Google has published its
latest report [adwords.blogspot.com] on its battle with bad advertising and advertisers during 2015.
Compared to last year's report [webmasterworld.com], some of the scams and specifics have changed, but it's clear there's been a massive volume of bad ads and bad actors out there. Here are some of the highlights.
Counterfeiters: 10,000 sites and 18,000 accounts suspended.
Pharmaceuticals: More than 12.5 million ads blocked.
Weight loss scams: 30,000 sites suspended.
Phishing: almost 7,000 sites blocked.
Unwanted software: over 10,000 sites blocked.
Misleading ads: 17 Million rejected.
Mobile has become a significant proportion of Google's advertising, and accidental mobile clicks is a big problem for advertisers, publishers and users. No figures were given on this, but it's something most of us must have had experience of at whichever end of the program.
Bad sites and Apps: Over 25,000 mobile apps ads were blocked, and 1.4 million sites and apps were blocked during 2015.
This year's report was a little more detailed, but does go to show how the huge volumes of badvertising out there.