I was wondering what I should do to get around an adwords ban. let me quickly explain what happened. I intentionally resubmitted an ad that was disapproved multiple times, but not with bad intent. I did not mean for it to repeatedly violate the Google TOS. They sent me emails when my ads were disapproved so I would edit them and resubmit them. Then one day I just stopped getting impressions and when i contacted them about it, they said I was banned.
I've read most, if not all the threads in here about Google bans. Do you guys know what I should do? I've contacted Adwords and told them I wouldn't do it again, but they just don't seem to want me to give me a chance again(or the people I talk to all don't have the "power" to reactivate my account). I have been polite and honest. I really didn't mean to violate the Google TOS and I was relying on it as a source of income to pay my way through college.
j
I've even had occasions when ads have been disapproved in error - perhaps an over zealous manual reviewer. In these cases I would have been forced to pause or cancel the campaigns had the disapproval not been overturned - and I'm talking perennials i.e. long-term good earners here. Fortunately I had a helpful rep.
Look into the appeals process, you sound as though you have a good attitude and deserve a second chance. At the very least you're smart enough to realise that bashing Google, however cathartic that may be, is ultimately a futile exercise.
Give Adcenter and Yahoo another go. Traffic volume is obviously far less but traffic quality stands up well.
P.S. I'm dying to see bigdealioo & rbacal go toe to toe. That truly would be the debate to end all debates.
Bring it on :)
So are we in agreement that my best move right now is just to wait and see if one of the AWA's can help me out?
I think that some things the may help would be:
1) Read the AdWords TOS very carefully.
2) Review your site and make edits wherever you think it gets close to breaking the AdWords TOS.
3) email AdWords support. Explain what has happened and the steps that you have taken. Ask if there are any further steps that you could take that would help to get your account reinstated.
4) Keep your fingers crossed.
Best of luck.
However, I have taken Pengi’s suggestions and sent them yet another email. In the email, I first stated why there was the misunderstanding. Then I stated that I carefully reviewed the TOS and I deleted any and all adgroups that were even remotely related to the disapproved ad warning.
Although I am a little pessimistic of the response because I have sent similar emails to them before, I am also now keeping my fingers crossed….Oh how I wish to stay here at Johns Hopkins. And thanks for all for your support, encouragement, and help. I will keep you guys posted.
If anyone else has further suggestions please do post here.
Should I just be more patient? And if I get a no response,..then what? Be persistent? Drop out of college?...?
Thanks guys
Saying that, maybe ADWORDSADVISOR will come to your rescue.
If I was in your shoes, I would open a new adwords account, rather than than quit college. Your education is your primary concern.
You might want to consider, spending the 50 bucks or so to register a business name, and use that, and a differnt credit card number.
Also you will want to stay well below the radar, and don't even come close to breaking the TOS.
So are we in agreement that my best move right now is just to wait and see if one of the AWA's can help me out?
...Saying that, maybe ADWORDSADVISOR will come to your rescue...
OK, I guess it is time to jump in and say a few words.
Although the charter of this forum states with reasonable clarity "Please, no posts to attract the attention of Google employees...," I have repeatedly seen both myself and AWA2 called upon to assist in this matter. Or to put it another way, we've been repeatedly asked to step in to provide special treatment for a WebmasterWorld member, evidently by virtue of that person being a WebmasterWorld member.
Please let me clarify that, for nearly four years, my role here at WebmasterWorld has been to post information that hopefully will be of use to many folks -- rather than to take on and expedite requests made by individuals, which would amount to turning Forum81 into a satellite office for AdWords support. I'm reasonably sure that the folks who own and operate WebmasterWorld would not care to see that happen, and I'd guess that this is at least one of the reasons behind the charter entry quoted above.
Bottom line, I am not able to assist with this sort of query - nor is AWA2.
All that said, my best advice to jarjarB (or to anyone who has been 'banned' from AdWords, for that matter) would be to continue to work calmly and politely with the AdWords support team. Ideally, one would reply to the most recent emails sent by AdWords support on the subject, and state your case, rather than starting a new email 'thread'.
I'd like to add that in my experience - having spent perhaps twelve thousand hours supporting advertisers in one way or another - that folks are not 'banned' for no reason, nor are they 'banned' without several warnings. It's worth remembering that it is to no one's advantage to have an advertisers ads not running - since much of Google's incomes comes from advertising clicks. In other words, the decision to stop an advertiser from advertising is not taken lightly.
And yes, it's certainly possible that a mistake could be made - but it is the job of AdWords support to work out those issues with the advertiser involved.
AWA
I clearly can't speak for Brett, but I can't imagine he'd disagree with your sentiments.
If this were my forum, I'd agree.
And while many seem to think that I'm some kind of stooge for Google (and yes, your recruiters HAVE come knocking once or twice!), I'm sure that G could help its own image by being less robotic sometimes with those of us who are not trying to pull a fast one so maybe it would be clearer when G is clear that it really really has good reasons for a ban and has not just made an automated slip-up and is now deaf to communications.
It's a bit like the conversation I had with my US hosting provider very recently. My site was down for a good (bad!) 24hrs+ before I could persuade them to look at their OWN bandwidth graphs for my site solidly on zero. Grrrr! I kept having my tickets slapped down to 'low-priority madman' status with messages such as "your site is not down and never has been" (what, since the Universe began?) until in desperation I called someone in sales to cut through the confusion...
Rgds
Damon
[edited by: DamonHD at 11:47 pm (utc) on Feb. 13, 2007]
I clearly understand where you're coming from. I will be persistent and continually polite as I try to get this worked out.
I agree with you Damon. Although I'm sure Google doesn't really "need" any one specific advertiser, it would definitely help them if they formulated a system where people that are permanently banned were purposely violating the TOS(as opposed to banning someone through a misunderstanding and then making it hard for them to find a way back in) I realize that no system will ever be perfect. No matter what, violaters will still find a way across the banning system and nonviolaters will still be accidentally banned, but I think Google can work on it a little to help nonviolaters get banned less often.
I will keep you guys posted
one would reply to the most recent emails sent by AdWords support on the subject, and state your case, rather than starting a new email 'thread'.
Thats good advice, when dealing with an issue like this, keep the same thread going, even if it gets to be five miles long.
Nothing is more frustrating than tracking a support call, that spans 20 individual email messages. Also make sure the support call number is always in the subject line.
This has worked well with me in the past for all kinds of situations.
Good luck
I am always the first to stick up for AWA, and absolutely hate it when someone has a really unreasonable go at them, effectively scaring them off. However, the bottom line is that without this forum, we would have lost thousands of dollars. I also agree with what AWA is saying and rules are rules, nonetheless, and without wanting to change the reason and topic of this thread, my only comment would be that Google does not have a proper appeal process for when mistakes are made. It's happened to us and I dare say that it will happen to others. Those others might not be so adpet at resolving issues and so they should, as customers, have the right to escalete issues to someone properly equipped with dealing with their problems.
So, AWA, and this probably deserves to be in a different thread, but please add to your list the possibility of Google considering some appeal proceedure, like it does with Adsense. You have at least one customer literally crying out for one. I know it's not my place to tell you how to run your business, but I thank you in advance for considering the issue at hand.
When the stuff hits the fan, you can see your true mettle. You have learned having all your eggs in one basket was a mistake. Clearly you have found a way to make good money online, although I have to be honest it on the surface sounds shady to me. With that being said, you should be focusing your energy on how to build your business in other directions and make more money then ever before.
If you sit around waiting and hoping google reinstates you, you will likely be very disappointed and very poor. If they do reinstate you, all the better, in the meantime you need to put the nose to the grindstone and do some actual work.
I can point to every moment in my online business to when I had substantial growth to some form of major adversity. Those are the times I was able to reassess what I was doing and find new aveneues to move forward.
Thanks for the suggestion. I will continue to try to get reinstated back into adwords and will keep you guys updated, but I will probably take aeiouy's advice as well, and hopefully I will find an alternative source of income
How long were your ads successfully running for before Google pulled the plug on you?
Did you do something to drastically change the already successful campaign that might have triggered the disapproval from Google?
Must've been pretty succesful right?=P So yeah, I was doing pretty well, but not for a long time. I only started this kind of stuff last summer(the summer of 06). So I had only been working "successfully" with Google for a couple months.
As for doing anything drastically, not really. As I said, I had a couple campaigns, only one campaigns was the one that started getting disapproved ads. I fixed them a couple times, sent them back, got disapproved notices, then noticed that it was coming from the website itself. I changed the URL of the website to another website that didn't violate the TOS. Not long after, maybe half a week to a weeks time, I decreased some of my cost per clicks for a couple campaigns, and then a day or two later, I stopped getting impressions
My mother was going to help pay for most of my tuition. She is a realtor, but then the market got bad, and that was just about the time I started to make money.
I changed the URL of the website to another website that didn't violate the TOS.
And these were websites that you built or affiliate programs?
I think it is just wrong and searching around some more, I have found people with similar experiences who are able to get into a semi-appeal process, but in the end are usually left out in the cold.
I have been at the Google Adwords game for a long time. I have hundreds of ads disapproved for one reason or another. I did get banned at one point, but since I was spending so much money, they re-instated me within hours.
Anyways, you have a very easy sitation to fix. You have 2 options at this point. The first is to just start a new Adwords account. Perhaps, use a different address on the account.
The second option is the better option and is sure to work. You need to start a corporation, either a C corp, S corp or most likley, a LLC. Pick a name for the corp that does not have your name in it and you will use that name for your new Adwords account. You can take this a step further and setup a new mailing address as well. You can even have someone else listed as the contact to the account if necessary. Basically, Google will not tell you this....but they will have no way of knowing who the heck you are....which is the way it should be. Also, you will gain the added liabilty protection of the the corporate veil as well.
It really is that simple.
Let me know how this turns out for you.
You need to start a corporation
the ads will be going to exactly the same place as the previous account and will probably be very similar
Exactly. Unless you are completely changing your business model won't you simply get banned again if you are reinstated and begin promoting the same product you were selling for those two months.
Unless you have properly understood and addressed all the issues, then changing accounts (coorporation or otherwise) will be at best a short term solution.
ONTH if you fix the underlying problem(s) you may find you can get your existing account resurrected.
Corporations are not cheap to setup.
Also as mention before, you will need to change your business model, from what was getting you banned in the first place.
OF course, you cannot keep repeating the exact same action that got you banned.
Setting up a corporation is not that expensive. It is the only route that you should be considering when going into any time of business. You do not want to run any business under your personal name. That is definitely exposing you to a ton of liabilty regardless of the business.
Take it from me who is really a business expert/genius....setup a corporation....start a new Google account....play within their "rules" (dont bend them to far)....start making some money again.
Its that simple!
Keep me posted.
[edited by: engine at 11:00 am (utc) on Feb. 25, 2007]
[edit reason] TOS [/edit]
Obviously, most people on this forum are clueless
Yes, quickly, start a corporation, think of a new product to sell, create the website to sell it, get back into Adwords, start your campaign and quickly make the $46,000 you'll need for tuition to Johns Hopkins.
Keep me posted.
A corporation is consider a 'separate person' so you will not be violating the TOS, in respect to having two adwords accounts (the banned one & the corporate one), or being penalized by being associated with the corporation.
Google is a private company and is not obliged to take on any particular customer. If they don't want to do business with anyone that's their absolute right. I wouldn't do business with a customer I don't like and just setting up a corporation is probably not going to make me like them any better...
Lafatyou: Trust me....Google has bigger things to worry about than to try and figure out who is starting a new Adwords account.
