Hi All... This post is to ask some advice and also give a heads up.. I've had my adwords account for almost a year. For the past 4 - 5 months I've been putting up many different campaigns, trying to see what works best, and getting the hang of it (but spending a LOT of money in the process, 'thousands'). I was really happy until this week when I started seeing 0's all the way down. I called the 866 2Google number and I couldn't get a person. I did the Live Chat and spoke with Sasha. It took a week to get back to me with very little info. She said she spoke with "the team," and my account has been suspended for either promoting Google Money Tree or misrepresenting Google, in some promotional way. I have not done this - I checked all my campaigns for "all time." So this is really upsetting. They have suspended my account "forever." No real explanation, as to what I've done wrong, No Warning. No Email, Nothing. I've been promoting clothing items, tangibles, a couple ebooks (momu and bodybuilding). I did promote GDI back in September. I went on the Adwords Forum and others have gotten suspended too. They are suposedly cracking down on the whole "google money tree" scam thing. Any Ideas, or contact Person I can talk to? You need a phone Extension to get thru. sincerely, Liz
Adwords is a great advertising tool. They have rules to follow and if you break them too often, they will suspend your account. However, Google seems to have messed up in this case. I've researched this Google Money Tree thing and I don't blame them at all. But when you do something, such as creating an ad where the display and destination URL are different, your ad is suspended and you are told so. Break the same rule over and over and you will get suspended. Apparently, there is a five strikes before you're out rule but there may be some rules where it's less strikes. Promoting scams and other serious offenses has apparently one strike. But Google should let you know that, unless you delete that campaign, they will suspend your account in x days or something. If indeed you have not been promoting Google Money Tree, you don't seem to be alone. Somebody probably wrote a program with wrong parameters or something, suspending lots of accounts. I do have a suggestion, which comes straight from the Adwords support forum: "Contact Google through your adwords account. Use the contact link at the bottom of the account pages and request that your account be more personally reviewed." It also says to be patient, on the order of a week or more. Be wary of promoting any sort of online money making program or other thing that can look suspicious. By the way, the toll-free number does not seems to be answered by live people anymore. You have to use the email or live chat.
The same thing happened to me, I was promoting business opportunities but none related to Google in any way, shape or form, and they werent rebills either
But even if you were promoting "Google Money Tree", is that against the TOS? That's really weird if you ask me.
Thanks Lucid.. I'll try to contact them one more time to speak with a live person.. I'm just wary of "too many email," if you know what I mean. I really do hope this is some sore of freak accident or pgm that was created by mistake - it definitely seems so. I feel I was blamed for something I didn't do. My husband says I should tell the credit card company to get my money back. I'm not ready to go there just yet. Chrisba... I'm feeling for you too.. If you find out anything, post it. I"m hoping you'll get your account reinstated as well. Tjsocr22... It seems the rules are getting more and more riduculous - you have to just thru hoops to keep it going.. I'll post back if I hear anything in this thread.. Liz
Wow! Adwords also banned, even though they are getting revenue from that. Adsense make sense but adwords nonsense.
Alfa.. You're banned too? I was reading on Zac Johnson's (I almost typed Efron..need more coffee lol) some of the reasons why some of us got banned from google.. His post is entitled "My Google Account was Banned." There was of course mention of flogs, but also "rebill" Items. So, I"m trying to understand if this means promotion of programs like The 11 Forgotten Laws. I'm thinking that it can't, but you never know. He also mentions there are 20 other programs out there that are like Google Money Tree, but I wish I knew what the names are. Anyway - Google should have sent a warning out listing the programs that it doesn't like. Liz
> But even if you were promoting "Google Money Tree", is that against the TOS? That's really weird if you ask me. Google wants to protect both itself (the brand) and user experience. I looks like this GMT is some sort of scam, or at least gives a bad user experience (I read they don't make it clear you are charged $75 per month for their service). Google therefore decided to stop any Adwords promoting this product for that reason, not to mention using Google's name. That is their right. There are other affiliate sites that do harm onto the user. A client of mine last year was promoting a satellite TV software. It was some sort of phishing scheme if I recall. Google disapproved the ads related to it. I deleted that campaign. Folks, piece of advice. If you do affiliate marketing, when you see a disapproved ad, stop. Do not create another ad for the same offer because if you keep promoting an affiliate that Google disapproves of, it's a sure way to get your account banned.
"Folks, piece of advice. If you do affiliate marketing, when you see a disapproved ad, stop. Do not create another ad for the same offer because if you keep promoting an affiliate that Google disapproves of, it's a sure way to get your account banned." This is good advice, and something I wasn't aware of.. I just thought they'd give you a warning, etc. Here's more on the GMT: http://www.cleveland.com/consumeraffairs/index.ssf/2009/07/google_money_tree_one_of_dozen.html
TG, I agree with you - if it's a scam, ban it. But not all Make Money online stuff is a scam. Google should really list exact sites that it doesnt like. Not all of us are looking to get one over on Google. That's definitely not my style. So I feel I'm being penalized for something I didn't do. Just my 2 cents.. Liz
I hate the word make money online. Regarding the suspension you should have check out the google toc/tos before you planning on doing something. It's not their fault to reduce the money making scam advertising on their network. If they suspend you account wrongly then you can ask them to check your account with proved or you can always ask for reactivation (although this will really take long time) Good luck gettingback your account. As far as I know once you are suspended forever the wont unsuspended your account forever too..
I see plenty of Acai Berry fake blogs still on Google. It seems unfair that you should have your whole account banned. They should really only ban individual campaigns, not everything.
> Id like to see all "make money online" ads banned. I think they're working on that. > I just thought they'd give you a warning Your ad being disapproved is your warning. That was the point of my post: don't just go and create another ad before you know why the ad was disapproved. > They should really only ban individual campaigns, not everything. Those who get banned, it is probably because they ignored the warnings and kept on doing the same thing. Google eventually bans them because they see these advertisers as rebels. They are protecting their brand and improving user experience.
Google MoneyTree is in trouble with the FTC too. FTC Cracks Down on Scammers Trying to Take Advantage of the Economic Downturn
Consider your adwords campaign over. Same thing happened to me. There is no appeal and no recourse, thats the end of story according to them. I was new to it all and purchased copy n profit, you may have heard of it, I copied the campaigns and then was told I was suspended. I tried to plead my case saying I was new and would delete any campaign they needed me too but was told, no recourse suspension is permanent. I got on and started reading some forums and they seem to be ban happy lately. One guys story I read, he had been spending $20000 per month on adwords and was suspended.
Anyone successful in getting their Adwords account unsuspended? If so, please post how this was accomplished. Thank you!
Google has gone crazy nowadays. They are suspending adwords account of even sincere affiliate who have website with great content. There is nothing you can do when it comes to such big companies.
>> Id like to see all "make money online" ads banned. >I think they're working on that. They most definitely are. C'mon, I think most of us here know that as jNorth said, 99.9999999% of those schemes are basically scams, and unfortunately people get suckered into them - and as they found them through Google and are therefore Google users then it gives G a bad name for letting them argue. If you're one of the 0.00000001% out there who aren't a scam then unfortunately you'll get caught in this - but it's all for the G'reater good...