Google Banned me for something beyond my control!!!

[Martin Salter]

Anybody else had their Google Adwords account suspended for something they have absolutely no control over?

I logged into my AW account recently to discover I was suspended, even though I had received no warnings. Anyway, three emails later I am told that I was suspended due to landing page violations on a website.

When I checked the site, I have not owned it for well over one year. I wrote back to Google to explain this and they tell me they check into old advertising as well and current and if you break thier terms they can close your account. WTF???

So I write back and say, the domain is not in my control anymore, and I cancelled the ad campaign a LONG TIME AGO and it is not active or running.

I appeal on this basis, and this is the reply I got today!

"...I reviewed your account ******** and I can see that it has been
suspended. The site site in question is violating our Webmaster Guidelines
Policy under the Unacceptable Business Practices, and was consequently
disabled for being a low-quality site. In an effort to offer our users a high
level of quality sites, it is important that all sites within our network offer significant value by providing unique and relevant content.

I understand that you do not own the site anymore and so you
cannot make changes to it. But as per our Policy when advertisers promote a site they are responsible for the sites and the content on the site. So if a site is violating our policy the advertiser is held responsible for
it.

Understand that sometimes we may review historical as well as
current account behaviours to preserve this integrity. During a recent
review of your account history, it was determined that your past
violations of AdWords policies and disregard for landing page and site
quality guidelines warranted further action to avoid future incidents of
violation that might lead to notably negative or harmful user experiences..."

Please, someone tell me how I reply to this??? I explained that I do not own the site and that I deleted the campaign long ago. How can I be banned for and ad that leads to a site I have no control over, which is not even running as I cancelled it months/years ago? So the content now is not relevant to the ad that was written way back when. The site was used for testing anyway, and did not even get a single click if I remember correctly.

This seems insane to me, but wondered if anyone else ever had similar issue and did you manage to resolve it? Writing back to them seems to do no good whatsoever.

Martin

[Paleochora]

I would head over to Clicksor, Adbrite or Advertise.com

Then tell Google to stuff their adwords where the sun don't shine.

[Martin Salter]

that may end up being the best advice I get all year

[kiddoman]

It seems that Paleochora's suggestion is pretty useful! Thanks for sharing,man!

[seoforu]

The Google monopoly seems to be getting over....with many more advertising brands coming into play...I love Adbrite and Chitika.

[xxxJamesxxx]

Don't worry - you're not the only this has happened to.

They did it to me and thousands of others. Infact if you check the Warriors Forum daily you'll see stories just like yours how people got banned for alsorts of stupid reason out of their control.

My advice; Move on. Adwords is getting stupidly expensive anyway and there is cheaper ways to getting traffic to your site now.

James

[dhiraj161298]

Google Adsense and Adwords are going down day by day

[rauff]

Google is strictly following the rules

[serena85]

There are others like you who got an undeserved treatment from Google, but the end of their era is at the end.