Google needs to be taken out back and taught a lesson or two...

[gefflong]

This probably won't make a huge difference to me, but I'm posting it as a warning to others.

This month my adwords account has been permanently banned. Here’s the scoop.

I haven’t advertised much with my account since 2006. I do log in to my account and checked it every few months or so. This month, I logged in and it said my account was suspended permanently. So I contacted them.

After a week of email (adwords support only replies to one of your emails per day for some reason) it came down to this.

5 years ago, I did some affiliate advertising (a couple days worth) while I was creating my own website and product. Everything was fine. After a few days, my own stuff was live and I only promoted it, no affiliate stuff. Everyone was still happy.

Fast forward 5 years… 3 of those sites I promoted as an affiliate 5 years ago, were apparently not up to google’s standards anymore. Since I once promoted them with google adwords, my account was flagged and suspended.

After 8 phone calls I got the same response with every call. I need to change the websites to comply with Google’s terms of acceptable websites. Then I need to re-submit the sites to google and they will decide at that point if the site is acceptable.

Problem is... they were affiliate ads and sites... I don't have any control over them.

They advised me to contact the website owners and have them make changes to comply with Googles new policies and submit the new sites to Google for evaluation.

They didn’t care that I have no connection to the sites, or the fact that they were 100% legitimate when I advertised them 5 years ago. That makes no difference. Google doesn’t like them now, so they have permanently suspended my account since I had an ad for 2 days 5 years ago... They will not reverse my account suspension without having the offending sites fixed.

Crazy.

I checked out the sites and they aren't even bad. They are pretty much legitimate sales pages.

It really seems like google wants advertisers to pay for ads that lead directly to information sites that have no monetization. Yeah, that makes perfect financial sense.

So be forewarned... unless the sites you are promoting are your own, you may be banned at any time without recourse.

[Jeremy Banks]

That's terrible, sorry to hear about your issues. I would be starting a new account, you probably aren't supposed to but I am sure you could find a way to do it.

[Black Hat Cat]

It really is crazy. Basically, they're banning you for complying with their own rules five years ago. It's ridiculous.

[merlincat]

Crazy...

Now I understand the phrase "Banging your head against a brick wall!"

[paulgl]

Google needs to be taught a lesson? In what? How to make
even more in record profits?

Paul

[kdavis26]

It sucks but what can you do? Can you market without them? Odds are no, that is the one problem that I have about us all being at their mercy. It is not fun to know that at anytime a move they make can destroy a business or income from someone just because they are not happy with you. I guess thats kinda of the fun in what we do as well.

[gefflong]

Originally Posted by paulgl

Google needs to be taught a lesson? In what? How to make
even more in record profits?

Paul

No, they need to learn a little humility. Forced to go get the very switch they will be swatted with.

[App Developers]

thanks for posting your story. crazy!