Sign of Hope? Banned Advertisers Rises Just 8 Percent in 2012

The battle against bad ads getting past the AdWords review process rages on.  Google announced in a blog post this week that the company axed 224 million bad ads in 2012. That’s up 67% from 2011. The 2012 numbers underscore that there is no shortage of scammers, however they may also point to a sign […]

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The battle against bad ads getting past the AdWords review process rages on.  Google announced in a blog post this week that the company axed 224 million bad ads in 2012. That’s up 67% from 2011.

The 2012 numbers underscore that there is no shortage of scammers, however they may also point to a sign of hope. The number of banned advertisers plateaued from 2011, rising just 8%. Last year the number of banned advertisers increased by 70%. That leveling off could mean Google’s efforts are paying off and scammers aren’t flocking to AdWords the way they used to. Last year, Google announced several changes to their detection systems and began being more transparent about the ad quality team’s efforts to block scammers and counterfeiters.
Google AdWords Banned Advertisers and Blocked Ads by Year

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As most paid search managers can attest, not all ads that are disapproved come from bad actors. Syntax mistakes can trigger disapproval, and ads in categories such as knives and OTC medications often have to go through manual review. Given the growth of the web and the year over year growth in paid search, the continued climb in ad disapprovals is likely in part due to the fact that there is higher volume of ads and more activity. As long as there is growth in paid search it’s likely there will continue to be both more bad ad attempts and ads that simply violate policy.

Below is Google’s breakdown of the bad ads landscape in 2012. For the complete infographic, click here.

Google Adwords Bad Ads Landscape 2012

 


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Ginny Marvin
Contributor
Ginny Marvin was Third Door Media’s former Editor-in-Chief (October 2018 to December 2020), running the day-to-day editorial operations across all publications and overseeing paid media coverage. Ginny Marvin wrote about paid digital advertising and analytics news and trends for Search Engine Land, MarTech and MarTech Today. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, Ginny has held both in-house and agency management positions. She can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.

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