Your Google AdWords account has been disabled!!

Hi

Just received an email for G saying my ads are no longer running, and they will not accept any ads from me in the future.

I find it strange as my sites all have 7-10 QS, not had any ads disapproved, nothing dodgy on the sites. I have privacy/disclaimer etc etc policy, original content.

The only change I made in the last few days is that I added a Aweber opt-in form to one of my site pages. I want to build a list. Apart from this, all traffic is highly revelent and targeted, high CTR etc etc. I have keyword theme adgroups directing to the right pages.

Can anybody help. Should I contact them, as I think they may have made an error.

Much appriciated for any advice.

Abi

 

Check this page to see if your site falls into one of the types they dislike:

adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=164786

What may apply is the third item although rephrased from another link which says:

Affiliates who provide limited value by being a bridge page with the intent of solely driving traffic to another site or who are framing an affiliate site

If you believe there is an error, contact them. There is a specific contact page for disabled/banned accounts.

 

Hi

Thanks for the reply.

Would you by any chance have details on the contact page?

I think they may have made an error.

I've only ever been slapped for direct-linking (back in March when I opened my account). Since direct-linking, which was a test and not a permanant strategy, all my sites have had high QS and high CTR. They are very targetted. My adgroups are small (3-20 keywords).

Anyway, do you think even after appealing they would allow ads to run?

Many thanks.

Abi

 

Wow they close Adwords accounts? I never knew, whats next Google Documents? That's why I'm making it my top priority to read the toc's.

 

I don't have the link to the contact page for disabled accounts. I didn't save it. I'm only aware there is one. You should be able to find it by clicking the contact link in your account.

> I've only ever been slapped for direct-linking

Unless I'm wrong (and some say I am), direct linking is allowed. So the reason for your slap may have nothing to do with direct linking.

 

@topaffiliate - your username pretty much tells your story I'm afraid. Google's basically culling a lot of the affiliates on AdWords at the moment - it's not a business model that generally works with AdWords anymore

 

Yep, they started doing it recently and it's a real pain in the neck.

It used to be so that the worst that could happen was getting your ads manually reviewed, but that's unfortunately history.

 

I got it too. Just wrote a post about it as well.

 

>@topaffiliate - your username pretty much tells your story I'm afraid. Google's basically culling a lot of the affiliates on AdWords at the moment - it's not a business model that generally works with AdWords anymore

Hi

Would you say to adjust the business model, let's say, get rid of ALL affiliate links on the landing page and just have an opt-in form somewhere on the page. This way, i can build a relationship with the customer (ie. provide quality content via an autoresponder plus promotions here & there).

I am also on Yahoo & Bing, so I am thinking whether to kill the affiliate links and only have an opt-in form (Not an annoying pop-up/pop-under type forms).

What do you think?

Many thanks.

 

>Unless I'm wrong (and some say I am), direct linking is allowed. So the reason for your slap may have nothing to do with direct linking.

Thanks for the feedback.

I did direct-linking at the beginning (march/april) in order to learn and test etc. I direct-linked to a few ebooks (cooking receipes and a stop smoking type ebook), and after a few days/weeks I got slapped 1/10. I researched and investigated and found the sites i was direct-linking to, had no privacy policy and/or T&C's.

I deleted those adgroups.

Then I started learning/researching to build sites (10-20 pages of content, policies etc etc). I found that direct-linking produced little to zero conversions.

Pre-sell pages I found much more effective. All the sites I have had since May (6 in total), and never been slapped and all with high QS and CTR.

I had no warning blah blah blah before being banned

Would you say to adjust the business model by having NO affiliate links on the landing page, and say just an opt-in form (i'm also on Yahoo and Bing).

Many thanks for your time

Abi

 

>I don't have the link to the contact page for disabled accounts. I didn't save it. I'm only aware there is one. You should be able to find it by clicking the contact link in your account.

I reply to the email they sent me. Thanks anyway.

Strange. the G rep who repled said that my suspension is due to me submitting MULTIPLE poor quality LP's and SITES. Err, my sites have never been slapped in the past. I'm sure they have made an error.

It's probably an automated program they use for detecting AFF links in LP's, and they ban the account regardless od adspend, history etc.

 

That's what I've been saying for a few months: don't use Adwords to send clicks to your page where you have affiliate links. Google says it's a bad user experience (and I agree). It's not because they think so, it's because users have been telling them so, therefore they know so.

Now using Bing or Yahoo, while they may have no problems with this, how long do you thing it's going to last when their user tell them they are having bad user experiences?

So yeah, adjust your model. Send clicks directly to the merchant. Or, what may work is pre-sell as you do now, but instead of linking to the merchant's sell page (that's where the bad user experience comes from, being given two sales messages), have your own Buy Now button which links to the merchant's order page, bypassing their sales page.

 

Google may slap you for affiliate pages and may ban you after several slaps, but in this case I'd bet they didn't like the affiliate program you were promoting. They are banning loads of accounts of people promoting fishy weight loss or money making offers.

 

>Google may slap you for affiliate pages and may ban you after several slaps, but in this case I'd bet they didn't like the affiliate program you were promoting. They are banning loads of accounts of people promoting fishy weight loss or money making offers.

Hi

I was not promoting anything dodgy/spamy looking, especially all this make xxx money in xx days nonsense or weight loss.

I was doing 3 major online retailers on CJ, business finance merchant, and recently started 2 merchants from Clickbank (one was a car auction site, and the other woodworking plans). Oh yes, also a big pc/video games retailer.

No rebill offers etc. I like to concentrate on somewhat well known merchant names.

 

>So yeah, adjust your model. Send clicks directly to the merchant. Or, what may work is pre-sell as you do now, but instead of linking to the merchant's sell page (that's where the bad user experience comes from, being given two sales messages), have your own Buy Now button which links to the merchant's order page, bypassing their sales page.

I have tried direct-linking, does not work for me. Also, placing a Buy Now button is easier said than done. A lot of merchants (big and small) do not allow this in their T&C's.

May I add, there is also a lot of direct-linking affiliates getting banned as well. Some doing 6 to 7 figures per year (were doing!!).

From G's point of view, I don't think this is an affiliate thing.

I think it is more to do with QUALITY

In other words, in my opinion they are after QUALITY advertisers who have a REAL site (or a tiny handful of sites), with HUNDREDS/THOUSANDS of pages with content, articles, blogs etc etc etc.

In other words REAL LONG-TERM VALUE (for the user).

Here in the UK, there are major comparison sites with TONS of AFFILIATE LINKS on EACH page (one site has THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS OF AFFILIATE LINKS).

Why are these guys not banned.

I tell you why, it's because thay have REAL and QUALITY sites providing LONG-TIME VALUE, plus THOUSANDS of pages of content, survey's, questionaires, blah blah blah (they even do tv advertising).

I think big G is against merchants/affiliates who launch one thin site (with 10 to 20 pages) after another (like me for example, or was!!). I think these are the sites they DO NOT want clogging up the search results- regardless if they are affiliates or not or what they are selling.

At the end of the day, it is LONG-TERM USER VALUE AND QUALITY is what counts.

Abi

 

This is amazing, i always heard about adsense. Google also cares about publisher. Just check their TnC and also contact their support team. Hope this will help u out.

 

Hmm, sounds fine, but I'd suspect clickbank being the problem, most of the bans I personally heard of were accounts with some clickbank programs in them.

 

> I have tried direct-linking, does not work for me. Also, placing a Buy Now button is easier said than done. A lot of merchants (big and small) do not allow this in their T&C's.

I didn't say it would be easy.


> May I add, there is also a lot of direct-linking affiliates getting banned as well.

I haven't heard of any bans of affiliates direct linking, not unless they were breaking some other rules.

> I think it is more to do with QUALITY

Yes. They consider a page with affiliate links on it of poor quality.

 

I've heard of banned AdSense accounts, but not AdWords. That's weird...


Drewry News Network

 

>Hmm, sounds fine, but I'd suspect clickbank being the problem, most of the bans I personally heard of were accounts with some clickbank programs in them.

I think you may be right.

Of the few I did get slapped at the beginning- both were with DIRECT-LINKING via Clickbank.

Of the last two sites I was doing before I got the boot, they were Clickbank vendors.

All those guys which were doing 6 to 7 figures per year, were all doing DIRECT-LINKING via Clickbank. I think big G perfer/acknowledge some networks more than others.

Maybe users/searches don't like buying through Clickbank checkout (maybe high refund rate for clickbank network).