My Adwords Account Got Shutdown Becuase of ThruthAboutAbs.com

[JoshuaWriter]

Well, I got an email notice today that my account is in violation of Google Adwords and my account was permanently shut down becuase I promoted the website 5 Tips to Lose Stomach Fat, Get Flat Six Pack Abs, Ab Workouts, Abdominal Exercises .... over 2.5 years ago...

Its crazy, 1st off I am just an affiliate, and 2nd, I promoted that offer almost 3 years ago from today.

Seems like Google wants me to give all my money to FaceBook

[bmillionaire324]

thats too bad, but is good to know that there are several other options out there that can still help make money, also there is the option to get like a plugin to post random posts where you have random products from CB or something like that

[John Collins]

Hi Joushua

That particular product is on Google's hit list. A friend of mine was promoting the same product (via their own landing page) and received warnings from Google about canceling their AdWords account. I saw all the emails between my friend and Google and Google was very vague in it's responses and they refer to vague help topics. I spent days reading through Google's Webmaster Central and AdWords trying to pin down specifics. They started out talking about landing page quality. But, after, over a half dozen emails to Google they said, that they have complaints for various sites and products and said product is one of them. And we all know that Google is lol all about user experience and protecting the user.

The sad thing about it I personally know someone that got their abs using Mike Geary's program. That industry has customers similar to internet marketing. They buy a product, don't follow through on it and complain it doesn't work. Anyone can report a landing page or website to Google. It looks like it would be easy for even a person having a competing product to hire people to report a competitors site. I have never reported anyone's site to Google so I can't say if they just believe the complainant at their word (probably the case) or check each case.

[Mike Morgan.]

Sorry for what happened.

The good thing is ...

There are lots of other ways other than Google adwords . So , check other traffic sources .

One thing that you need to learn form this is that ...don't ever focus on one traffic source.

Diversify . Diversify . Diversify .

[JoshuaWriter]

Yeah I just think all this is funny becuase I got NO warnings and I was promoting that site YEARS ago and havn't touched it since. And back when I was promoting it, they DID NOT have these strict policies...

[gingerol]

Joshua,

I logged into Warriorforum today just to see if someone else suffered this, because I did. Google has permanently suspended by Adwords account for once (less than 2 days 1 year ago) promoting an Ad for truthaboutabs. Worse - the landing page was NOT even truthaboutabs.com but to my page with affiliate links. And like you, I never got a single warning from Google.

Here are email threads I've exchanged with them.

I wrote:

"I did not receive any previous policy violation warnings before my account was suspended. I can make corrections if I'm told what I did wrong. Thank you for your attention."

And here was Google Adwords and Policy Dept's first reply:

"Thank you for your email. The suspension of your Google AdWords account is related to the site ' www.truthaboutabs.com' which found to be in violation of our policy around 'Unacceptable Business Practice - Inaccurate or Misleading Claims' because it makes unrealistic claims of weight loss with little or no effort. In response to complaints received from users and publishers about this category of ads, it's Google's policy to not accept ads that make inaccurate or misleading claims regarding the product being promoted. Read more about this specific policy at: Misleading and inaccurate claims - AdWords Help. Please also note that although you may have removed these sites since our latest review, advertisers that have a history of promoting these types of sites are still subject to account-level suspension. In other words, pausing or deleting ads related to the disabled sites won't automatically re-enable the ads nor remove the violation history.

We recommend that you modify your site so that it more realistically and accurately conveys the benefits of your product. We also suggest making sure you are being transparent to our users about any risks involved in using your product. Once you've updated your site per our guidelines, please write back to let us know of the changes, and we'll be happy to re-review your site.

To address your concern around not receiving a previous violation notification, please note that although Google regularly warns advertisers whose accounts may be in violation of our policies, we reserve the right to suspend accounts without warning in cases where the behavior is considered an egregious violation.

We routinely review our advertisers’ landing pages and we suspended your AdWords account after a review of your landing page quality, because we believe that advertising policy violations create a seriously negative and/or harmful user experience.

You can review our landing page and site policies here:
Landing page and site policies - AdWords Help

You can learn more about account suspension here:
https://adwords.google.com/support/a...&answer=164786

We appreciate your cooperation in this matter and thank you for your understanding. If you have additional questions or concerns not addressed by our policies or help center, you can contact us by replying to this email.

Sincerely,"

But it was not my site! And this I tried to make clear in the next message:

"Thank you for taking the time to provide me detailed explanations. I appreciate it.

The website www.truthaboutabs.com DOES NOT belong to me, nor is it linked to this account.


What we were doing was promoting Clickbank (www.clickbank.com) products of truthaboutabs.com in order to get a commission from sales each time a visitor goes to that site.


We ran a google ad for a short time through this url: http://xyz.com/truth-about-abs-review.php that contained a review inviting visitors to visit that site.


What we have now done is to take down that referral page: http://xyz.com/truth-about-abs-review.php in addition to deleting the Adwords campaign "Truth About Ads".


We are sorry if we have misled any users through this referral and promise that we will not promote such products again in the future, even tangentially,


Thank you for your kind reconsideration"

Google was not impressed:

"Thank you for writing back. I do understand that the site 'www.truthaboutabs.com' doesn't belong to you. However, during a review of your account, we found that this site was advertised via your account in the past, in the campaign 'Truth About Abs' which is currently deleted. Since it was advertised through your AdWords account, the site and violation have become associated with the account. This holds true irrespective of the duration for which the site was advertised, or if it was subsequently deleted or paused.

Therefore, the only way for your account to be considered for reinstatement is to make changes to this site to bring it in compliance with our policies. I would recommend reaching out to the site owner in this case and work with them to make the required changes.

At Google, we consistently seek ways to better ensure and protect the online experience for all of our users and advertisers. At times, we may review historical as well as current account behaviors to preserve this integrity. During a review of your account history, it was determined that your past violations of AdWords policies warranted further action and thus the account was suspended.

Please also note that pausing or deleting ads related to the disabled
sites will not automatically re-enable the ads nor remove the violation
history. Paused ads or campaigns will still be reviewed based on our
guidelines.

After a site violates AdWords policy and is disabled, advertisers must make changes to the landing page of the site and submit the site for re-review. If approved during the review, the site may be re-enabled for AdWords, and the account violations may be removed."

Phew!

Now on truthaboutabs.com there is only one contact email for Mike Geary, the supposed owner.

I wrote him an email:

"Dear Mike,

I have been an affiliate of your products on www.truthaboutabs.com My clickbank account name is netorbcb

Once in the past, I placed Google Ads to this landing page: http://xyz.com/truth-about-abs-review.php

That page, now removed to please google contained hoplinks to your site www.truthaboutabs.com

Now Google has banned my Adwords account, that I cannot place Ads anymore with them, now or in the future.

I appealed that I do not own www.truthaboutabs.com but they insisted that it does not matter, and that having once advertised an Ad that landed on your page, your domain has now been (permanently) associated with me.

In the last email they sent, they advised this: "Therefore, the only way for your account to be considered for reinstatement is to make changes to this site to bring it in compliance with our policies. I would recommend reaching out to the site owner in this case and work with them to make the required changes."

I will be grateful to get your response as to how we can get this sorted out,

I copy for you below the last correspondences with them.

Thank you very much,".

No reply from Mike Geary!

Now what do I do?

I use the Adwords account for many more serious businesses than this one-time promotion of Truthaboutabs.

Any help will be welcome.

[lukemeister]

Not trying to be snarky or anything, but maybe just move on and try Adcenter or maybe try to get traffic through SEO efforts instead? The best thing that ever happened to me was losing my adwords account (well, probably), I was too focused on that for traffic and it forced me to look elsewhere and learn about lots of other great ways to generate traffic

[NetAffiliate]

Same thing happened to me...it sucks. I was promoting "How To Get Your Ex Back" and bam, no warning, my account got suspended for not complying with googles policy.

I received a similar email you received from Googles Policy Dept. I tried to explain to them that the sales page was not my site that I am only an affiliate. But that didn't make a difference to them.

My account is still suspended and i'm not going to waste anymore of my time with them since I keep getting the same response.

Luckly, Adwords was not my only means for traffic and promoting.

Sorry for not being able to give you any encouraging words.

Originally Posted by gingerol

Joshua,

I logged into Warriorforum today just to see if someone else suffered this, because I did. Google has permanently suspended by Adwords account for once (less than 2 days 1 year ago) promoting an Ad for truthaboutabs. Worse - the landing page was NOT even truthaboutabs.com but to my page with affiliate links. And like you, I never got a single warning from Google.

Here are email threads I've exchanged with them.

I wrote:

"I did not receive any previous policy violation warnings before my account was suspended. I can make corrections if I'm told what I did wrong. Thank you for your attention."

And here was Google Adwords and Policy Dept's first reply:

"Thank you for your email. The suspension of your Google AdWords account is related to the site ' www.truthaboutabs.com' which found to be in violation of our policy around 'Unacceptable Business Practice - Inaccurate or Misleading Claims' because it makes unrealistic claims of weight loss with little or no effort. In response to complaints received from users and publishers about this category of ads, it's Google's policy to not accept ads that make inaccurate or misleading claims regarding the product being promoted. Read more about this specific policy at: Misleading and inaccurate claims - AdWords Help. Please also note that although you may have removed these sites since our latest review, advertisers that have a history of promoting these types of sites are still subject to account-level suspension. In other words, pausing or deleting ads related to the disabled sites won't automatically re-enable the ads nor remove the violation history.

We recommend that you modify your site so that it more realistically and accurately conveys the benefits of your product. We also suggest making sure you are being transparent to our users about any risks involved in using your product. Once you've updated your site per our guidelines, please write back to let us know of the changes, and we'll be happy to re-review your site.

To address your concern around not receiving a previous violation notification, please note that although Google regularly warns advertisers whose accounts may be in violation of our policies, we reserve the right to suspend accounts without warning in cases where the behavior is considered an egregious violation.

We routinely review our advertisers’ landing pages and we suspended your AdWords account after a review of your landing page quality, because we believe that advertising policy violations create a seriously negative and/or harmful user experience.

You can review our landing page and site policies here:
Landing page and site policies - AdWords Help

You can learn more about account suspension here:
https://adwords.google.com/support/a...&answer=164786

We appreciate your cooperation in this matter and thank you for your understanding. If you have additional questions or concerns not addressed by our policies or help center, you can contact us by replying to this email.

Sincerely,"

But it was not my site! And this I tried to make clear in the next message:

"Thank you for taking the time to provide me detailed explanations. I appreciate it.

The website www.truthaboutabs.com DOES NOT belong to me, nor is it linked to this account.


What we were doing was promoting Clickbank (www.clickbank.com) products of truthaboutabs.com in order to get a commission from sales each time a visitor goes to that site.


We ran a google ad for a short time through this url: http://xyz.com/truth-about-abs-review.php that contained a review inviting visitors to visit that site.


What we have now done is to take down that referral page: http://xyz.com/truth-about-abs-review.php in addition to deleting the Adwords campaign "Truth About Ads".


We are sorry if we have misled any users through this referral and promise that we will not promote such products again in the future, even tangentially,


Thank you for your kind reconsideration"

Google was not impressed:

"Thank you for writing back. I do understand that the site 'www.truthaboutabs.com' doesn't belong to you. However, during a review of your account, we found that this site was advertised via your account in the past, in the campaign 'Truth About Abs' which is currently deleted. Since it was advertised through your AdWords account, the site and violation have become associated with the account. This holds true irrespective of the duration for which the site was advertised, or if it was subsequently deleted or paused.

Therefore, the only way for your account to be considered for reinstatement is to make changes to this site to bring it in compliance with our policies. I would recommend reaching out to the site owner in this case and work with them to make the required changes.

At Google, we consistently seek ways to better ensure and protect the online experience for all of our users and advertisers. At times, we may review historical as well as current account behaviors to preserve this integrity. During a review of your account history, it was determined that your past violations of AdWords policies warranted further action and thus the account was suspended.

Please also note that pausing or deleting ads related to the disabled
sites will not automatically re-enable the ads nor remove the violation
history. Paused ads or campaigns will still be reviewed based on our
guidelines.

After a site violates AdWords policy and is disabled, advertisers must make changes to the landing page of the site and submit the site for re-review. If approved during the review, the site may be re-enabled for AdWords, and the account violations may be removed."

Phew!

Now on truthaboutabs.com there is only one contact email for Mike Geary, the supposed owner.

I wrote him an email:

"Dear Mike,

I have been an affiliate of your products on www.truthaboutabs.com My clickbank account name is netorbcb

Once in the past, I placed Google Ads to this landing page: http://xyz.com/truth-about-abs-review.php

That page, now removed to please google contained hoplinks to your site www.truthaboutabs.com

Now Google has banned my Adwords account, that I cannot place Ads anymore with them, now or in the future.

I appealed that I do not own www.truthaboutabs.com but they insisted that it does not matter, and that having once advertised an Ad that landed on your page, your domain has now been (permanently) associated with me.

In the last email they sent, they advised this: "Therefore, the only way for your account to be considered for reinstatement is to make changes to this site to bring it in compliance with our policies. I would recommend reaching out to the site owner in this case and work with them to make the required changes."

I will be grateful to get your response as to how we can get this sorted out,

I copy for you below the last correspondences with them.

Thank you very much,".

No reply from Mike Geary!

Now what do I do?

I use the Adwords account for many more serious businesses than this one-time promotion of Truthaboutabs.

Any help will be welcome.

[John Hocking]

If you contact them you may have a chance to get it reinstated.

Google bots were busy banning people based on long ago campaigns that violate new rules what were not in place when the ads ran.

You also might want to look through this tread about getting reinstated
How To Get Reinstated After Being Banned from Google AdWords - AdWords Help

[KristofVanoverbeek]

Another warrior that got banned that's sad to hear I just replied to another thread about this.


Kristof

[RichardF]

Yeah that's never fun. Happened to me back in 2009 I think it was. Was impossible to get it reinstated, the only solution was to put tons of effort into creating a new account (it's really hard to go undetected and they'll ban you as soon as they discover it).

[jack jastin]

Originally Posted by JoshuaWriter

Yeah I just think all this is funny becuase I got NO warnings and I was promoting that site YEARS ago and havn't touched it since. And back when I was promoting it, they DID NOT have these strict policies...

This is the very main disappointing point that whenever it seems that Google ad sense account is going to be banned, We are not warned for that in any way, So, Its really very frustrating.

[tryinhere]

Originally Posted by gingerol

Joshua,

After a site violates AdWords policy and is disabled, advertisers must make changes to the landing page of the site and submit the site for re-review. If approved during the review, the site may be re-enabled for AdWords, and the account violations may be removed."

Any help will be welcome.

yes in your case you should be lucky in that the site to be reviewed is your site not the truth about abs site, so all you need to do is re subbmitt your site and explain that the offending pages have been removed from your site and no longer breaks any google vilations.

you will need to spell that out clearly so that is understood

your account was banned for promotion of this page / site

url: http://xyz.com/truth-about-abs-review.php

and a such it is that site that needs to reviewed and approved and has nothing to do with the banned site truth about abs

it is simply black and white the site suspended was url: http://xyz.com/
and this site now complies.

the truth about abs site was always down the tube years ago now and it was along with every other cb site allowed to peddle adwords promotions, they even emailed you how to do it.

one big load of rubbish then and a even bigger one now.

[gingerol]

Originally Posted by tryinhere

yes in your case you should be lucky in that the site to be reviewed is your site not the truth about abs site, so all you need to do is re subbmitt your site and explain that the offending pages have been removed from your site and no longer breaks any google vilations.

you will need to spell that out clearly so that is understood

your account was banned for promotion of this page / site

url: http://xyz.com/truth-about-abs-review.php

and a such it is that site that needs to reviewed and approved and has nothing to do with the banned site truth about abs

it is simply black and white the site suspended was url: http://xyz.com/
and this site now complies.

the truth about abs site was always down the tube years ago now and it was along with every other cb site allowed to peddle adwords promotions, they even emailed you how to do it.

one big load of rubbish then and a even bigger one now.

Thank you for this. I will try this.

And thanks all for the inputs so far - much appreciated!

[Dr Livingston]

This is a sad thing. Google went on a hay day about a year back and banned every clickbank weight loss product from adwords. I know Mike personally and I would say that his product is one of the best out there. He is a very ethical and solid fitness guru. This is also coming from my experience as a doctor and avid fitness person. Marketing is marketing. The main problem really was the whole ACAI Berry Fake Blogs. They pissed google off and google went crazy and anything that was weight loss was banned. Totally unfair. But as always, one bad egg ruined the bunch.

If you noticed, that when this happened, none of the top clickbank weight loss sites budged an inch. Why? Because they use other marketing mediums besides google and their products still convert like crazy and people love them. That's why they are at the top. You don't stay at the top with crap products.

Just my 2 cents ;-)