Bizarre indeed. Something tells me that there isn't much logic behind the whole system and it all depends on which Google employee you bump into. One of them could be having a really bad day and your account would have got shut down for a super minor mistake. I must have come across a really nice one to get my account back. Here's the latest update - My account is currently UNDER REVIEW. Which means everything is frozen and the ads are not showing at all, even though the value of quality score, CPC remains unchanged and the ads are still approved. My campaign has been running for at least 6 months and this is the first time I ever come across this problem. All I did was pausing my campaign for a few minutes, tweaked my landing page and resumed the campaign (which I have done so plenty of times); the next morning I woke up and saw 0 impressions for all campaigns. I sent them an email right away and this is the response I got from them: Hello AdWords Advertiser, We're sorry to hear you're experiencing difficulties with your AdWords account. It appears your account is under review. Our Specialists have already been notified of the issue and an investigation is underway. We periodically review accounts for security purposes and to verify billing information. An update will be sent to you as soon as they have completed their investigation. Generally, this can take one to two business days. If you have additional questions once the review is done, we're happy to help you at that time. Sincerely, The Google AdWords Team I managed to find those who have had the same problem before and the response they got were all different! Some had their problems solved within days and the unlucky ones had to wait for months. After a few incidents here and there, I'm certain that a lot, if not, most of Google employee didn't even know what they are talking about, just like the first response I got when my account got suspended. ABSURD MAX. That reflects the level of professionalism of the Google team - which is miserably poor. I just hope I'm as lucky as the previous time.. was just about to launch a new campaign and test out some new ideas when this hits me. I've reverted most of the changes, the only thing I can do now is pray. Has any of you given up on adwords and have had as huge of a success using Yahoo and MSN advertising? If yes do you mind sharing your experience here thanks!
@gasura Thank you for keeping us updated on all issues. No longer than I have been in the game it occurs to me that sooner or later it will be my turn. I am intently following all like topics across the net. My intentions are to be proactive and have another account ready and waiting to switch to when the inevitable ban comes along that can't be reversed. There seems to be a tremendous amount of effort involved in pulling this off. All with the intent to have the privilege to continue giving G significant money each day. I'm going to great lengths to stay above board and follow all rules. However I have no illusion that the previous described G "professionalism" when eventually attack me. Thanks again for any and all details you can share.
Hi there, I got my account suspended recently but for different reasons. They said that I'd violated their landing page guidelines whatever that means? It seems that Google are being totally indescriminate now when slapping accounts and it seems to be happening more and more, the problem is if you ask them why they aren't very helpful they just provide a link to their terms and conditions and expect you to work out the rest. Has anyone else had this problem with landing pages? And how to get the account back if it's possible, although I'm beginning to think there are much better ways of driving paid traffic than Google....
Sadly, but inevitably, all seasoned affiliate marketers have or will 'break' the rules in some ways (according to G who seems reluctant to tell us exactly which rules we have broken). I believe I am not the only person baffled by the fact that G is making life hard for those whose money they are earning the most from. I can only think that people like us who used to make up 99% of G's annual income are no longer as 'useful' anymore; in other words they don't rely as heavily on publishers to get the dough(money) these days. This is not reflected through their 'maintaining of quality'(which is supposedly good since it keeps the online environment clean), but the shocking support that they provide. Who in the world treats clients who are paying them billions of dollars each year the way they do? How many innocent folks have fallen victim to their unfair ruling and judgment? Anyway, sorry for whining. Here's the latest update for my 2nd account: I started a campaign few months back. I was at the testing phase (direct link to merchants site which had PR of 4/10) when I got a huge slap from G. My keywords were limited to a maximum of 20 and every single one of them were highly relevant. Just yesterday, which was after many months of QS 1/10, the campaign suddenly got revived and I managed to close a sale the moment it came back alive. I wonder if all the speculating of the G algorithm & formula is just a big waste of time? Both algorithm and employees are greatly flawed. In any case, keep emailing them until your problem is solved. Chances are your email will be read by a different person each day and you never know when you might get lucky.
Latest email I got from them after the first 'under review' one: Thank you for your email. I understand you’re concerned about your ads not showing. It appears your account is under review, which may be the reason for the ads not running. We periodically review accounts for security purposes and to verify billing information. A specialist team is already reviewing your account. You do not need to do anything at your end for the time being. I will get in touch with the specialist team and will provide you with an update shortly regarding the status of the review, hopefully within the next 24 hours. I sincerely appreciate your patience. To learn more about AdWords and how you can use it to grow your business, visit http://www.google.com.au/tryadwords/index.html. If you have additional questions, please visit AdWords Support at https://adwords.google.com.au/support, where you'll find the answers to many of our frequently asked questions. We look forward to providing you with the most effective advertising available. Sincerely, Gaganpreet The Google Australia & NZ AdWords Team
Agreed. IMHO it is a given that no matter what you do or don't do you will be slapped into unprofitably or banned all together at some point in time by Google. It is a when, not an if scenario. I see two camps after that point. #1 95% of the people go elsewhere for traffic or quit. There are countless post on the web describing this. If they stay in the game they go to alternates such as MSN, Yahoo, Facebook, etc. to fill the Google traffic void. (not scaling, surviving) #2 The players who have been at this for years making big $. I doubt most of them have been immune to the banning. I believe they have a system to continue even after the hammer falls. I seek this knowledge before hand and hope to have the backups ready to go with a flip of the switch. Sort of a forced split test of G accounts The motivation is not to see which does better but to continue to use profitable campaigns under a different guise when necessary. Once again thank you for your time and information. It helps with the quest.
hi all, as a long-time advertiser of Gadwords, I've processed much of campaigns for my clients and got a lot of problems as this thread 'd concerned, I saw that most of problems could be solved if advertiser didn't get in policy. the matter is whether slow or fast. Normally, when Google find malware or sth like that, he will email to let you know and solve your case. when the problem is completely solved, Google will email again to let you know that your account is unsuspended after couple of days. "under review" cases, it is belonged to each circumstance but as I know it don't spend over 5days.
Well said. Unfortunately I have yet to fully explore and understand Adwords at this stage, but as you have said, I should probably equip myself with a few more marketing tools and explore a few more marketing platforms; especially having felt the wrath of the Big G many times. The good news is, as sosoai had mentioned, my account is no longer 'under review' and I'm back in business. The response I got from them was quite positive and I've regained a little bit of confidence in G. The new strategy now is to focus on Quality not Quantity. Which means I will narrow my niche and campaigns down to the minimum and focus on scaling them up through different platforms to gain more exposure, rather than having multiple niche & campaigns running solely on Adwords. That way if anything should happen to my Adwords account at least the most I'll lose is 50% of the traffic.
Gasura, you are indeed lucky! Congrats, You are truly one of the very few to get their account unsuspended! Mark
Hello, Thank you for your email. I understand that your ads are not running and you want us to check it up for you. I have looked into your AdWords account and found that your account has been disabled for promoting unacceptable business practices. We have found certain categories of websites to be of poor quality due to multiple complaints from users and publishers about inaccurate or misleading claims regarding the product being promoted. Please note that the decisions we make concerning advertising in no way affect the search results we deliver. Google strongly believes in freedom of expression and therefore offers broad access to content across the web without censoring search results. At the same time, we reserve the right to exercise editorial discretion when it comes to the advertising we accept on our site, as noted in our program Terms and Conditions. Visit https://adwords.google.com.au/select/contentpolicy.html for more information on our advertising Content Policy. Sincerely, Subharaj The Google Australia & NZ AdWords Team I guess it's time to say goodbye to Adwords, together with the few hundred bucks I just funded. Frustrating? Yes, extremely. I have told myself never to give up on Adwords, but I guess a person needs to know when to give up. I'll never get anywhere if I have to keep buying new domains just to get slapped again. Has anyone had success in Yahoo and Bing search marketing? Can you track your sales conversion with Yahoo and Bing? I didn't believe ONE BIT of the "complaints from users and publishers about inaccurate or misleading claims regarding the product being promoted." part. Affiliate marketing is a dead end with Adwords, and I sure as hell wouldn't want to spend all my effort doing SEO on my landing page for a product which will ultimately get slapped/sandboxed by G (happened to me before). Things will just get harder and harder in near future, for both article and ppc advertising. G sux.
I do not believe you are out the monies in your account. As frustrating as this is I implore you not to give up on Adwords. I agree constantly buying domains and restarting is not the answer. However there are too many people doing this long term for there not to be an acceptable solution. Hope you will give yourself some breathing room and then take a fresh look when able. There has to be a way to roll with this in a profitable and time responsible way.
Thank you for your email. I've researched why your account was disabled, and found that this action was taken for the following reasons: The URL(s) cited for a very poor-quality landing page experience are: xyz.com abc.com efg.com. As mentioned in my earlier email, the account was disabled because these websites promote unacceptable business practices. As you know, we are committed to making the AdWords experience safe and effective for our users and our advertisers. We disabled your AdWords account after a review of your landing page quality evaluations because we believe that this kind of poor-quality site creates a seriously negative or possibly harmful user experience. The decision to disable your AdWords account was not taken lightly, and we appreciate your cooperation in this matter. As for the remaining balance in your AdWords account, you can request a refund by following the steps at http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=8440&hl=en_AU. You can cancel your refund request by following the steps at https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=8442&hl=en_AU. Your ads will resume running if you do so. Sincerely, Subharaj The Google Australia & NZ AdWords Team UNACCEPTABLE BUSINESS PRACTICES? What is that even supposed to mean? Them: "There are a few things on your URL that need to be fixed." Me: "What are they?" Them: "Sorry we can't tell you." Me: "HUHHH?? See the irony there? Byebye to this account.. hope the other one survives. Might start a new account again the future but for now I'll give Yahoo & Bing a shot.