Amit Mehta: "Google gave me the middle finger"
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Today I got banned from adwords permanently. The only noticed I was given was the warning email 2 months ago. After I killed the campaign in question I have been running legit stuff ever since. When I ask support why my credit card could not be charged this week they informed me that I had been banned for hate/anti ads. No warnings or notices. They even aproved the ads.
I am mentioning this so the rest of you guys have a heads up. Google has put away their slap stick and has replaced it with a ban stick. If you ever had a problem with them before even if you are running ads within the TOS they may still come after you.
I am mentioning this so the rest of you guys have a heads up. Google has put away their slap stick and has replaced it with a ban stick. If you ever had a problem with them before even if you are running ads within the TOS they may still come after you.
Haha, spoke to soon. Just got the 'quit fucking around email'. Time to switch to Yahoo.
At least they told you why you were banned. However, you say that you were running ads within the TOS, but you clearly state you were banned for 'Anti'/Violence content? WTF? Did you miss something, because that's a discrepancy if I've ever seen one.
Google isn't banning people randomly, for no reason, there's always a reason, even if it may be obscure. If they really had pulled out the "ban stick," we'd be seeing A LOT more of these threads pop up, and A LOT more would report being banned. From all of I've seen, there's only a very small percentage of WF members that have been banned, 1%-2% or less, and they were obviously trying to pull something. Just RTFM, choose offers that have been converting nicely and are on the up and up, and don't try to fuck with google.
Well since I was given notice 2 months ago for an ad campaign that said my competition sucked. "Netflix Sucks" they gave me my first and only warning to stop my hate/anti ads. So I deleted the campaign but after they gave me that warning nothing ever ran well again. Anything I made got shit traffic.
So I have had nothing running for awhile. Last week I tried a dating ad titled "Tired of Fake Profiles?" which seems to be a hate/anti ad in their eyes. Ad text was stupid shit about how we screen all of our users to prevent fake profiles.
I had that dating ad and a travel ad about cheap travel deals. That's it. Since they banned me I have requested they tell me what ad I was running that was hateful or anti and they told me they do not have to disclose that information and they have the right to ban anyone any time they want.
I emailed them again demanding they disclose to me at least which ad it was and have not received a response.
That's exactly what I did since I got my warning. Maybe its me but I don't see that being ban worthy.
So I have had nothing running for awhile. Last week I tried a dating ad titled "Tired of Fake Profiles?" which seems to be a hate/anti ad in their eyes. Ad text was stupid shit about how we screen all of our users to prevent fake profiles.
I had that dating ad and a travel ad about cheap travel deals. That's it. Since they banned me I have requested they tell me what ad I was running that was hateful or anti and they told me they do not have to disclose that information and they have the right to ban anyone any time they want.
I emailed them again demanding they disclose to me at least which ad it was and have not received a response.
That's exactly what I did since I got my warning. Maybe its me but I don't see that being ban worthy.
The fact that your warning came with the "Netflix Sucks" ad tells me that's what put you over the top, even if it apparently was your first offense.
Here's the guideline straight from the horse's mouth:
"Ad text advocating against any organization, person, or group of people is not permitted"
Bingo, game over, you were advocating against Netflix. Even though it's retarded and you should have been given a second chance, google doesn't want to look like a douche to other corporations on behalf of one little affiliate.
For me I was in a niche they didn't agree with. For some reason my competitors could use headlines against the TOS, but I couldn't. So then I tried to bend the rules, using different words and just fucking around. I deserve the warning, I'll admit that. But I'm sick of Google being so fucking picky.
Seriously? Wow.. that's kinda scary because I use 'Sucks' in my ads all the time. This sucks that sucks but I'll always end with a "?". So, it'll be like "Netflix Sucks?" instead of "Netflix Sucks!" . It's ambigious and you can't say it's hate/anti ads, but hey who am I to argue?
Thanks for sharing anyway..
Never really had any problems with ads with sucks, I've been running mine mostly on the Content Network. Did they reject your ads when you submit them using Adwords Editor or did they get disapproved after they went through?
Well of course I got the notice for running my sucks campaign. But as I said that was over 2 months ago and I stopped running it. My account was perfectly fine until I was banned this week for the two ads I mentioned that I was running. Which both were within their TOS as far as I can tell. I was trying to explain to people that once you get that e-mail your on the black list, at least I was. Your better off starting all over with a new account and CC.
Also just so everyone knows they did a database search for my name and canaceled 2 other random accounts I had made over the years.
I was also using the content network. My ads just said Netflix Sucks, no ! or ?. Perhaps that is a very thing line your on right now. If they ever stop getting traffic for no real reason don't resubmit it. My ads were always approved and I just used the web interface.
They never disaproved any of the ads I was running. Once every 2-3 weeks or so they would stop getting traffic which I figured was some stupid bug. So I just deleted the campaign and restart it. They would show again for some ammount of time and slowly die off. Seems that was google's way of telling me to stop, which is what caused my first warning. So if I were you if they stop traffic for no real reason don't resubmit the campaign.
Sorry not trying to defend my actions in this topic but I just wanted to show how Google can bend the rules slightly to get you banned.
If you look at their posted guidelines under the Anti/Hate section they say you can not advertise a protected group. They then clearly define the protected groups below that. I do not see Netflix or any for profit company defined in that area. Which makes this even more BS.
Just saying that they can and will make up something if you have ever gotten on their bad side.
If you look at their posted guidelines under the Anti/Hate section they say you can not advertise a protected group. They then clearly define the protected groups below that. I do not see Netflix or any for profit company defined in that area. Which makes this even more BS.
Just saying that they can and will make up something if you have ever gotten on their bad side.
Netflix is out of the question due to the obvious statement of:
The protected clause is just there to protect the minorities (duh), while the quote above is to protect corporations.
There's no conspiracy, and Google isn't bending the rules to fuck with people.
I also took the liberty of contacting ppc coach about the whole matter, since WF has seen a lot of similar posts recently. If anyone could accurately report on adwords bannings, it would be him.
Here was his reponse:
Here was his reponse:
Hello,
People do not get banned for random reasons. Those idiots who make
posts saying they got banned out of the blue are lying. They did
something wrong, repeated it a couple times and finally google had
enough. Out of every case of "banning" that I've investigated, the
person was either resubmitting disapproved ads non stop and ignoring
all warnings or abusing the adwords system in other ways.
That's the dangerous part about forums, you only get half the story
and people who say they got banned for no reason are full of shit.
Yes thank you for asking someone else to tell me I am full of shit. You don't know me and I don't know him or you. I said in my first post why I got the warning in the past and the exact ad copy of what I was currently running. If you decide that me and these other posters Amit included are all full of shit and you get banned its going to be your problem.
You should also read my posts before you keep posting the same shit over and over. I said I ran that ad and got a warning over two months ago and that I STOPPED when asked by Google. My account still ran ads and was not banned until this week when I was running the two ads I mentioned before. I was completely truthful to help the community from possibly having the same problem.
I don't need trolls like you calling me out on a message board saying I am lying about such an important topic.
You should also read my posts before you keep posting the same shit over and over. I said I ran that ad and got a warning over two months ago and that I STOPPED when asked by Google. My account still ran ads and was not banned until this week when I was running the two ads I mentioned before. I was completely truthful to help the community from possibly having the same problem.
I don't need trolls like you calling me out on a message board saying I am lying about such an important topic.
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