgrad]

maybe somebody (with enough power) should do something to let them know this wouldn't do... power is really getting to them

[Chris Munch]

Google is out to protect its audience, because that is where there money ultimately comes from. Without their audience there is no advertisers so they try to maintain very high quality.

Obviously the way they do it is by no means perfect and a lot slips through the net, but the likelihood is you promoted a product or service that was questionable, or used shady promotion tactics.

There's plenty of big gurus that have low ethics when it comes to marketing and will provide questionable, unrelated, or non-representative earning screenshots, fake membership limits, fake sign up time limits, fake one time offers, fake promises etc.

Chances are you were promoting one. It's possible Google was being over-sensitive cause some other bad guy ruined for others, but that doesn't seem to usually be the case. Generally Google has been targeting and kicking out advertisers that are providing a very bad user experience, such as those sending people to scammy CPA offers, or dodgy make money online products.

Its been well known that Google's standard for advertisers is getting higher, and they are very aggressive about this, and if you test the boundaries don't expect your account not to be closed down without warning.

Google has spent a long time dealing with marketers, and know that if a marketer pushes the boundary once, they will keep pushing despite warnings, and all warnings achieve for Google is replies of complaints, arguments, and an opportunity for the marketer to figure out a way around it. For Google instant banning has been the most effective method at getting the message out and reducing the amount of low quality ads.

I don't agree with how Google does business in this regard, but it is something every one dealing with Google should be aware of. Google has a very low tolerance of being f-*-*d with.

[tryinhere]

Originally Posted by ChrisTew

I don't agree with how Google does business in this regard, but it is something every one dealing with Google should be aware of. Google has a very low tolerance of being f-*-*d with.

and for every one who plays with G there is another who tries to do the right thing and is for the better part wanting to abide by the rules and in no way deliberately trying to pass them, but they are caught in the spiders web. the system in its attempt to catch the crap is also catching the innocent per say.

@ the OP

u have any suggestions?

, yes what you will need to do is contact the vendors / site owners in this case and have them change the site so that google can unsuspended your account

and i doubt you will get the loving you want, but that is your only hope at this stage,

it is for this reason that strikes at the g policy that they like affiliates, but if you ever promote an affiliate site that gets black banned, the site lives on the affiliate is crushed.

for those reasons people are better of promoting their own products, at least if it goes belly up, they can alter the site.

[dbarnum]

Originally Posted by tpw

Google is a dominatrix. Every time she speaks, hordes of marketers get down on their knees to kiss her boots.

There is a great big huge Internet out there, where Google is just one advertising channel.

Rather than to put all of your eggs in the Google basket, diversify your traffic sources.

I hope the OP will quickly bounce back, prepared to move forward in a world without Google.

I agree. You see this with eBay, eLance and many other big entities. Keep in mind there are many other options out there and have been for decades ++.

[JamieSEO]

AdWords has been nothing except a pain in the butt for me.

The last image ad I placed was still "awaiting approval" nearly 2 weeks after I submitted it and was an extremely basic G rated ad that pointed to one of my sites where I offer website development services.

Hardly something that warranted a 2 week thinking process.

I ended up just canceling the AdWords account and now use Facebook Ads and StumbleUpon for PPC.

I have been getting better conversions at a much lower cost.

For anyone not thrilled with AdWords I highly recommend trying out Facebook Ads.

[Greenwarrior]

Google is doing what all the cellular companies did to their affiliates in the early part 2002. They used all of us to build their infrastructure (for 10 years) and when the time was right started to cut commissions. Now most are corporate owned franchises. The little guys were forced out of the industry. Everyone has to remember all google cares about is their stockholders!!

Ian

[dagaul101]

Google is getting more draconian by the day, hopefully Bing, and others can step up

[paulgl]

Google is one of the best run companies ever.

They have dug themselves a hole alright. A hole with $30+
billion in the bank.

They are about to buy groupon and extend their "evil" empire
even more. Or at least they are actively going after it, offering
up to $6 billion for yet another way to rule the local ad genre.

I know google can be harsh. It sucks. But they do things to protect
themselves. Hard to believe people think google is hurting itself. Hardly.

Internet marketing and adwords is not a good combination. Period.
Ripe for abuse and scams.

Best thing to do is to be dang determined to show people you don't need
them. And move on.

Paul

[robsterhews]

I have not received my $100 back. They just stopped responding to my emails and kept the money. Every email I sent them was respectful tone and context. I figured if I contacted the BB Bureau - Google would somehow de-index my site.

[rinor81]

Originally Posted by Greenwarrior

Google is doing what all the cellular companies did to their affiliates in the early part 2002. They used all of us to build their infrastructure (for 10 years) and when the time was right started to cut commissions. Now most are corporate owned franchises. The little guys were forced out of the industry. Everyone has to remember all google cares about is their stockholders!!

Ian

I agree 100%

We were the ones to be in google when no one knew it and now it can do whatever it wants, and it does...

I had also a campaign on PPC that worked good until Google decided to cut its quality score from 7-8 to 1!!! Thus killing my campaign...

Very frustrating it cares about the big companies and money only these days, as if they don't have enough.

Good luck to you Rich...and to all of us!

[ScottieScott]

I think Google is losing employees, really good employees, to competition. That could be one reason that there is no 2nd chance for anyone. They just don't have the staff or patience to do a 2nd review. Enforcement seems to be a problem. If they gave a second chance, the owner of the Adwords account could find a way to redirect to the sites Google doesn't want to be part of.

Anyway, it will only be a matter of time before there is some serious competition to Google, but right now they are the big fish

[camm]

Originally Posted by richgrad

Your ads will no longer run on Google. Future accounts you open will also
be suspended.

Had a friend with the same issue and he ended up opening an account under a business name. Same contact name, different phone (cell) and a po box. No issues since.

[theseoguys]

I think that the 3000 - 5000 positions Google expects to hire over the next few months, should all go to customer service, or human editors for this type of thing. They know they run the internet, but it has gone to their head. They need more human interaction. Read our Terms of Service is becoming a pretty tiresome response. It's like being pulled over by the police, asking the officer "what for?" as he hands you a ticket, and tells you to read the Highway Traffic Act, and that should tell me what I did wrong.

[John Romaine]

Originally Posted by richgrad

u have any suggestions?

Yes mate. Organic search

[derekwong28]

Originally Posted by camm

Had a friend with the same issue and he ended up opening an account under a business name. Same contact name, different phone (cell) and a po box. No issues since.

It would not be difficult to get another account but the fact remains that you will not be able to promote the websites in question, or for that matter related websites.

What gets me is that the OP has promoted simlar websites for 2 years. It is quite possible that the TOS has changed during that time. You cannot expect to re-read the TOS again and again and therefore i think a reasonable company would have given a warning.

[Jesus Carrera]

Not only "make money online" sites, but Google is also very sensitive to any kind of opt-in or affiliate pages with AdWords. If you are lucky they just drop your Quality Score to 0...