Google AdWords To Step Up Account Disabling & Improve Communication Process

Back in October I reported on Google mass banning AdWords advertisers, unfortunately then, the feedback from Google on the reason was very limited. Today, I spoke with Nick Fox, Google’s Business Product Management Director for AdWords, about new changes taking place today and tomorrow related to advertiser bans.

Starting tonight, Google will begin permanently banning advertisers at an increased rate. The bans will not be at the site level, but rather the account level. In the past, Google banned specific sites from advertising in AdWords. Now, if an advertiser is permanently banned, their account and any new account will be banned from participating in AdWords. How does Google know if an advertiser is banned and just sets up a brand new account? Fox told me they have pretty good ways to detect this, but would not give me those details.

The increased rate of account bans did start back in October, Fox told me. He said, expect to see more account bans tonight and tomorrow. But this time, the bans will differ in two ways:

(1) They are permanent account bans, as explained above.
(2) The communication process will be much clearer.

Google will begin to notify advertisers that they have been permanently banned. They will receive an email with details of this ban and the email will explain how to appeal the ban. I am told that banned advertisers can reply to the email to start the “appeals process.” Every reply should get a response from a dedicated Google representative.

Over the course of the next day or so, many new advertisers will be banned and I am told to expect to hear some vocal disgruntled advertisers. I asked Nick Fox how many advertisers are we talking about, he declined to answer that but he did say it is a “tiny minority” of their customers.

Why is Google stepping this up now? I believe that there are more online scams and frauds taking place now, than ever before. Google has been getting better at detecting these types of scams both algorithmically and by human detection since 2005 and they are now able to offer better enforcement and more comprehensive enforcement of their existing policies.

Again, expect a new wave of complaints from advertisers over the next day or two.

What about those who were banned back in October through today? I asked Fox if they will be getting emails with how they can appeal those account bans? Fox told me he is not sure, but he will get back to me on if they will be sending those advertisers emails.

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.