Excluding Mobile Apps

Google support with no results

[fashezee]

I started off with the crazy notion of wanting to exclude mobile apps from our Display Campaigns.

• I initially used the Exclusion option in placement, that did nothing
• I called support, they advised I should also add: adsenseformobileapps.com, that did nothing
• I called support-again, they advised I should select specific websites, that did nothing

All the times I called G-support was in April. Every time they asked me to change a setting, I needed to wait 3 days to see the change (nice!).

Using their help forum, I found the following post (Feb 5, 2019)
- [support.google.com...]

So it seems excluding Mobile Apps is such a bad thing, it's not allowed anymore?
Someone should advise their support team.

So, can we or can we not exclude Mobile Apps?

[TheRealSaxman]

@fashezee the short answer... is "no". You cannot exclude them the way we used to with the exclusion of "adsenseformobileapps.com" which you stated you tried. When they switched to the new interface they got rid of the ability to exclude mobile ads. I personally thought this sucked as well, but it's obviously a way for G to get more $$. I've read recently that Google feels that Mobile Apps are going to be where they feel the majority of sales and leads come from moving forward. I personally don't agree, but it isn't that far-fetched either. There is going to be a time that we are carrying our personal computers in our back pockets at some point in the future where all we will be required to do link it up with a monitor and keyboard via WiFi and then I might could see Googles vision come to reality. However, in the meantime... I just now found a way to do this through Google Ad Editor online (I checked it and it seems to work!)...

• Download Google Ads Editor
• Get Recent Changes for the Google Ads account you want to update.Easy_button free image
• Select the Google Display Network (GDN) campaigns in your account
• Select Mobile App Categories in the left-side nav menu of Google Ads Editor
• Click “Add Negative Mobile App Category” at the top of the screen, select campaign level option.
• Select All apps and click “Ok”
• Check changes
• Post Changes to the Google UI and check to make sure everything looks good (we tested it, it should be!).

...hope this helps!

[fashezee]

Definitely helps ~ Thanks!

[RhinoFish]

Google pulls popular Chinese Android apps over large-scale ad fraud
They include the popular Selfie Camera app.
[engadget.com...]

"Ad fraud researcher Check Point found that it contains code that causes the app to automatically click on advertisements without the user's knowledge."

"Users don't even need to fire up the app: the clicks happen even if the application isn't running, which means it can drain battery and consume data. This fraudulent action happens with ads served with Google's AdMob and Twitter's MoPub, further showing how bad actors are exploiting Twitter's ad platform."

"They didn't disclose that they were collecting data and sending it back to China, as well."

The app is a selfie camera app, so by "data", Pat is guessing your personal pics are now for sale on the Internet somewhere.

"BuzzFeed News discovered DU Group's involvement after examining 5,000 popular apps on the Play Store. It found a lot of more apps involved in ad fraud other than the six DU Group applications, though, proving that it's a major problem Google needs to address."

[RhinoFish]

Google bans one of the biggest Android app developers from the Play Store
[news.yahoo.com...]

Google is banning the app developer, DO Global. In addition, Google is removing all apps that this developer has collectively sold (and given away), which is more than half a billion downloads.

"BuzzFeed reports today that almost 50 apps from the developer have already been removed, and the other 50 will disappear in the coming days."

They were committing Ad Click and Ad Impression Fraud.
And, they were sharing data with the Chinese Communist Government.

DO Global is owned in party by Baidu, which is sometimes described as the Google of China.

"One of them was a TV remote app that said it “might” use the microphone in your phone to record sounds while you watch TV"

"the company has apparently taken pains to mask its identify from many of the apps it’s had in Google’s online marketplace. Many of them, according to reports, list myriad addresses and developer contact details, obscuring their common ownership."

[RhinoFish]

Google used to give advertisers control over running ads on apps, and anyone who looked at their App stats turned them off because it was OBVIOUSLY FRAUD.
It's Google's Android Operating System, their Play Store, and their Ad Distribution System... they can't not know how crappy ads on Apps perform.

Press is saying that as the Chinese hackers attacked us, many tech companies knew, and did nothing.
[npr.org...]

Most of what Google does is awesome, but turning a blind eye to OBVIOUS, ONGOING, YEARS LONG app fraud is just irresponsible.
Taking away our ability to stop it in our Google Ads accounts, adds insult to injury.
It went on for years, and slipped right by you (and your AI and machine learning).

I want the ability to block Ads on all Apps back Google, please reconsider, and restore our ability to simply avoid this muck.

[buckworks]

^^^
What he said.

[tangor]

Shareholders love it. After all, that's the real biz...