I just saw a weird looking ad on this forum. Does that mean google actually display ads before they are reviewed?
Only if they contain dodgy text; for example one client of ours advertises holidays in Ireland and one county is called "Kill", so that had to undergo review. Nice find btw.
People mucking up the DKI is not uncommon, I've seen it a few times, and that includes someone in 'my niche' that's been running an ad for at least a year like that.
Depends on whether you have a new account or an old one. They do a manual review on banner ads for sure. But if I have an old account with a great quality score they wouldn't really review me and such type of ads can come into existence in that case.
I know that they at least run the ads through filters such as foul language, registered trademark names, and others that I can't thinkg of now. But I couldn't imagine them personally reveiwing each ad. Of course they also let it police themselves by giving the viewer to flag it.
ive seen many accounts go through a review process when the account is first opened. But after that typically ads go live before they are caught for violation in the system, and then the domain may get flagged.
My experience has been that the system has inbuilt guidelines which some words trigger. So while you're writing your ad the system may give you an error message and not allow your ad to go active. You can usually ask for a review if you are determined to have that particular ad, but usually it is easier to modify the ad and get it active immediately.