Not WHY adsense bans, but WHEN...

a theory...

[zulufox]

What I am presenting is just a theory, so feel free to smash it with hard evidence or counter theories.

As an adsense publisher, I have read every single "invalid click email banning" thread since I joined WebmasterWorld.

It appears to me that the only concrete commonality in between these threads is that in the vast majority of the cases (not all) the poster is a new member to WebmasterWorld with a small post count.

I am not implying that posting to WebmasterWorld helps publishers in any way, however it might allude to something else.

Theory: FIRST: For the first few months publishers are put under the microscope, regularly inspected by adsense staff who look for signs that the website could be "trouble" publishers and removes them using the invalid clicks excuse. SECOND: the "tolerance level" for invalid click auto-banning is set much lower.

I remember during my first 2 months with adsense I recieve a 4-5 emails from the adsense staff about stuff I was doing wrong, however, for the last 10 months (even though I have caught quite a few TOS violations (due to a CMS creating pages without content)) I have yet to recieve 1 email.

It would be a reasonable strategy on google's part to remove websites that show signs of being future trouble for google (a significant amount of invalid clicks, sketchy content, etc.. etc..).

Furthermore, it would obviously google would have to keep this practice quiet or else it could be exploited.

Just thought I'd put it out there.

[europeforvisitors]

I think there's a simpler explanation for why most "I've been banned" posts are by new members: Most people don't join support forums until they've got a problem or a question.

[Lord Majestic]

"I've been banned" posts are by new members

Some people might not wish to use their main login to post question like that, so they register a throwaway account.

Those who have not joined this great forum yet are probably beginners so they are likely to make more mistakes that serve as an impulse to search for other banned people and find this forum ;)

[valeyard]

I think this theory is probably rightish.

Given Google's love of algorithmic approaches, I suspect that they have some complex scorecard for publishers. I guess points are allocated for things like unusually high CTR, extremely high paying keywords, sudden increase in earnings, etc. If the score passes a threshold, the publisher is flagged for manual close supervision.

If they do have such a system it would make sense for one of the factors to be "Is this publisher new?"

[birdstuff]

I think there's a simpler explanation for why most "I've been banned" posts are by new members: Most people don't join support forums until they've got a problem or a question.

I think EFV hit the nail on the head...

[europeforvisitors]

Some people might not wish to use their main login to post question like that, so they register a throwaway account.

Could be, but most "I've been banned" posts don't read like posts by experienced members. I suppose it's possible that some longtime members are good at acting like newbies and faking a different accent. :-)

Those who have not joined this great forum yet are probably beginners so they are likely to make more mistakes that serve as an impulse to search for other banned people and find this forum ;)

Maybe. There's no reason for beginners to make mistakes, though, since Google makes the program's rules quite clear. (And it shouldn't even take a knowledge of the rules to know that clicking on your own ads or asking others to do so is a form of theft.)

[tonygore]

Interesting Theory.

The Crazy thing is I've NEVER had an email from Google for Anything! Not even changes to services, etc. I check my Spam folder every day and I also know my email address in correct because it's the same as the one I use to sign-in to AdSense...

Is anyone else like me and has never had an email from Google?

[totter]

My guess is that it is just some sophisticated google algorithm, made to put Adword advertisers at ease...

[jetteroheller]

I put some days ago google special in the white list of Spam Assasin

I just checked for all emails from Google

Last received 28 February

Wondered, that they did not sent an email for all this changes

[livinginCA]

Here's my story. First I'll admit to being a serious newbie at affiliate advertising. I put adsense on a couple of a web sites, in part because i thought the ads made the sites look a little more professional. Never thought they would actually pay something. I never read terms and conditions when signing up (force of habit), and from time to time clicked on an ad that I was curious about. Some friends also started clicking on ads, thinking they were doing me a favor. None of us knew a thing. (I know, there's really no excuse and I'm not making one. But sometimes people run red lights without thinking, too) When i finally got around to checking the adsense account and saw a few bucks in there, i was alarmed because i knew a portion had to come from these clicks. So I wrote google and told them to remove all the money from my account. I didn't want it, and wanted to started fresh. lesson learned. Told my friends never ever to click on my ads, and i did the same. I removed all the google ads, pending action on their part. But despite a few emails to google, they haven't responded at all. Not a peep. Maybe they're just swamped and I'm a nothing insect in their world. Whatever. Another lesson learned.

[doingthistoolong]

livinginca: my prediction is that you will be fine - you contacted them about the problem. from what I have seen, google is very reasonable, and when they seem to be harsh, it is usually because we only get one side of the story...

[chopin2256]

I am a new adsense publisher. I follow all the rules. When I first started my account, I obviously was making no money, a few cents a day maybe. I had a pattern of none, or very few clicks for about 2 months. A few times, the clicks skyrocketed, but I got paid nothing for it. This was back in November. I never got an email from Google saying I am banned, or to be careful. It seems that they took care of the fraudulent clicks by not paying me, which is fine by me. Maybe the reason I didn't even get a warning is because this happened only a few times during my 4 months of being a publisher?

[Kinitz]

Maybe I am naive, but will we see once Google announcing something like this:

"We have improved our fraudualnt click detection algortithms so much, that now we will no longer be terminating publishers from adSense because of such clicks, but only for improper content"

?

This uncertainty is really upsetting and I understand that no company has perfect algorithms for detecting fraud ("no body is perfect!") but for God's sake, Google has so much power nowadays and so much money.... so in my opinion this thing, this move: to remove fear that one will be banned due to fraudualnt clicks (that anyway your competition can easily generate) would be the very final thing that Google would need to do to make Google AdSense a perfection.

Google, please, just do it!

[martsd]

I had this question/theory for sometime - maybe it fits in here.

Google being google - should be able to easily match up advertisers(using adwords) and publishers like us - maybe, they also matching spending vs.revenue - what I mean is if you are an advertiser and a publisher - and they suddenly see increase in CTR - they might check your adwords spending - and see if it matches the increase in your adsense CTR - if it does, they let it go - else, might flag it - for manual inspection - its possible - isn't it?

Maybe its better to be both an advertiser and a publisher - to sustain the account (although its not fool-proof) or you will see the 2-sides of the story - being an advertiser yourself - you wouldn't want fradulent clicks - hence make sure your site isn't the one generating those fradulent clicks?