Google just banned my AdWords account (no explanation)

Chris Thompson · 01-05-2011, 12:32 PM

After about 3 years of doing some PPC (never a ton, never a big part of revenue), Google has banned my account.

A few months ago there was a thread on this topic about people getting "warning letters". At that time I had been sent one from Google also. The warnings were related to old campaigns (that were not running) where Google did not like the landing pages. These are very old campaigns that are not running, and dated back to my early days learning PPC. Looking back I know the cheezy sales pages are what Google didn't like.

I explained this to Google in reply to the warning and they basically sent me back a reply saying, "OK - just don't advertise any pages like that in the future".

And I didn't. I had moved onto better programs and my own products.

Anyway, all of my campaigns were very clean. Mostly I was sending traffic in the parenting niche to my own website with straightforward language.

Other traffic was being sent to affiliate sites or pre-sell pages that have always resulted in decent landing page quality scores. Again, nothing in any market that Google would frown upon. As evidence, none of this was part of their original warning. They were totally fine with my reply regarding this early warning and I thought the case was closed.

So now I'm officially banned. I thought that was for "bad guys". Guess not.

I contacted them through their Adwords "contact us" page. I have no idea if they will bother to reply or if the reply will be helpful at all. No idea at all.

I am mad because there is nothing in my account I'd feel ashamed to explain to my Mom (the "Mom test" is always a good one). But I can't let it get me down because there are FAR more ways to get traffic than Google PPC.

I have no idea if this thread will help anyone else - I hope so, just to show you that you can't trust Google and you can't rely on them to allow you to advertise in their system with unclear (and evidently inconsistent) rules.

Believe me, I've read their rules about landing pages. I have checked and rechecked them to make sure I'm above board. I am. Apparently they could care less.

(ok, end of rant - off to build revenue other ways)

copylicious · 01-05-2011, 12:36 PM

Google is very unpredictable. You should always have a back up plan.

tpw · 01-05-2011, 12:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by copylicious

Google is very unpredictable. You should always have a back up plan.

Agreed.

Google Adwords has killed the accounts of people doing 5-figures in advertising a month, so I would not take it personally.

donhx · 01-05-2011, 12:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by copylicious

Google is very unpredictable. You should always have a back up plan.

It is always a problem to trust your business to a third party. They are looking out for their own interests, not yours. When someone else has control over your business, you are at their mercy.

Always remember, there is some guy or gal sitting in an office somewhere, interpreting rules as they understand them. You are just one click away away from IM oblivion if they decide, for whatever reason, that they don't like what you offer or the way you offer it.

williamstraus · 01-05-2011, 12:53 PM

Google is the hot chick that rejects you for no reason. Eventually you realize there are saner women (and prettier) that you can be dancing with.

Dave Rodman · 01-05-2011, 12:53 PM

Well, there are probably lots of reasons you site could get banned. I don't know if you could possibly know FOR SURE that you didn't break the rules.

People might think I'm a prick for doing this, but I've reported competitors for violating Adwords rules and gotten them banned. I had one competitor that was just creating multiple sites and then bidding on the same keywords (so their sites would appear multiple times). I didn't care when they did it for 2 sites, but when it got to 3 I thought I'd report them.

Personally, if I'm google I don't really care if someone is doing that. But it's against Google's rules. And I know I'M not going to break the rules...so if someone is taking money out of my pocket (and food out of my kid's mouths..to be more dramatic), then I have no problems reporting people.

They might not have even known that was wrong.

tpw · 01-05-2011, 01:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by donhx

It is always a problem to trust your business to a third party. They are looking out for their own interests, not yours. When someone else has control over your business, you are at their mercy.

This is so very true.

Truckster · 01-05-2011, 01:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by williamstraus

Google is the hot chick that rejects you for no reason. Eventually you realize there are saner women (and prettier) that you can be dancing with.

Nice analogy! There are hundreds of us who have been banned for seemingly innocuous things, that is if you can actually get a response from them. As you said you had warnings it's probably the same thing again, apparently your history stays on file and it only takes one nobhead in an office to decide that they really didn't like you and your history. Only people worse than Google are EPN, now they take being an a**hole to the next level.

Chris Thompson · 01-10-2011, 05:34 PM

Update - Google finally answered my request for details. They pointed to ONE domain as a problem domain saying they do not like "get rich quick" stuff.

Frustrating as hell. I had done a direct-link campaign to a clickbank product (a particularly crap product as it turns out). This was WAY back like almost 3 years ago and I have had the campaign deleted since then. The Google person who replied to me doesn't seem to "get" that this is not my landing page, not my domain, and that it was a very old direct-link campaign.

Lesson: ANY campaign you setup in Google leaves a permanent tattoo on your forehead and you can't have it removed. Google "warned" me about this domain a while back and I explained to them at the time that it was not mine, and I had no intention of ever promoting such a product again. I was a novice, and I knew nothing about quality score, etc.

The vendor's website misrepresented the product, I had no idea, and I'm paying the price.

Do not EVERY promote anything that you are not sure about in Adwords. It will screw you in the end.

Arggg ... hopefully they will show mercy. I intent to ask them for mercy one more time than they say no. That's all it takes

jsmiley · 05-03-2012, 08:51 AM

Chris -

I just had the same thing happen to me. Did they show you any mercy? I only had one small campaign running. But did have a few old inactive campaigns. I have since deleted them, but wonder about the 'tatoo' effect you mention.

Thanks for sharing.

01-05-2011, 12:32 PM	#1
Chris Thompson Senior Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Canada Posts: 1,059 Thanks: 17 Thanked 241 Times in 149 Posts Social Networking	Google just banned my AdWords account (no explanation) After about 3 years of doing some PPC (never a ton, never a big part of revenue), Google has banned my account. A few months ago there was a thread on this topic about people getting "warning letters". At that time I had been sent one from Google also. The warnings were related to old campaigns (that were not running) where Google did not like the landing pages. These are very old campaigns that are not running, and dated back to my early days learning PPC. Looking back I know the cheezy sales pages are what Google didn't like. I explained this to Google in reply to the warning and they basically sent me back a reply saying, "OK - just don't advertise any pages like that in the future". And I didn't. I had moved onto better programs and my own products. Anyway, all of my campaigns were very clean. Mostly I was sending traffic in the parenting niche to my own website with straightforward language. Other traffic was being sent to affiliate sites or pre-sell pages that have always resulted in decent landing page quality scores. Again, nothing in any market that Google would frown upon. As evidence, none of this was part of their original warning. They were totally fine with my reply regarding this early warning and I thought the case was closed. So now I'm officially banned. I thought that was for "bad guys". Guess not. I contacted them through their Adwords "contact us" page. I have no idea if they will bother to reply or if the reply will be helpful at all. No idea at all. I am mad because there is nothing in my account I'd feel ashamed to explain to my Mom (the "Mom test" is always a good one). But I can't let it get me down because there are FAR more ways to get traffic than Google PPC. I have no idea if this thread will help anyone else - I hope so, just to show you that you can't trust Google and you can't rely on them to allow you to advertise in their system with unclear (and evidently inconsistent) rules. Believe me, I've read their rules about landing pages. I have checked and rechecked them to make sure I'm above board. I am. Apparently they could care less. (ok, end of rant - off to build revenue other ways)
	Free Outsourcing Training at OutsourceFactor.com Everything I've learned in the last 3 years in an easy-to-read PDF. Educate yourself on outsourcing AND get a free do follow link in our biz directory. Watch this short video - I show you exactly what you get.

01-05-2011, 12:36 PM	#2
copylicious Banned Join Date: Jan 2011 Posts: 52 Thanks: 14 Thanked 5 Times in 5 Posts	Re: Google just banned my AdWords account (no explanation) Google is very unpredictable. You should always have a back up plan.

01-05-2011, 12:53 PM	#5
williamstraus HyperActive Warrior Join Date: Dec 2009 Posts: 107 Thanks: 24 Thanked 61 Times in 25 Posts	Re: Google just banned my AdWords account (no explanation) Google is the hot chick that rejects you for no reason. Eventually you realize there are saner women (and prettier) that you can be dancing with.

01-05-2011, 12:53 PM	#6
Dave Rodman Banned Join Date: Dec 2010 Posts: 700 Thanks: 38 Thanked 131 Times in 82 Posts	Re: Google just banned my AdWords account (no explanation) Well, there are probably lots of reasons you site could get banned. I don't know if you could possibly know FOR SURE that you didn't break the rules. People might think I'm a prick for doing this, but I've reported competitors for violating Adwords rules and gotten them banned. I had one competitor that was just creating multiple sites and then bidding on the same keywords (so their sites would appear multiple times). I didn't care when they did it for 2 sites, but when it got to 3 I thought I'd report them. Personally, if I'm google I don't really care if someone is doing that. But it's against Google's rules. And I know I'M not going to break the rules...so if someone is taking money out of my pocket (and food out of my kid's mouths..to be more dramatic), then I have no problems reporting people. They might not have even known that was wrong.

01-10-2011, 05:34 PM	#9
Chris Thompson Senior Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Canada Posts: 1,059 Thanks: 17 Thanked 241 Times in 149 Posts Social Networking	Re: Google just banned my AdWords account (no explanation) Update - Google finally answered my request for details. They pointed to ONE domain as a problem domain saying they do not like "get rich quick" stuff. Frustrating as hell. I had done a direct-link campaign to a clickbank product (a particularly crap product as it turns out). This was WAY back like almost 3 years ago and I have had the campaign deleted since then. The Google person who replied to me doesn't seem to "get" that this is not my landing page, not my domain, and that it was a very old direct-link campaign. Lesson: ANY campaign you setup in Google leaves a permanent tattoo on your forehead and you can't have it removed. Google "warned" me about this domain a while back and I explained to them at the time that it was not mine, and I had no intention of ever promoting such a product again. I was a novice, and I knew nothing about quality score, etc. The vendor's website misrepresented the product, I had no idea, and I'm paying the price. Do not EVERY promote anything that you are not sure about in Adwords. It will screw you in the end. Arggg ... hopefully they will show mercy. I intent to ask them for mercy one more time than they say no. That's all it takes
	Free Outsourcing Training at OutsourceFactor.com Everything I've learned in the last 3 years in an easy-to-read PDF. Educate yourself on outsourcing AND get a free do follow link in our biz directory. Watch this short video - I show you exactly what you get.

05-03-2012, 08:51 AM	#10
jsmiley HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Kirkalnd, WA Posts: 152 Thanks: 7 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Social Networking	Re: Google just banned my AdWords account (no explanation) Chris - I just had the same thing happen to me. Did they show you any mercy? I only had one small campaign running. But did have a few old inactive campaigns. I have since deleted them, but wonder about the 'tatoo' effect you mention. Thanks for sharing.