How to get AdWords account unsuspended

[Jkjk]

Hello,

my AdWords account was suspended for Landing Page and Site Quality violations.

As stated on [adwords.google.com...] :

"If your account was suspended for violating our landing page and site policies, we will no longer accept advertising from you unless you've made significant changes to your website in order to comply with our landing page and site policies"

Anybody got AdWords account un-suspended by making changes to the website(s) that violated landing page policies?

My banned website gets also SEO traffic to the index page and I don't want to touch it. Do you think that it would be acceptable by AdWords if I make a new landing page on the domain (www.example.com/adwords_page.html) that would be in accordance with the policies and submit this page(not the index page used originally in AdWords) for revaluation?

Thanks,

Jk

[smallcompany]

You'll never get it fixed if you think in "micro" way. I remember when people long ago discussed the need for privacy policy, etc.

You have to "get out" and look from the above - big picture.

You have to convince Google that your site is useful to the audience. You have to be honest, too. No "free" claims that are not really free.

Stop thinking about Google, and ask yourself why you're running your site.
If you're running it as an affiliate or to show AdSense or similar, it's going to be tough but still not impossible.

I'm in affiliate marketing and I had quite few sites slapped. It is true, I want people to move on and buy something from my partners' sites. And that's what Google does not want as my partners are already there running their own ads.
So until I become "useful" I can't expect to run ads on AdWords.

Do I fully agree with the extent of this policy and all QS related stuff? No.

[Jkjk]

To clarify this - none of the banned sites were using negative billing or other scammy stuff. They are weigh loss and other products with 100% money back guarantee, Google just does not like some of the claims(testimonials with non-standard results, etc) so I'd like to ma an 'adwords friendly version'. The question is if I can make it on a separate page(directory).

BTW the sites run in Yahoo/Bing PPC with no problems and comply with US/UK regulations.

[LucidSW]

I never had an account suspended. I don't use Adwords until every component follows the rules that gets one suspended in the first place. These are client accounts after all.

But I have heard that yes, making the appropriate changes to the landing page will get you back in their good books. Doing what you suggest should do it.

Yahoo/Bing don't have the same rules as Google. However, doesn't mean they still won't in the future. My feeling is that they will implement some of the same rules sooner or later.

[DiscoStu]

That's new to me - that Google even mentions a possibility of being unsuspended. Used to be an irreversible life sentence. Does this mean old suspended accounts have a chance to make it back? Has anyone gotten their account successfully unsuspended? Never heard of anyone who has...

[bears5122]

I've seen some legit businesses that got suspended. Basically local businesses like plumbing. When it was clear that it was a mistake, I think Google unsuspended them after many calls.

[netmeg]

If they don't like your business model, they probably still won't like your business model. If it's because of error or ignorance, yea, it could happen if you find a sympathetic ear.

[Dlocks]

If your account was suspended for violating our landing page and site policies, we will no longer accept advertising from you unless you've made significant changes to your website in order to comply with our landing page and site policies.

Quote from the same Google AdWords support page:

When a violation of our advertising policies has occurred, you'll receive a warning to correct the problem.

Does this mean they will tell you what website/campaign is violating the advertising policies?

Because about one year ago when an advertisor was for example running 20 campaigns for 20 different websites for about five years and spending about $45,000 USD per month on AdWords without any problems they would not even tell what website and/or campaign was causing problems in the automated warning email.

Back then the first warning looked something like this:

"This is your first and last warning for violating the AdWords guidelines.

We will not tell you which guideline has been broken and we will not tell you which website is violating the guidelines. But if you do it one more time you will get a ban for the rest of your life.

Please don't contact us about this matter."

Are the warnings still the same or did they made some improvements?

[LucidSW]

> Used to be an irreversible life sentence.

I used to think that too but apparently not. I guess it could depend on the kind of offense too.

> Does this mean they will tell you what website/campaign is violating the advertising policies?

I recently got access to a banned account. The emails sent to the client DID specify which campaign is in violation. In fact, it specified the landing page. It's not clear however if it was the first message or after the client prodding.

I'll try to re-instate the client's account although it has been well over 6 months. I don't think the elapsed time will have an effect but who knows.

Of note from the emails:

After a site violates Adwords policy, advertisers can make changes to the landing page of the site and escalate for our review.

If approved during the review, the site may be re-enabled for Adwords and the account violations may be removed.

Paused ads will still be reviewed based on our guidelines.

Pausing or deleting ads related to the disabled sites will not automatically re-enable the ads.

[Dlocks]

@LucidSW: Interesting, could you keep us updated about the re-instate process? For example if they are willing to have another look at the account and give more information about why it was banned?

[La_Valette]

This all means that affiliate and advertising agency marketing which links directly to the merchant site is basically dead on Google... if the only way to unsuspend a suspended account is to modify the landing page (as it indeed appears to be), then linking to a page you can't modify to begin with is too risky.

Combine that with the fact that if you advertise for many merchants, your chance of being suspended because of the actions of just one of them can then become very high.

I can imagine alot of advertising agencies being put out of business this way.