No, but I am seeing $100 coupons being sent to people they banned over a year ago.

Maybe someday they will pull their thumb out of their rear, however I doubt it.

We don't use Adsense or Adwords yet we receive monthly $100 coupons from Google which promptly go into the trash.

The last one looked flashy like a credit card.

Reminded me of how desperate AOL was when they used to send out millions of those software CD's.

Can anyone use the $100 coupon, I was wondering if I can put them on Ebay.

It may be that they're after a specific industry(ies). Just this morning I got two emails in regards of one specific ad group for some payday loan company that I'm an affiliate of.

This means that they can suspend as many accounts as there are such ads within them, regardless of the fact that an affiliate does not have a control over a site in order to implement changes.
On the other side it is true that an affiliate has a control over companies he/she wants to work with.

I have a client who was spending upwards of 20k/mo on AdWords. Streaming music site - all legit, artists all give their legal approval for their music to be streamed. The account was closed in December. No explanation.

We switched them over to Bing, and as it turned out their cpcs went down, ctrs went up.

I've spoken to a few people at Google but no one seemed to know how to help other than to call the main adwords help number.

I was curious if it was related to the clean-up on the organic side.

It looks like a few different issues for these clients, but I'd say that 2 of the 3 were flagged in error. The other one had some credit card issues which we've since resolved.

I know Google occasionally does some mass suspensions and I wanted to check.

I can only speak to what I've seen secondhand...a couple of forums I frequent seemed to have new posts about adwords bannings in the last few days whereas I had not heard complaints for months of any consequence.

I came here to see if anyone else was reporting this.

I appear to have called down the thunder by speaking of it.

I just got banned.

The only ads in this account were directing traffic to a site that is organically on page one for its main keyword.

So apparently Google organic listings deems me worthy of page 1 but Adwords feels I am unworthy to advertise there- or ever again.

Well, I received the obligatory "don't bother us" email.

They were kind enough to say, "You should have received detailed notifications with the Customer ID and the Visible URL in violation."

Except...my last communication with Adwords was 4 years ago...so no, no I didn't.

It's been a while since I last posted, but there is definitely a push on. Reading between the lines, it appears that driving traffic to landing pages with affiliate links outside of google, doubleclick or any related vertical controlled by G is being targeted. In addition, the very existence on your site of such links can also cause the red flag to go up- they don't have to be landing pages.

It's been a while since I last posted, but there is definitely a push on. Reading between the lines, it appears that driving traffic to landing pages with affiliate links outside of google, doubleclick or any related vertical controlled by G is being targeted. In addition, the very existence on your site of such links can also cause the red flag to go up- they don't have to be landing pages.

My site didn't have any of those things at all, it was not an affiliate site.

The push seems related to the account's history and from what I'm seeing they are even looking at deleted campaigns. I'm trying to go through the process of having someone reevaluate the account but am not hopeful. I remember when I used to have an account rep... :(

I'm seeing others who are literally being told that the ban can only be lifted if they go back and change content on deleted campaigns which in some cases are affiliate sites the account owner has no control over and were made and deleted years ago.

Hey Google...if I paused or deleted the campaign haven't I showed you that I've decided it doesn't meet the quality necessary? That's why it's deleted!

We are being punished for things done years ago when they were completely legal and are now expected to fix DELETED campaigns that are owned by others?

edit: found a blog post of someone dealing with something similar (being told deleted campaigns are the problem): [andrewhansen.name...]

Note that the above blog is not mine and I have no connection to it.

outside of google, doubleclick or any related vertical controlled by G

That would be terrible if true.

I've just had a lovely email stating a few of my campaigns and the domains associated with them have been blocked/removed, funny enough these were the sites which had affiliate offers on them

After the initial hit, we were told to modify our navigation, change pages that were not used as landing pages, remove pages they considered "bridge pages", and more. I am still speechless. They even commented on our legal agreement and the placement of our contact info! Our account has been open since Google opened its doors and it doesn't mean a thing. Many Millon spent - this is not an exaggeration. It has taken many explanations to even get the account turned back on and it doesn't look promising. I cannot believe that we have to justify a business model that has been working since before they formed the company!

I cannot believe that we have to justify a business model that has been working since before they formed the company!

I hate to state the obvious, but a working business model does not necessarily mean a Google-friendly business model. When I say this I don't mean "Google of ten years ago-friendly", I mean "Google right now-friendly".

Fundamentally Google's priorities are based around providing what they perceive to be a quality search experience. This drive has only been intensified recently as they've come under more pressure from their competition, the press, and legislative bodies. To combat these pressures they have made a philosophical commitment to a certain school of web design and are prepared to enforce it. If you don't like their terms, they aren't bothered if you simply choose to leave them and go elsewhere. In fact this is an ideal solution for them, since they don't have to deal with people who have differing objectives for the business relationship.

Having a poor experience with their support team is one thing, and that's certainly something that Google need to work on. But to them, you're not a customer - you're a partner, and you have your obligations towards them if you want to maintain that partnership. They provide you a service on the basis that you abide by certain conditions, and a lengthy business relationship doesn't necessarily mean they will treat you as a special case.

Never asked for anything special so their initial handling of the matter left a very bad taste in my mouth. Their misinterpretation of our business model is the real issue along with their failure to put folks familiar with the vertical on the case.

We're all for the partner approach as long as it's not jammed down our throat in one shot. Working together long-term is one thing, throwing the switch before telling us there's an issue is another for that's not a partnership.

to them, you're not a customer

Silly me. I always assumed if I pay someone for a service that made me a customer of theirs.

to them, you're not a customer

Good point. This is more like paying to get a privilege to advertise on Google. Something like getting a citizenship of a country. A privilege.

You're not a customer and you're not a partner. It's more like a gated community or a condo association. You have to pay, but they still have to approve of you first.

Yep, Eschatonic, smallcompany and netmeg have it right. You're not buying something as if going to the store and buying a t-shirt but given the privilege to use the system. As with any other privilege, it can be taken away as opposed to the t-shirt which cannot once in your possession.

I can understand support sometimes leaving a bad taste. Been there myself and I'm sure most of us. But advertisers must do their due diligence. Complaining about it doesn't solve anything. From iguru's posts, there appears to be no misinterpretation of the business model and is in violation. It can take months, years even, for Google to get around to audit your site. Best thing to do until they do is make sure it will pass the audit.

It can take months, years even, for Google to get around to audit your site. Best thing to do until they do is make sure it will pass the audit.

The problem is that Google is now banning accounts based on account history even when those ads are DELETED. I'm hearing about this more and more.

Advertisers are being told they need to go back and fix sites on DELETED campaigns. Many times these are domains that are no longer even owned by the advertiser!

There is no situation where this can be considered a sane response from Google.

The only issue I ever had with my account was nearly 5 years ago and it was fixed in under 24 hours...so is that my issue? If so, I haven't owned that domain for years so will Google claim I need to modify that site?

The problem is that Google is now banning accounts based on account history even when those ads are DELETED. I'm hearing about this more and more.

Correct.

I don't get it that ads that were active in 2006 cause an account get banned in 2010, based on the rule that was revealed in 2007.

Absolute power

No matter when a campaign was created, it must follow today's rule, even if the campaign was following yesterday's rules. The fact that a rule was changed after a campaign's creation does not exclude it from that rule.

But as pointed out, Google is applying the rules on deleted campaigns. This has got to change since there is no way to undo a deleted campaign unlike one that is simply paused. Seems this should be a simple program change. They may have their reason for ignoring that a campaign is deleted but for the life of me I can't think of one.

Got the email Monday that our site had violated Adword's policy, even though we've been using the same site since 2004 or whenever Adwords started. No explanation, just a link to a page with possible reasons. I "fixed" everything I could think of and requested a review, per the email instructions. Got a second email today saying the site was still suspended but at least this time I got a specific reason. Fixed that but am afraid to ask for another review and so am waiting to see if Adwords restarts on its own. I am noticing that a lot of our competitors have disappeared, so I think Google is doing a sweep.

Bing is looking better and better (and cheaper).

It won't restart on its own so you might as well ask for a review. I'm sure you went to the trouble of fixing because you want to continue advertising on Google.

second email today saying the site was still suspended but at least this time I got a specific reason

ember,
at least you got a specific reason. I have seen a number of cases where they just shut down a site or account without any explanation on what is wrong. Just that general site "violates policies" note.

I've asked for another review, but I feel like Oliver groveling for more gruel.

I was told they would check with the policy team as to why my account was suspended and what I can do...that was two weeks ago.

I went to my "disapproved ads" page and there is nothing there, which is almost funny.

The sickest thing is that this new sweep is punishing their oldest customers. I've been an advertiser for 11 years. Do you think I have way more URLs in my history than most people? Should I have to sift through a site I linked 11 years ago?

When will we see a lawsuit like this in the US? [ditii.com...]