Another Big Adword Banning Operation? Did You Get The Scary Email Yet?

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Well...I am not too sure about you...But it seems like google is completely trying to wipe out affiliates. Never expected this would happen as I am extremely strict when it comes to following the adword policies.

Turns out that I am not the only one who got the scary email...Here is a whole lot of other people who got it today as well Click Here- disabled account letter - AdWords Help

Just like me a lot of these people had their ads running for months and even years with perfect quality score. And all of a sudden without any warning they got banned.

Did you get an email from adwords too?
#adword #banning #big #operation
  • Profile picture of the author ryanman
    Here is another strange thing...This person had an ad running with perfect quality score for 10 YRS...And he got a ban email today as well- Account Disabled after 10 years for bad landing page!!! ?? - corporation - AdWords Help
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  • Profile picture of the author spartanic
    Looks like I'm one of those guys that got it today as well. I checked Adwords forums and it looks like theres a ton of people who got it too. Man, if you were making $20k a month from this then say goodbye to that.
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    • Profile picture of the author ryanman
      Originally Posted by spartanic View Post

      Looks like I'm one of those guys that got it today as well. I checked Adwords forums and it looks like theres a ton of people who got it too. Man, if you were making $20k a month from this then say goodbye to that.
      Well...Seems like adwords is just going to wipe out as many affiliates as possible. My account had perfect quality score and no issue whatsoever. It was literally untouched...So it's more than obvious they are targeting a lot of affiliates here. Just like the last time(The one's promoting re-bills)...You will see a huge number of affiliates get banned.
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      • Profile picture of the author lstoops
        Yep, I got the letter too. I haven't even used my acct in months and never felt I did anything to cause my account to become disabled. Pretty upset about it. But hey just makes me look for other ways to drive traffic.
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        • Profile picture of the author butters
          Originally Posted by lstoops View Post

          Yep, I got the letter too. I haven't even used my acct in months and never felt I did anything to cause my account to become disabled. Pretty upset about it. But hey just makes me look for other ways to drive traffic.
          How are they wipeing out affiliates, they banned people who did this basically

          * Sites that charge users or collect personal information in exchange for a product that is never delivered (some cpa offers)
          * Sites that charge for "free" software (obviouslly)
          * Sites that trick users into paying for fake or poor-quality content (obvious)
          * Sites that charge users for information that makes unrealistic promises of financial or personal gain (basically the new ftc rules)
          * Sites that install malware software on a visitor's computer (obvious)

          How is that the end of affiliates? I understand there might be more to the list but still, not even close to the end in my oppinion.
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          • Profile picture of the author ryanman
            Originally Posted by butters View Post

            How are they wipeing out affiliates, they banned people who did this basically

            * Sites that charge users or collect personal information in exchange for a product that is never delivered (some cpa offers)
            * Sites that charge for "free" software (obviouslly)
            * Sites that trick users into paying for fake or poor-quality content (obvious)
            * Sites that charge users for information that makes unrealistic promises of financial or personal gain (basically the new ftc rules)
            * Sites that install malware software on a visitor's computer (obvious)

            How is that the end of affiliates? I understand there might be more to the list but still, not even close to the end in my oppinion.

            Well I have read this too in the email...But I am not doing any of it. In fact! The campaigns I had...Were running for months with great clicks, Ctr etc etc. I didn't touch my account...Nothing new.

            So it obviously means...They are changing something or have some new policies in effect. But as usual they aren't going to be clear about it. But again...From the posts I've read on other forums, People I know...And rest of the sources. It's the affiliates who are getting mass banned.
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            • Profile picture of the author butters
              There is always going to be more affiliates being banned then product creators because there are more then them. I obviouslly can't judge on your campaign since I have no idea what you offered etc... Fortunately for me I didn't get the email, I can only guess its the new FTC thing and they are sorting them selves out.

              Kind of curious tho, are you IP banned or just account? If its just account, can't you just move your campaign over and you will have to accept a loss in money.
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              • Profile picture of the author ryanman
                Originally Posted by butters View Post

                There is always going to be more affiliates being banned then product creators because there are more then them. I obviouslly can't judge on your campaign since I have no idea what you offered etc... Fortunately for me I didn't get the email, I can only guess its the new FTC thing and they are sorting them selves out.
                True...Some merchants got banned too. So I believe it's just not the affiliates here...But they are definitely going to wipe off a big chunk of their advertisers this week or so.
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            • Profile picture of the author tryinhere
              Originally Posted by ryanman View Post

              But again...From the posts I've read on other forums, People I know...And rest of the sources. It's the affiliates who are getting mass banned.
              ?? i suppose i amy be next then but i really am finding it hard to believe, as many affiliates promote good stuff , provide content and every other thing ?

              if i get canned i suppose there is nothing i can do ?
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              • Profile picture of the author ryanman
                Originally Posted by tryinhere View Post

                ?? i suppose i amy be next then but i really am finding it hard to believe, as many affiliates promote good stuff , provide content and every other thing ?

                if i get canned i suppose there is nothing i can do ?
                Well...I am not too sure on who they have punished and who they have spared...But most of the ads...Landing pages etc are pre-approved by their team before it even goes live. So this is where they are banning people who they once thought were totally legal advertisers. I mean they even banned a 10 yr old advertiser with perfect quality score...So it's hard to say whats really going on.
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                • Profile picture of the author tryinhere
                  Originally Posted by ryanman View Post

                  Well...I am not too sure on who they have punished and who they have spared...But most of the ads...Landing pages etc are pre-approved by their team before it even goes live. So this is where they are banning people who they once thought were totally legal advertisers. I mean they even banned a 10 yr old advertiser with perfect quality score...So it's hard to say whats really going on.
                  well i really hope you guys get it sorted, one clue maybe is i do not run land pages / single pages per say, all i have is land sites / solo sites that could be a clue
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          • Profile picture of the author tjs1954
            Originally Posted by butters View Post

            How are they wipeing out affiliates, they banned people who did this basically

            * Sites that charge users or collect personal information in exchange for a product that is never delivered (some cpa offers)
            * Sites that charge for "free" software (obviouslly)
            * Sites that trick users into paying for fake or poor-quality content (obvious)
            * Sites that charge users for information that makes unrealistic promises of financial or personal gain (basically the new ftc rules)
            * Sites that install malware software on a visitor's computer (obvious)

            How is that the end of affiliates? I understand there might be more to the list but still, not even close to the end in my oppinion.
            Yep, If this is legit then you bet your life they are running scared of the new FTC regs.
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            • Profile picture of the author Agoge Warrior
              Originally Posted by tjs1954 View Post

              Yep, If this is legit then you bet your life they are running scared of the new FTC regs.
              Yeah but why not warn advertisers first? At least give the people who making them all of the money a chance to make improvement or decide to move on themselves.....THEN.....those that don't comply Google can do a mass shutdown.
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              • Profile picture of the author butters
                Originally Posted by zosowolfpacker View Post

                Yeah but why not warn advertisers first? At least give the people who making them all of the money a chance to make improvement or decide to move on themselves.....THEN.....those that don't comply Google can do a mass shutdown.
                Maybe they got more on there list, maybe they took some people to make an example of. It is strange that no warning was given but then again, the people who got banned were breaking there terms. From the sounds of it people have been breaking there terms for a while now.
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                • Profile picture of the author ryanman
                  Originally Posted by butters View Post

                  From the sounds of it people have been breaking there terms for a while now.
                  How about you have a campaign which was successfully running for 6 months? No problems...No Issues...Perfect quality score.

                  How did it all become illegal after 6 months when you didn't even touch it?

                  Well this clearly means they are trying to mass ban accounts just to make sure...They do not come under the FTC radar. They must have thought. Instead of warning all the advertisers & wait for them to make changes...Why not just wipe them out completely and save ourselves legal trouble? I know this sounds a bit strange but just an assumption...I may be wrong here.

                  But only google knows what goes inside google.
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                  • Profile picture of the author jerreye
                    I got my account banned yesterday too. No reasons given. hmmmmm
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  • Profile picture of the author David Brown
    yeah, I got it too, not only am I banned but banned for LIFE!!! for a landing page I have run in the past!!!
    They stated that any application for an account in the the future would NOT be accepted....Will Bing, Yahoo en others follow suit?
    Google are just covering their backs with the FTC regulations I guess.

    This is surely going to shake things up a bit.

    Good luck everyone........
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    • Profile picture of the author Rudy Dhondt
      Yes, the same happened to me after almost 5 years of advertising on Adwords.

      http://www.warriorforum.com/adsense-...ity-score.html

      I don't know what's happening, but I had a good account with good CTR's and Quality Scores.

      Paying between 3 cents and max of 15 cents per click.

      If they don't reinstate my account, all effort will have been done for nothing.

      Regards,
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      • Profile picture of the author Chris Steiner
        I got this email today as well. I haven't had much success with AdWords in the past, though the problem always seemed to be conversions rather than QS, since most had 7/10.

        I've never gotten any warnings before and as far as I can tell I haven't violated their policies or terms, and certainly none of the items mentioned in the email.

        This doesn't make any sense to me, especially with some of the advertisers I've seen posts from in the adwords forum. Some of them are manufacturers advertising their own product from their company page - not affiliates.
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  • Profile picture of the author spartanic
    Same here but before they list those reasons they also state:

    "These types of sites include, but are not limited to..."

    So it doesn't have to be just the ones they list.

    I don't suppose changing your ip, email address and using a new credit card would make any difference?


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  • Profile picture of the author Debbie_L
    Banned here too. Thought it was cause I'm relatively new.
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  • Profile picture of the author Agoge Warrior
    WOW!!!! I'm glad I am not the only one that this happened too! But for Google to do this without any warning what so ever is kind of unfair.
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  • Profile picture of the author TammieJJ
    Same here, and I haven't even run an ad in months. I was only trying out PPC anyways. The sad thing is, for the past three months, I've been getting emails from them requesting that I start running ads again...

    They won't always be the biggest fish in the pond.
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    • Profile picture of the author butters
      Originally Posted by TammieJJ View Post

      Same here, and I haven't even run an ad in months. I was only trying out PPC anyways. The sad thing is, for the past three months, I've been getting emails from them requesting that I start running ads again...

      They won't always be the biggest fish in the pond.
      they will in your life time

      PR: wait... I: wait... L: wait... LD: wait... I: wait...wait... Rank: wait... Traffic: wait... Price: wait... C: wait...
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    • Profile picture of the author TammieJJ
      Don't count on it.
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      • Profile picture of the author butters
        Originally Posted by TammieJJ View Post

        Don't count on it.
        Fact is they aint going any where soon, google is getting more and more powerful in the world, they are going to be top dog for a long long time.
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        • Profile picture of the author TammieJJ
          True, but Google has only risen to the top over the past 6-8 years or so, and with an ever evolving internet, another search engine or two may rise to the top in the next 2-4 years. Bing is showing some promise, if they can index faster, and work out a few technicalities. A little serious competition among the search engines would be a good thing for those of us who are trying to build a business online.
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          • Profile picture of the author butters
            Originally Posted by TammieJJ View Post

            True, but Google has only risen to the top over the past 6-8 years or so, and with an ever evolving internet, another search engine or two may rise to the top in the next 2-4 years. Bing is showing some promise, if they can index faster, and work out a few technicalities. A little serious competition among the search engines would be a good thing for those of us who are trying to build a business online.
            Bing is owned by microsoft and when people here microsoft they here bad things, its true. When they see google they think good things and rightly so. A small comapny coming up and rivaling google its not impossible but if bing can't do it with there billions of dollars then a small guy isn't going to come along and knock them out.
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            • Profile picture of the author TammieJJ
              Google was started by two little guys....and they came along and knocked everyone else out. That's the beauty of the internet.
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              • Profile picture of the author butters
                Originally Posted by TammieJJ View Post

                Google was started by two little guys....and they came along and knocked everyone else out. That's the beauty of the internet.
                Times have massively changed and it makes things like that improbable. Look at PPC, 10 years it was easy money and now it is a lot harder, this post proves that. The thing is, google isn't only search, its email, maps, phones and so on... If you ask a regular person, not a IM but some random guy on the street who they use to surf the internet, 9/10 they will say google. To get the every day person to change there mind about search, well that will be extremely hard if not close to impossible.

                If a small company has a great idea, google can just implement it to there search engine and that small company will not get any traction because 90% of people will beleive google come up with it first, since its google.
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                • Profile picture of the author TammieJJ
                  Yes, times have massively changed...and they will continue to do so. But, as with the financial industry (AIG, Enron, etc.), and the auto industry (GM, Chrysler, etc.), even the biggest fall sooner or later.

                  You make an excellent argument for your case, as I do for mine. Good luck to you, butters!
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          • Profile picture of the author Beldin
            Interesting thread, I wonder if there is any case for legal action. They are taking away some peoples livelyhood... it just seems to me that a warning would be more appropriate, followed by a ban if you continue to do the same thing...
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            • Profile picture of the author butters
              Originally Posted by Beldin View Post

              Interesting thread, I wonder if there is any case for legal action. They are taking away some peoples livelyhood... it just seems to me that a warning would be more appropriate, followed by a ban if you continue to do the same thing...
              Im pretty sure when you sign up to google adwords, they say in there terms that they can do what they just did. I am sure google visited the lawyers before doing any of this
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            • Profile picture of the author FrankBowman
              Originally Posted by Beldin View Post

              Interesting thread, I wonder if there is any case for legal action. They are taking away some peoples livelyhood... it just seems to me that a warning would be more appropriate, followed by a ban if you continue to do the same thing...

              I guarantee that this has not happened to any member of the "Google Affiliate Network".....
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              • Profile picture of the author digitaledge
                Whoops started a new thread until i was pointed to this one.

                Yes banned here too. Instills alot of confidence to someone like me who is fairly new and was just promoting other peoples websites. Funny i didnt have much account history.

                I can only imagine the people who depend thier income on this.

                I think that everyone should ban together and screw google back by boycotting all advertising through them. let them suffer.

                Everyone can head to msn and yahoo. im sure google will see the dent in thier pockets sooner or later, and yahoo and msn ppc will soar
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                • Profile picture of the author bha
                  I wonder when the Adsense bannings will start? It appears that Google is cleaning house and if they are getting rid of low (or perceived) low quality advertisers, when will they get rid of low (or perceived) low quality publishers.
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                  • Profile picture of the author FrankBowman
                    Originally Posted by bha View Post

                    I wonder when the Adsense bannings will start? It appears that Google is cleaning house and if they are getting rid of low (or perceived) low quality advertisers, when will they get rid of low (or perceived) low quality publishers.

                    I doubt that'll happen...........they need their publishers big and small......

                    Still there are plenty of traffic sources other than google out there
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                    • Profile picture of the author ManuelGonzalez
                      I think it's ridiculous how they allow a computer to have the FINAL say so on disabling. I wonder if there is any human intervention on any level. An affiliate of mine got his suspend, AFTER he went threw and removed any campaign that he felt could cause his account to get disabled. This really can break and hurt users. Has google adwords just gotten to big for its own good? they seem to be heartless, they figure their software can jsut disable and they are willing to accept collateral damage. I wonder if Yahoo ads has seen an increase in their revenue since google started disabling. But im not sure, i feel nothing is comparable to adwords as far as its reach, and target your audience. I could be wrong here. I dunoo this issue really gets to me, mainly how they let software do the entire disabling process not just flag for human intervention.,
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  • Profile picture of the author btl1
    I'd be interested in seeing a few of the sites that got these letters ... a lot of people say they adhere to googles terms of services, but in actuality do not..

    Anyone have a site that got banned they want to PM me so I can take a look?
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  • Profile picture of the author bha
    Fortunately, I never received this email. In fact I got a $100 credit if I use my account again by 12/15/09. I wonder if it matters that I never jumped on the **** bandwagon or other types of products.
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  • Profile picture of the author Daniel_Pereira
    I've never heard of anyone getting their Microsoft AdCenter account or Yahoo Search Marketing account disabled. I'm taking action. Tomorrow I am setting up as many campaigns as I can on both. I just wish I already had a Yahoo Gold account, dang it! But after a few months of advertising with them i should so that I can upload campaigns the way I really want.

    To give my feedback to today's unfortunate events: I haven't had my Google account disabled (yet! I better not or my wife will kill me!). But I did have what seems to be a related problem with Google today. That is that none of my ads that I posted today got approved. There were a lot of them. I was direct linking to CPA offers. So tomorrow my action game plan will be to hit up Yahoo and MSN hard. Who knows! Maybe I'll become the "Perry Marshall" of Bing and Yahoo. Ha!

    Daniel Pereira
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  • Profile picture of the author thomashoi
    It's unfortunate that this has happened to so many of us affiliates who has spent lots of time, money and efforts to build up our campaigns.

    But I think with yahoo and Bing coming in to take a share of the huge pie, Google is doing everything it needs to maintain its share and they do this by raising the bar higher, i.e giving more quality ads to the persons using Google.


    Before you want to give up on internet marketing business, you may want to watch this
    video which help me to continue in this business after months of little or no income.

    http://www.warriorforum.com/mind-war...000-1-day.html

    For those whose adwords account has been banned, you can still applied but just give different credit card number, name, address - Use your dad, mum ... etc, you can still get a new google adwords account. Many people have done that before.

    I suggest also changing your domain name and this time, just put a opt-in page without any affiliate links or sales page. Once the visitor signs up to your opt-in list, direct them to whatever sales page with affiliate links you have.

    This is a much better way of solving the problem since Google will have no reason to ban you (unless they sign up to your link) and even if they ban you in future,
    you will have collected a list of qualified prospects whom you can sell related
    products to them for life.

    A big list will mean never depend on Google! Remember the money is in the list
    and not the search engine!!

    Of course, the main thing is to add more value to your visitor who is looking for
    information to help them solve a problem.
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  • Profile picture of the author linkmetro
    looks like bing working on something also...they search and news news

    " This site is temporarily unavailable, please check back soon...." hummmm??
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  • Profile picture of the author mdunn123
    O got my ban email last night This after 3 years with them and have spent well in excess of at least $250,000 over that time period with them. Did I break any rules? Nope and I checked. I always had great QS, and the funny thing is no campaigns running for the last month. They can go F**k themselves

    On the google note...well yes google WILL fall. Every empire, every business, every person no matter how strong or how big or powerful WILL fall sooner or later. History always repeats itself in this area. One day there will be a new world power, a new internet powerhouse, a new planet...blah blah blah...

    Will we be there when google comes crashing down? I don't know...but I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to bet there when they do...and say

    "you see this is what happens when you screw the people that helped build your business from the early days to begin with"
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  • Profile picture of the author Brian_Mahaffey
    This has nothing to do the with the FTC or affiliates. Read some of these examples:
    New rule? Quality Violations => Adwords ban

    Look what this guys says for example

    "I got banned also last week. I'm a furniture guy that has no affiliates and participates in no affiliate programs. I've had an account that I spend from 7 to 10k per month only inactive for about 3 days in the 5 years. I hadn't received even a single warning ever regarding the quality of my landing pages (I've looked back). I've gone through my adwords account and I'm all 8/10 and 10/10s for quality score.
    Google has told me to "go die in a fire." No help, no other way to appeal. "

    and look at this post:

    "Paused ads will still accrue violations against them. This is insanity.
    As an Adwords advertiser that has been active since before Adwords was PPC...I'm responsible for an ad that I may have created 4 years ago and has been paused since then?
    There is simply no logical explanation for this. "

    So as of now no one really knows why. I have even heard of people having the SAME campaigns in multiple accounts and one account being banned and the other one was OK.
    I know others running JUST CPA and affiliate offers and they are still OK
    This looks like random bots doing the dirty work and It is total Mayhem!
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    • Profile picture of the author Vawriters
      Its really pathetic....Anybody has replied that scary email & got any response....yet. Please update us if you get any response
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      • Profile picture of the author cscarpero
        Yep. I got it too. Grrr.....
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        • Profile picture of the author ryanman
          Originally Posted by cscarpero View Post

          Yep. I got it too. Grrr.....
          Yup! I know a lot of people who didn't get the ban email yet...But are getting 0 impressions. So again! They are cleaning house this week for some reason. I guess they have more than enough big ticket advertisers in the pool.
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    • Profile picture of the author psresearch
      Originally Posted by Brian_Mahaffey View Post

      This has nothing to do the with the FTC or affiliates.
      Actually it probably does have to do with the FTC. The FTC has been putting pressure on advertising networks to stop running scammy/misleading advertising.

      Of significance is a recent case in which the FTC fined MoneyGram 18 Million Dollars:
      * MoneyGram to Pay $18 Million to Settle FTC Charges That it Allowed its Money Transfer System To Be Used for Fraud
      * Company Also Required to Implement Comprehensive Anti-Fraud Program and to Monitor its Agents
      MoneyGram to Pay $18 Million to Settle FTC Charges That it Allowed its Money Transfer System To Be Used for Fraud (Money Gram)

      In other words the FTC isn't only cracking down on the perpetrators of fraud, but also cracking down on what they consider to be companies that help facilitate fraud.
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      • Profile picture of the author ryanman
        Originally Posted by markquinn View Post

        Actually it probably does have to do with the FTC. The FTC has been putting pressure on advertising networks to stop running scammy/misleading advertising.
        Yup! Seems this is it. And in fact they started the massive ban operation on dec 1...So it's a pretty clear indication that it has to do a lot with the FTC.

        FTC does have enough power to take down google...Therefore google is just trying to save itself from the looks of it.
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  • Profile picture of the author ryanman
    Perry Marshall made a post about this on his blog- What would you do if Google banned your account?
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  • Profile picture of the author dtrainer
    Google is getting too big and proud. They think we are the google the masters of the universe. Luckily there are other search engines.
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  • Profile picture of the author dtrainer
    This is why I hate when there is only one huge company trying to bring its own rules and monopoly. Let's block google haha.
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  • Profile picture of the author actionplanbiz
    my account was banned dec 1.

    this other person claimed in another forum that his account got banned even when all his campaign was in pause.

    Right when ive been studing adwords 10 hour days for the last month.... LOL
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    • Profile picture of the author tryinhere
      Originally Posted by actionplanbiz View Post

      Right when Ive been studing adwords 10 hour days for the last month.... LOL
      It is difficult to keep track, i have 3 similar versions of things and many confusing things flying around and done my best to combine what i have below.

      I make no guarantee with any of this other than to say these are my own findings to date based on data i have, nor do i claim they are right or wrong, but more my own views at this point, but if your about to promote some sites do a quick check

      ------------
      Landing Page and Site Quality Guidelines
      three main components of a quality website

      > relevant and original content
      Please be aware that we've found some types of sites that provide a consistently poor experience for our users. These sites will receive low landing page quality scores

      Users have consistently provided negative feedback on several types of website. In our commitment to make AdWords as effective as possible for advertisers and users, ads promoting these types of websites may receive low landing page quality scores. In some instances, they will not be allowed to run

      Data collection sites that offer free items etc., in order to collect private information

      < on the surface CPA type sites , and or email collection one page type sites but hard to confirm that at this point >

      Arbitrage sites that are designed for the purpose of showing ads

      < in short if you have adsense type ads do not use adwords to send to that page , / cause or intent to arbitrage the ad system >

      Affiliate sites that the primary purpose of which is to drive traffic to another site with a different domain

      < this would / could be deemed as a single page / bridge type page where bridge is term use to connect two sides, your affiliate link and the product / merchant site >

      "Get-rich quick" sites sites that make unrealistic promises

      < you can see this working with the new ftc rules where people are claiming unreal banana peel type sites >


      Sites that are deceptive

      Mal-ware sites that knowingly or unknowingly install software on a visitor's computer

      , explains itself >

      Poor comparison shopping or travel sites whose primary purpose is to send users to other shopping/travel comparison sites, rather than to provide useful content or additional search functionality



      < the word review site comes to mind here at least low quality ones >
      Extremely misleading/unverifiable or inaccurate claims

      Relevance and originality are two characteristics that define high-quality site content. Here are some pointers on creating content that meets these standards:

      Users should easily be able to find what your ad promises.
      Link to the page on your site that provides the most useful information about the product or service in your ad. For instance, direct users to the page where they can buy the advertised product, rather than to a page with a description of several products.

      < this really points to the ad, the keyword and the land destination all working together and where possible create keyword rich land zones or pages , one land page for half the dictionary probably wont cut it>



      Originality:
      • Feature unique content that can't be found on another site. This guideline is particularly applicable to resellers whose site is identical or highly similar to another reseller's or the parent company's site, and to affiliates that use the following types of pages:
      • Bridge pages: Pages that act as an intermediary, whose sole purpose is to link or redirect traffic to the parent company
      < self explanatory in that this is usually a single page with one purpose to drive to a affiliate offer, they have no real content , or they may be part of a larger site but again have that same feel to them of little or no value >
      • Mirror pages: Pages that replicate the look and feel of a parent site; your site should not mirror (be similar or nearly identical in appearance to) your parent company's site or any other advertiser's site
      < a very interesting one here and schools out but using a i frame, or even a redirected domain name with the URL masking on would seem on the surface to hit here, i know some people say they do it, i just wonder if so for how long >
      • Provide substantial information. If your ad does link to a page consisting mostly of ads or general search results (such as a directory or catalogue page), provide additional, unique content.
      It's especially important to feature original content because AdWords won't show multiple ads directing to identical or similar landing pages at the same time.

      > transparency

      In order to build trust with users, your site should be explicit in three primary areas: the nature of your business, how your site interacts with a visitor's computer and how you intend to use a visitor's personal information, if you request it. Here are tips on maximising your site's transparency:



      Your business information:
      • Openly share information about your business. Clearly define what your business is or does.
      • Honour the deals and offers that you promote in your ad.
      • Deliver products and services as promised.
      • Only charge users for the products and services that they order and successfully receive.
      • Distinguish sponsored links from the rest of your site content
      < all self explanatory but these sites with little information and tending to be more the quick bridge type land pages seem to be a dying breed in many ways and its more land sites not land pages ? no real confirmation on this other than it is part of the G quality guide lines, each can call it whatever way they want >

      < as to what the minimum page requirements are i am not sure but i do know these pages do work

      home
      articles (optional)
      blog (optional)
      about us
      contact us
      FAQ
      resources ( outbound links )
      site map
      terms

      + in bound links

      Avoid altering users' browser behavior or settings (such as back button functionality or browser window size) without first getting their permission.
      If your site automatically installs software, be upfront about the installation and allow for easy removal



      Visitors' personal information:
      • Unless necessary for the product or service that you're offering, don't request personal information.
      • If you do request personal information, provide a privacy policy that discloses how the information will be used.
      • Give options to limit the use of a user's personal information, such as the ability to opt out of receiving newsletters.
      • Allow users to access your site's content without requiring them to register. Or, provide a preview of what users will get by registering
      > navigability



      The key to turning visitors into customers is making it easy for users to find what they're looking for. Here's how:
      • Provide a short and easy path for users to purchase or receive the product or offer in your ad.
      • Avoid excessive use of pop-ups, pop-unders and other obtrusive elements throughout your site.
      • Make sure that your landing page loads quickly.
      NOTES

      I will add i have heard some people say it is the affiliate link that causes the problem. It is my belief at this point that this is not true based on all information i have combined with not one verifiable instance on any google page that clearly states an afiliate link can not be used ?

      if anyone can show me any instance where google states clearly an affiliate link can not be used please throw a link.
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      • Profile picture of the author Intrepreneur
        Originally Posted by tryinhere View Post

        It is difficult to keep track, i have 3 similar versions of things and many confusing things flying around and done my best to combine what i have below.

        if anyone can show me any instance where google states clearly an affiliate link can not be used please throw a link.
        Man this is crazy content in the middle of a fiasco. Anyone reading.. pay heed to this dude, he knows his stuff.

        Anyhoy for now stay golden and expect a golden relove from Google.
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        • Profile picture of the author tryinhere
          Originally Posted by Intrepreneur View Post

          Man this is crazy content in the middle of a fiasco. Anyone reading.. pay heed to this dude, he knows his stuff.
          Anyhoy for now stay golden and expect a golden relove from Google.
          As much as i appreciate the heads up, i also expect to get the knock on the door, many people are getting slammed, and it seems similar to a choock raffle right now.

          I know in the past i ran a poor quality campaign due to being caught out by a supposed quality site.

          It was after i loaded and went back i seen red all over, i deleted it, then asked the site ? why for they said they had no idea, so i am no different to all here and will be lucky if i pass.

          strange times and no certainty for anyone from what i see.
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      • Profile picture of the author ryanman
        Originally Posted by tryinhere View Post


        Sites that are deceptive
        I think this is the most important point out of all...They aren't banning sites based on keyword relevancy, ad text...Landing page etc.

        They are randomly checking accounts on case by case basis and are just banning any site which is making a certain claim which might/might not be true.

        For example if you page says- Get a free i-pod...Enter your email and then the user has to complete pages after pages and even needs to make a small purchase. That's considered deceptive. You have to make it absolutely clear on the page itself what the user would need to do.

        For example -

        Want a free ipod?

        - Go to the next page.

        - Fill out the surveys.

        - A small purchase may be required.

        Etc etc.

        But that's not the only thing here...You can't say this either- Lose weight in 14 days with xyz diet.

        That's considered another claim...So in short...You can't use strong call to action. Period.
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        • Profile picture of the author tryinhere
          Originally Posted by ryanman View Post

          They are randomly checking accounts on case by case basis and are just banning any site which is making a certain claim which might/might not be true.

          That's considered another claim...So in short...You can't use strong call to action. Period.
          With a gut hunch i do not think there is anything random at all, computers work on numbers (in this case) and my gut tells me based on what i have seen is there is a % number at play

          I am hearing a lot people say i have an account that has been dormant for xyz and i have deleted all poor sites.

          It has also been said that if people have run a poor site before they are likely to do it again.

          Based on that and without knowing for certain what those dormant sites ran i going to go out on a limb and say if an account has a xyz % factor of running poor quality ads it trips the meter and bang

          So in this case if an old unused account did run predominately poor related land pages and or a active account had a % factor of xyz poor land page activity then the fuse wire is tripped.

          I may be wrong on that but i very much doubt a random selection is being used over a % ratio figure.

          As to you can not use a strong call to action ? i would think there would still be many strong actions that could be used as a trigger that do not fall over the exaggerated limits.
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  • Profile picture of the author todd40fla
    i wonder if all of these recent bannings have anything to do with the upcomming ftc crackdowns. google!!!!! grrrrrrrr!
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  • Profile picture of the author Sylonious
    I saw Eric Schmidt (Google's CEO) on Larry King last night talking about what Google is doing to help out small businesses...

    He said they were trying to help small businesses "get some money". He even suggested that an out of work autoworker become a BLOGGER to make money on the side.

    SMH

    Talk about being TWO-FACE.
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  • Profile picture of the author TimScott
    Yeah I got th disabled letter to. Even though I wasn't currently running anything, they said based on past campaigns (that have long since been deleted) my account is getting disabled. Ang it's not just affiliates, this is happening to even brick and mortar business.

    And Yes even Ad center is starting t crack down as well. I thing doing PPC with the big 3, is like walking on thin ice right now. Thats why I'm just focusing on organic traffic. It's a lot less stressful.
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    • Profile picture of the author ryanman
      Originally Posted by TimScott View Post


      And Yes even Ad center is starting t crack down as well. I thing doing PPC with the big 3, is like walking on thin ice right now. Thats why I'm just focusing on organic traffic. It's a lot less stressful.
      Are you sure about adcenter? I haven't heard such news lately.
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      • Profile picture of the author ManuelGonzalez
        Originally Posted by ryanman View Post

        Are you sure about adcenter? I haven't heard such news lately.
        trueme neither, it wouldnt make sense for them... Wouldnt they want more biz to grow and catch up to google?
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  • Profile picture of the author FrankBowman
    This has been happening a lot lately. Google, it seems is trying to weed out some of its smaller advertisers, they're starting to concentrate on larger customers.

    There is an easy solution though.

    1. Use a different credit card, you may need to use someone else's, or form a Corp or LLC
    2. Open a new Gmail account AND Adwords account from a different IP (computer) or your same computer just have your IP changed

    That should do it.
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    • Profile picture of the author Black Hat Cat
      Banned
      Originally Posted by FrankBowman View Post

      This has been happening a lot lately. Google, it seems is trying to weed out some of its smaller advertisers, they're starting to concentrate on larger customers.

      There is an easy solution though.

      1. Use a different credit card, you may need to use someone else's, or form a Corp or LLC
      2. Open a new Gmail account AND Adwords account from a different IP (computer) or your same computer just have your IP changed

      That should do it.
      If I have to trick Google into taking my money, then to hell with them. There are plenty of other places that are more than happy to take my advertising dollars.
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  • Profile picture of the author FrankBowman
    This is why monopolies are illegal.........eff Google
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    • Profile picture of the author ManuelGonzalez
      Originally Posted by FrankBowman View Post

      This is why monopolies are illegal.........eff Google
      i agree 100%, yahoo is a nice contender but really, nothing like adwords. Google is really too big for its own good. That's what makes them so effective at reaching EVERYONE via adwords, but really, it also makes them lose their human aspect if you want to call it that. Anyways im done with this topic. Like i said above, the fact that they let their software have the final say so is ridiculous.
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    • Profile picture of the author Black Hat Cat
      Banned
      Originally Posted by FrankBowman View Post

      This is why monopolies are illegal.........eff Google
      Google isn't a monopoly.
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  • Profile picture of the author ryanman
    Read this- Google Cracks Down On Scammy Advertisers (GOOG)

    This clarifies a lot of stuff right here...

    -------------------------------------------
    Now, when Google finds an ad that it deems dishonest or a scam, it disables that account immediately and any similar accounts that it can connect to the perpetrator. Mr. Fox said the company has technology to determine who is connected to what account, which will make it very hard for a banned user to create another account.
    -------------------------------------------

    So they actually consider any sort of outrageous claims or copywriting as scammy ads.

    ---------------------------------------
    "Initially we wanted to give these users the benefit of the doubt; maybe they made a mistake?" said Nick Fox, business product director for AdWords. "What we're seeing is that's not really the case. When an advertiser creates one scam, it is likely they did it intentionally, and it's also likely the next site they create is going to be a scam."
    -----------------------------------------



    And it's not based on your present campaigns either...If you had slapped campaigns in the past...You are most likely to get banned because they feel if you did it in the past...You will most likely do it again.


    And I am really not sure what their definition of scam is...But a lot of high ticket advertisers like walmart/ebay etc have ads which do make big claims or have dynamic keyword insertion using which they show up on literally any search term. Well they aren't banned...Are they now?
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    • Profile picture of the author tony-raymondo
      these posts are scaring the crap out of me

      i switched from PPC to SEO a month ago

      damn

      thank god
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      • Profile picture of the author ryanman
        Originally Posted by tony-raymondo View Post

        these posts are scaring the crap out of me

        i switched from PPC to SEO a month ago

        damn

        thank god
        Well...Even with SEO...You are still in a way at the mercy of google. Their ways might change overnight and the site might lose the first page rankings. It's always recommended to find other platforms.
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    • Profile picture of the author mdunn123
      Originally Posted by ryanman View Post

      Read this- Google Cracks Down On Scammy Advertisers (GOOG)

      This clarifies a lot of stuff right here...

      -------------------------------------------
      Now, when Google finds an ad that it deems dishonest or a scam, it disables that account immediately and any similar accounts that it can connect to the perpetrator. Mr. Fox said the company has technology to determine who is connected to what account, which will make it very hard for a banned user to create another account.
      -------------------------------------------

      So they actually consider any sort of outrageous claims or copywriting as scammy ads.

      ---------------------------------------
      "Initially we wanted to give these users the benefit of the doubt; maybe they made a mistake?" said Nick Fox, business product director for AdWords. "What we're seeing is that's not really the case. When an advertiser creates one scam, it is likely they did it intentionally, and it's also likely the next site they create is going to be a scam."
      -----------------------------------------



      And it's not based on your present campaigns either...If you had slapped campaigns in the past...You are most likely to get banned because they feel if you did it in the past...You will most likely do it again.


      And I am really not sure what their definition of scam is...But a lot of high ticket advertisers like walmart/ebay etc have ads which do make big claims or have dynamic keyword insertion using which they show up on literally any search term. Well they aren't banned...Are they now?
      Of course they're not taken down.....it's capitalism at work my friend
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    • Profile picture of the author Agoge Warrior
      Originally Posted by ryanman View Post

      Read this- Google Cracks Down On Scammy Advertisers (GOOG)

      This clarifies a lot of stuff right here...

      -------------------------------------------
      Now, when Google finds an ad that it deems dishonest or a scam, it disables that account immediately and any similar accounts that it can connect to the perpetrator. Mr. Fox said the company has technology to determine who is connected to what account, which will make it very hard for a banned user to create another account.
      -------------------------------------------

      So they actually consider any sort of outrageous claims or copywriting as scammy ads.

      ---------------------------------------
      "Initially we wanted to give these users the benefit of the doubt; maybe they made a mistake?" said Nick Fox, business product director for AdWords. "What we're seeing is that's not really the case. When an advertiser creates one scam, it is likely they did it intentionally, and it's also likely the next site they create is going to be a scam."
      -----------------------------------------



      And it's not based on your present campaigns either...If you had slapped campaigns in the past...You are most likely to get banned because they feel if you did it in the past...You will most likely do it again.


      And I am really not sure what their definition of scam is...But a lot of high ticket advertisers like walmart/ebay etc have ads which do make big claims or have dynamic keyword insertion using which they show up on literally any search term. Well they aren't banned...Are they now?
      This is nice and all but what about all of the businesses that got banned and they were legitimate businesses with legitimate products?

      Many had never had problems before or were big ad spenders.

      I still smell a rat in all of this mess......................
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  • Profile picture of the author keivn2
    I also got the email today. I don't know what is their reason behind this ban. All of my sites don't offer any free gifts or opt-in included.

    I wonder, if I unable to reinstate my adword, what is other option left for me to earn money online?
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  • Profile picture of the author cagliostro
    Personally i don't get it !

    Google Adwords is FULL of semi-legal WorkFromHome and MLM advertizers. Their ads are HIGHLY vage and not clear, still Google does nothing about it.

    Rather contradictory, don't you think ?
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    • Profile picture of the author ManuelGonzalez
      Originally Posted by cagliostro View Post

      Personally i don't get it !

      Google Adwords is FULL of semi-legal WorkFromHome and MLM advertizers. Their ads are HIGHLY vage and not clear, still Google does nothing about it.

      Rather contradictory, don't you think ?
      I heard they were going to start looking at advertisers on there next.
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  • Profile picture of the author ryanman
    For those who have replied to the email...Here is a standard response they're sending back...Again typical copy & paste.

    QUOTED FROM ADWORD FORUM-

    ----------------------------------
    "In cases where a violation has occurred, some advertisers may first receive a warning to correct the problem; however, in other cases where violations have occurred frequently, or are considered egregious, Google may choose to permanently disable the advertiser's AdWords account.

    As a result, your account has been suspended and your ads will no
 longer run on Google. Additionally, please do not open any new AdWords accounts. If you do, your newly opened accounts will be suspended upon registration, and your account fee will not be refunded.

    Our review is extensive, and we take many factors into consideration
 to ensure that we're reaching an accurate conclusion. As noted in our Terms and Conditions, Google reserves the right to terminate advertisements for any reason."
    ---------------------------------


    So it's pretty clear here...They aren't going to answer your questions...Neither are they going to tell you why you got banned.
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    • Profile picture of the author ManuelGonzalez
      wow so SOFTWARE disables your account, and when you write them SOFTWARE replies....wow i would expect more from google.... this really is ridiculous.
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      • Profile picture of the author Brian_Mahaffey
        Yea, They send their "Nazi Bots" around to look through your "past" ads and your done. Even if you fixed them (and it also seems even if you did not even have any ads that violated anything or received any warning notices at all).

        Best analogy I heard is owning a street that says speed limit is 55 miles per hour. The owner of the street then changes it to 35 miles per hour but then goes back to all the people who previously drove on that street at 55 miles per hour and throws them in jail. This my friends in modern day Google.
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        • Profile picture of the author Magicooll
          Originally Posted by Brian_Mahaffey View Post


          Best analogy I heard is owning a street that says speed limit is 55 miles per hour. The owner of the street then changes it to 35 miles per hour but then goes back to all the people who previously drove on that street at 55 miles per hour and throws them in jail. This my friends in modern day Google.
          Thanks for the above
          that sure sums it all up
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      • Profile picture of the author ryanman
        Originally Posted by ManuelGonzalez View Post

        wow so SOFTWARE disables your account, and when you write them SOFTWARE replies....wow i would expect more from google.... this really is ridiculous.
        It's said that google doesn't have enough support staff to answer thousands of emails...So I guess the software cuts their work short.
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        • Profile picture of the author ManuelGonzalez
          Originally Posted by ryanman View Post

          It's said that google doesn't have enough support staff to answer thousands of emails...So I guess the software cuts their work short.
          They shouldnt just let bots run the show. I know they have millions of users but they should do what every other BIG company does. OUTSOURCE. I mean i'd rather have a semi trained, hard to understand person in india/china/somewhere earning a few dollars a day to talk with, then have a bot say disables, and now when you email them a bot responds, and when you call them lol, good luck trying to get a hold of someone who cares. ahh this just really frustrates me that google is doing this. I have not been disables, but i know users who have been, even after stopping any campaign that may have been flagged.
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          • Profile picture of the author psresearch
            I think Google should consider banning their own adwords account.

            Here are keywords that Google displays an ad for their adwords system:

            "make money fast"
            "make easy money"
            "easy money"
            "get rich quick"

            For which Google displays the following ad in position 3:

            Start Making Money
            Gain New Customers In Just 15 Mins
            Sign-Up To Google AdWords Today!
            www.Google.com/AdWords

            However, if you're looking for

            "business leads"
            "business to business leads"
            "targeted traffic"
            "increase website traffic"
            "buy website traffic"
            "website traffic"

            Apparently Adwords can't help you (the ad for Adwords doesn't show).

            It almost seems like Google's own ad is way overhyped.
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  • Profile picture of the author Crafty Blogger
    I think your analogy would work better the other way around...
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  • Profile picture of the author chini
    Yeah i got the email aswell, lucky i stopped adwords a while ago. Its terrible they can do this to you, hopefully there revenues decrease dramatically. Maybe everyone who was banned and making money, who felt that their actions were sound and not against google policy should get together, pitch in donations (theres a **** load of users) and take google to court under a class action. Not sure what grounds you can get them under, but im sure theres something.
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  • Profile picture of the author chini
    Google's Violations (of business ethics):
    1. They don't talk (no spesific explanation ever be made on any accusations)
    2. They don't write (not even single spesific explanation of what they want. just kick everyone out. yeah their "robots" do writes and doing the customer (dis)service! what a technology. I remember the story when terrorists put up a demand, and keep blowing everything off.)
    3. They don't read (their customers story and emails, and so many complaints on various forums)
    4. They don't hear (what you're saying. you will keep redirected to their shiny guidelines and policy which everybody understands clearly but their robots. Well, no wonder since they put robots to listen and judge what we humans are saying)
    5. They don't review (how could they review if they don't even acknowledge that there's A problem.)
    6. They are "not responding" to anything (typical attitude of company full of smartest 'technicians')
    7. They are experimenting their toys with people's businesses, and they put another toy to handle their frustations instead of put a close attention (using real humans) of what might gone wrong.
    7. They created an affiliate network themselves, and they prohibit people from using PPC (yes. you're not safe even if you're promoting their programs. At least I was not.)
    8. They keep talking about improving service to their user. But they're giving them fewer options and cloudy results by improving their disservice to their affiliates (yes we were Google's affiliates). Soon, advertisers will put their eggs in other PPC networks, and will help users that using other search engines to pinpoint what they want.
    9. They rank you for the #1 in organic listing, but they're saying your website stinks and is 'offending' to their users.
    10. They accuse wrong good people by painting their white hats with black toxic image of what they 'think' a website shouldn't look like.
    11. They have no respect to conservative marketers that have learned marketing by list building and using middlemen (affiliates) to penetrate a market, by trying to kill affiliate marketing and email marketing instead of rule them out in certain way.
    12. They ban people PERMANENTLY. With no second chance for explanation nor mercy. No matter if you think how clean you are. What their algorithm 'think' is what matters. (I don't know about class action suit things, but I'm sure if the court suddenly shut G off without warning and reasons, they WOULD p*ssed off. In the end they're not different than any of us).

    Our Violation:
    1. Put everything including our trust (because their service were so trustworthy) in Adwords.
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  • Profile picture of the author Estelle4131
    Are the bannings related to the new FTC rulings about the bogus testimonials that are in almost every sales/landing page and the bogus bonuses supposedly being given for signing up for this product/service using their link.

    This kinda sounds like what is happening. Maybe Google just does not want the pressure and scrutiny of the FTC breathing down their throat. Maybe the FTC mandated that these type pages be removed immediately. So Google purged them.

    Is this the case? Talk to me. Let me know what the deal is. I cannot see Google arbitrarily cancelling the accounts that they are megabucks from. You know Adwords are not a cheap investment. They are making big bucks off this program. And, I cannot see them just chasing their revenue out the door.

    Whassup?
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    • Profile picture of the author psresearch
      Originally Posted by Estelle4131 View Post

      Are the bannings related to the new FTC rulings about the bogus testimonials that are in almost every sales/landing page and the bogus bonuses supposedly being given for signing up for this product/service using their link.

      This kinda sounds like what is happening. Maybe Google just does not want the pressure and scrutiny of the FTC breathing down their throat. Maybe the FTC mandated that these type pages be removed immediately. So Google purged them.

      Is this the case? Talk to me. Let me know what the deal is. I cannot see Google arbitrarily cancelling the accounts that they are megabucks from. You know Adwords are not a cheap investment. They are making big bucks off this program. And, I cannot see them just chasing their revenue out the door.

      Whassup?
      Estelle, I already posted an answer to this question in this thread a few up.
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  • Profile picture of the author YanKirby
    Got the message too! It was one of those rare emails that you stare for a couple of moments trying to verify if what your reading is really happening.

    Heck, I havent even ran anything for 6 months already!

    This is really frustrating for me as i was about to launch a product.

    big G will have to pay for this in one way or the other.

    Yet the biggest question remains:

    What to do next?! Any ideas??
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  • Profile picture of the author Sylonious
    Blame Aaron Wall For this. When the FTC first announced they were going after bloggers, he wrote this article.

    A broad sweep of Adwords accounts is how Google responded.

    The people who are making fake sites are doing so because they are paid to. And amoral ad networks that syndicate ads based on *maximizing yield efficiency* (like Google AdWords) are designed to syndicate fraud because it is easy for advertisers to pay a lot for ads when their profit margins are nearly 100% because they scam people.
    Which was complete nonsense. It would be impossible for Google to accurately police their networks. All they really can do is round up the most likely violators (Anyone who has had LP and quality score issues in the past).

    I got one of my campaigns flagged for direct linking to eMusic.com.
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  • Profile picture of the author Marc2008
    Yep, they got me too. Looks like I was not the only one. And I have not ran a campaign in months either.
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  • Profile picture of the author bimawarrior
    Paused ads will still accrue violations against them
    Wow, paused ads too? this looks crazy....

    Anybody have tried to call their help center and ask what's going on and what's the problem?
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  • Profile picture of the author xxxJamesxxx
    I got it the other day. Thing is, and I didn't know it at the time but most of my customers come from Adwords. I've tried Yahoo and Bing but they don't yeild the results like Google did.

    Businesses are getting washed out over night by this.... And Google don't care.
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    • Profile picture of the author davidjames42973
      My account is still active as far as I know, so just to be on the safe side, I erased every campaign I had on adwords. I haven't promoted anything that would violate any rules, but all of this account suspension still makes me paranoid.

      I haven't used adwords for about 6 months, but I've heard stories about people who haven't used their accounts in ages that are still getting suspended...
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      • Profile picture of the author ryanman
        Originally Posted by davidjames42973 View Post

        My account is still active as far as I know, so just to be on the safe side, I erased every campaign I had on adwords. I haven't promoted anything that would violate any rules, but all of this account suspension still makes me paranoid.

        I haven't used adwords for about 6 months, but I've heard stories about people who haven't used their accounts in ages that are still getting suspended...
        So in a nutshell what's the use of having an account anyway anymore? They have made their TOS almost impossible to figure out and even the one's who have active accounts aren't really sure whether they are doing the right thing or not.
        Signature


        ^^^Click The "UGLY BANNER" to "MAKE MONEY"^^^
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  • Profile picture of the author StewieG
    Sorry to hear this is all happening to you guys. Sounds like peoples livings are being destroyed.

    But don't blame Google, they are taking quick action to cover their rear end.

    Blame the FTC and Tyrannical US Gov.

    Its not about Left or Right any more, they are all evil.
    Tell you what you want to hear to get elected, then shaft ya in the back.
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