The target URL of one of my campaigns happens to belong to a merchant whose website hase been flagged by G as a potentially harmful website (malware. includes popups etc). My account got suspended as a result. I followed the link in the email they sent me and only had two options to choose from: "I want to...: 1)Know on which pages of my website malware was detected. 2)Report that the malware has been removed and request another review" I chose option 2 after deleting the campaign and as expected, nothing happened. So I sent them an email regarding this issue and they replied me with a 'how to pause, start, and delete your campaign' reply... I sent another email explaining that what I really wanted was for them to unsuspend my account and since then have not gotten any reply. I've done a bit of research and most people who were having this problem never got back their account. Has anyone here come across this situation and if yes how did you solve it?
I have never heard of anyone getting their account back, but hopefully you will. Might want to start planning on making a new account just in case
You can't create an account again with same details. You need to find some other details to do this task
Hey guys latest update. I got my account back! within 48hours! Like you guys said, I've heard from many that it's almost impossible to get your account back. I must be really lucky.. I read about 'how to get your account back' somewhere quite sometime ago and remember clearly one of the points mentioned to be very polite. That was exactly what I did. A lot of 'thank you', 'do you mind' and 'I'll make sure I'll be careful next time...'. Guess it worked out just fine
great at last you got your account back, can you tell us in details how to get back suspended account back It will be great help and I will appreciate it Thanks Alam
Sure thing. If your account ever gets suspended, you will be getting this from G: Dear AdWords Advertiser, Your account 959-xxx-xxxx has been suspended because we've determined there's a high probability your site may be hosting or distributing malicious software. Please visit https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=141633 if you feel your site has been mistakenly identified, need help understanding the issue and how to address it. Contact us through http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/request.py?display=form&contact_type=malware if you've made changes to your site so that it no longer hosts or distributes malicious software and you've secured your site so that it is no longer vulnerable to the insertion of malware. Currently, our tests indicate that the following URLs may contain code which installs malicious software: hxxp://xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (merchant of affiliate product) These URLs are located in your account within the following campaign(s) and ad group(s): Photographic Memory - photographic memory In order to protect your visitors, we recommend that you check these specific pages immediately, as well as the rest of your website. Although some sites intentionally distribute malicious software, there are many cases where the webmaster or advertiser is unaware of the dangerous link due to any of the following reasons: 1) The site was compromised. 2) The site doesn't monitor for malicious user-contributed content. 3) The site displays content from an ad network that has an advertiser distributing malicious software. If your site was compromised, it's important to not only remove the malicious (and usually hidden) content from your pages, but to also identify and fix the vulnerability. We suggest contacting your hosting provider if you're unsure of how to proceed. StopBadware also has a resource page for securing compromised sites at http://www.stopbadware.org/home/security. Google uses its own criteria, procedures, and tools to identify sites that host or distribute malware. Sincerely, The Google AdWords Team Google Ireland Ltd. Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland Registered in Dublin, Ireland | Registration Number: 368047 I deleted the campaign right away upon receiving the email and sent an email to G to explain the situation. That was the response I got from them: Hello, Thank you for writing in about making changes to your campaign. You can pause, resume, or delete a campaign any time. You won't accrue clicks or charges while your campaign is paused, and it will remain inactive until you resume it. To change the status of a campaign, follow the steps below: 1. Sign in to your AdWords account at https://adwords.google.com. 2. Select the "Campaigns" tab. 3. Next to the campaign name, click the status icon and select the new status (Enabled, Paused, or Deleted). To change the status of multiple campaigns, select the checkboxes next to the campaigns you want to update. In the "Change status" menu, select the new status. Sincerely, The Google AdWords Team It was almost like it was an autoreply from a bot or something, not answering the questions I was asking at all. So then I sent another email to them: Thanks for the swift response, but you got it all wrong. I know how to use pause, resume, or delete a campaign; in fact I have been using Adwords for awhile. What I am saying is that my whole Adwords account(not just campaigns) has been suspended by Google due to probability of site hxxp://xxxxxxxxx (the target URL for one of my campaigns) having malwares in it. I wrote in to inform you that the website hxxp://xxxxxxxx DOES NOT belong to me. I am simply affiliated to it and am referring traffic to it with Adwords. I have DELETED the campaign and now have nothing to do with the website at all. Could you please look into it and unsuspend my account so I can continue using Google Adwords. My account no. is 959-xxx-xxxx. Thank you very much for your time. Regards And then VOILA~! I got my account back: Dear AdWords Advertiser, After re-reviewing your site, our tests have found that your site no longer appears to distribute malicious software. I've confirmed that your account ID 959-xxx-xxxx has been unsuspended. I have updated the status of your site in our system and your account should not be suspended again, unless another issue is present. Thank you for your cooperation and efforts to protect users from malware. Sincerely, The Google AdWords Team Google Ireland Ltd. Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland Registered in Dublin, Ireland | Registration Number: 368047 Good luck to those whose account got suspended or banned. Just keep trying, you never know it might be another person handling your case, a better person who will unsuspend your account!
Great job on being a little persistent and working with Google to overcome the problem. A great lesson to all, and as most of us have history with our adwords accounts that can be a tough thing to walk away from.
Actually this is a wake up call more than anything else for me. I've come to realize that I cannot rely solely on G to pay me.. chances of getting suspended/banned by it is quite high. I'm going to start looking for backups.. i.e. other ad networks instead of adsense and also other ways to market my sites/products.
Thanks for sharing the information and experience and Congrats gasura! that you got your account back.
I've heard of thousands of suspended Adwords accounts on the Net. But I've rarely heard suspended Adwords accounts being reinstated. Obviously the Big G is banning 'low quality' accounts for the purpose of 'improving the Google search webpage quality'
We know little affiliates can get their accounts back, what we need to do is to read the Google policies carefully and do something to effectively avoid Google Slap.
My account got suspened and I really had no idea why and despite several emails, google refused to tell me. Then a couple of months later i got an email from Google's sales office saying we noticed you haven't had much activity recently amd would you like some help - so of course I asked for help and was advised simply to open a new account with a new email address and they would help me. So I am now trying this. I told them that i had been ' banned from ever having an account' and they didn't seem bothered. So I am now trying this.
This is bizarre. I've never heard of the Google team advising someone to open a new account with a new email. I've read there're people attempting to get a new Adwords account by completely changing their identity (new email, new credit card, new address, new IP) but still doesn't work. Please let me know if your ads in the new account run smoothly.