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AdWords Account Suspended

by Vivek Singh
5 replies
  • PPC/SEM
    • |
Hi,
Thank you for reading this. I have a situation and hope that someone will be able to help.
A client's AdWords account has been suspended and although I have a theory, I would like to confirm it. Here are the details:

1 - The site in question is Portraits from Photos UK | Portrait Artists UK
2 - The client is in the business of making portraits from photographs
3 - The client bought the domain recently and launched the campaign day before and yesterday the account got suspended. Bam!
4 - This is the message received an hour before suspension -
Hello,

This is an important warning to tell you that your AdWords account is at risk of being suspended due to violations of our advertising policies. If suspended, your account will no longer run ads.

- Effect on your account

Your AdWords accounts are at serious risk of suspension if your ads or sites continue to violate our advertising policies. Once your account is suspended, your ads will no longer run, your related AdWords accounts will be suspended and you will not be able to open any new account
5. I've checked and there is no malware on the site
6. The site has multiple pages and a fair bit of content.
7. T&C and Privacy policy are present
8. There are no affiliate links
9. There are no ads running on the site
10. I checked the site using the wayback machine on armchive.org and it looks like the domain was used for some Japanese site in real estate - it appears as if there are lots of ads with links.

Looks to me that the domain was already flagged by Google before it changed hands. Can this be the reason for suspension? Can you think of any other possible reason? Any help is appreciated.

Thank You
Vivek
#account #account suspended #adwords #adwords policy #suspended
  • Profile picture of the author KostasPapahatzis
    I would suggest that you call them and ask them what the problem is. Adwords support has a phone line in most countries, so give them a call and they will answer you.
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    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Hi Vivek,

      AdWords always sends an email alerting you to the type of policy that you have violated. The email goes to the account owner, so see if you can get that message as it will give you the specific policy category which was violated. If you cannot locate that message then enable and check the policy details column found under the Ads tab.

      This link will explain how to locate the policy detail column in your account:
      https://support.google.com/adwords/a...20?hl=en#check

      Please let us know which AdWords policy category that this account has violated and I will offer specific advice on how to correct that.

      Please be aware that there are certain violations that AdWords finds especially egregious and they will never risk allowing those advertisers a second chance to commit the same violation, they are banned for life from the platform.

      If the account is new, it might be a previous account that that the advertiser had that was suspended. The advertiser cannot simply abandon the previous account and start over with a new account. Many people try that only to be disappointed when their new account gets suspended as well. Check to see if your client has ever advertised on AdWords in the past, If so, check that previous account for policy violations.

      In all cases, except the aforementioned egregious violations, you can get the suspension lifted. You just need to correct all of the violation issues and explain what steps you did to correct them when you submit a request for the suspension to be lifted.

      Here is a link that explains the process:
      https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/1704383
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      * Get Results - Outsource Your PPC Management |
      *       Don Burk Advertising & Marketing - www.donburk.com

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      • Profile picture of the author Vivek Singh
        Thank you Don and Kostas.

        The owner has never had an account earlier. She did receive a mail which mentioned the reason for suspension as 'Products or services that enable dishonest behaviour'.

        The policy details are at https://support.google.com/adwordspo...16086?hl=en-GB

        The site is owned by artists is in the business of creating portraits from photographs. Can this be construed as dishonest/ a service that can mislead others!! Isn't that taking things a bit too far!

        Any further suggestion please.

        Thank You
        Vivek
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        • Profile picture of the author dburk
          Hi Vivek,

          Maybe Google knows something about your client that you don't?

          How closely did you vet their operation?

          How do they differ from services like the following:
          Canvas prints starting from £8 | HelloCanvas
          Canvas Photos, Canvas Prints & Custom Photo Canvas Prints | CanvasPop
          https://www.shutterfly.com/home-decor/canvas-prints

          Perhaps there have been other advertisers that have claimed to be selling hand painted portraits from photos, but actually just printing onto canvas with acrylic ink? Perhaps Google has lumped your client into the same category as those scammers. Then again, how well do you know your clients?

          If you look closely at the comparisons of photos to hand painted portraits on their website you may notice that the poses never change, nor do the facial expressions. Looks pretty hinky to me. I'm sure that must be what AdWords reviewers thought as well.

          Currently there is nothing on the website that differentiates your client from those dubious operators. It appears that anyone with Photoshop could replicate the service offered by your client and never touch an actual paintbrush. I don't see any other reason that AdWords would suspend the account.

          If they are actually painting by hand, and not running a scam, I would suggest to them to offer a value added service like a time lapse video showing the actual artist painting the portrait by hand, something that will actually differentiate the true hand painted service from the print to canvas services.
          Signature

          * Get Results - Outsource Your PPC Management |
          *           Don Burk Advertising & Marketing - www.donburk.com

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          • Profile picture of the author Vivek Singh
            Hi Don,

            Thank you for your reply.

            You're right. I don't know the clients well enough. I had noticed that the expressions were very similar to the photographs but thought that it was because the artists were so good! This might just be true and the video is a great idea.

            I forgot to mention that under the ads status it specifically says that the 'site' is suspended. Does this corroborate your theory?

            I don't have access to webmaster to check if the pages have dropped off the index but I checked the site using an online tool and it says the site is 'possibly penalized or sandboxed by google!'

            Assuming that they do paint by hand, can you suggest other ideas that they can implement to differentiate the service. The video is a brilliant suggestion!

            Thank You
            Vivek

            PS: Don't have a thanks button yet
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