I’ve been suspended from Google AdWords since early September 2010. First, I got a vague warning in late August. Less than a week later, I was suspended. Here’s proof:
I still don’t know exactly why I was suspended.
I know it had to do with something on this domain. From what I was able to figure out, my site was classified as a “make money” site, probably because I’m a freelance copywriter who helps clients make money.
In Google’s eyes, it’s apparently an “unforgivable sin” to talk about making money or help others to make money.
I wasn’t using AdWords very much at the time I was suspended, and I hadn’t made any changes that would have a triggered a review. I can only assume my account was flagged in some sort of sweeping review.
What Fueled the Growth of AdWords?
I began using AdWords shortly after the program launched — back when GoTo/Overture was the biggest pay-per-click game in town.
Because the AdWords auction gave lower cost-per-click to better advertisers, savvy direct marketers quickly embraced AdWords. Google returned the love by adding better tracking tools for advertisers to measure conversions and ROI.
Translation: Direct marketers fueled the rapid growth of AdWords. Big brands didn’t understand AdWords and were slow to embrace it.
Fast-forward to July 2011 and the landscape has changed dramatically. Big brands have finally jumped into the AdWords pool. Google has tweaked its ranking algorithm to favor big brands and similar “authority sites.”
Worst of all, Google has suspended the AdWords accounts of tens of thousands of direct marketers — without any kind of recourse.
They won’t tell you why they suspended you. And unless you happen to be especially lucky and/or persistent, you’ll NEVER be able to advertise on Google again.
Google Snubs Big Spenders, Too
If this seems unfair, that’s because it is.
I would gladly fix my site if Google were willing to tell me what I did wrong. Isn’t that how a business relationship works? Communication has to flow both ways. The merchant and customer need to work together for a fruitful relationship.
But Google doesn’t seem to want good business relationships.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re spending $500 a month or $30,000 a month — they’ll cut you off without notice if you so much as blink the wrong way.
I spent exactly $9,825.74 on AdWords before my account was suspended. A client of mine was spending $30,000 a month up until two weeks ago when he, too, was suspended without warning.
Who the hell snubs a customer who’s spending $30K a month and then won’t even give the customer the courtesy of an explanation?
If there was a problem, you’d expect a friendly phone call first. Or a polite request to change your web site to comply with Google’s advertising rules — and specific guidance about how to do it. Or something.
But Google has so much money — power — and control of the search market — they couldn’t care less. So they treat even their best customers like dirt.
Kiran Mehta, a Google AdWords Qualified Individual, had his AdWords account suspended in April 2011. In this LinkedIn discussion, he expresses what many others have thought and felt:
Google cannot give me an exact answer to what the problem is. They keep sending me back to links relating to their terms and condition, etc. It’s like going to see a doctor and he/she tells you that you are sick, gives you a book and says go and find what’s wrong with you and fix it.
Google: A House Divided Against Itself…
True story… I wanted to run some PPC advertising this past spring. And I wanted to do it on AdWords. I hired a guy to do the work because I was too busy, and he tried to get my AdWords account reinstated.
He ended up talking to an AdWords consultant whose job is to bring new advertisers in the door and help them set up a successful campaign.
When the consultant saw the site we wanted to advertise, she was thrilled. “This is just the kind of site Google is looking for!” she exclaimed.
We nailed it. Navigation, all the proper disclaimers, an advertorial style landing page that wasn’t too pushy — all the right stuff. So she said she was going to push for us to be able to advertise.
There was a caveat… they would build out the initial campaign with our input. This was one of the conditions because she wanted to make sure we were successful.
Remember, this gal is on Google’s business development side — the side that offers $75 and $100 AdWords credits to bring in new advertisers. So she’s trying to bring in new accounts that go on to achieve long-term success with AdWords.
We were encouraged at first. We thought this gal would be able to help us. But things quickly went downhill.
Because while she said she was going to reinstate my account, she was unable to do it. Apparently, another Google team (let’s call them the “AdWords Nazis”) refused to allow us to advertise.
Worse still, she submitted some of the WORST keyword lists and ads I’ve ever seen. I couldn’t believe how untargeted the keywords were… and how terrible the ad copy was. This was their idea of giving us a “good start” and a better chance of success.
This was her final effort. She implied she might be able to reinstate my account if I agreed to use MY money to run THEIR campaign.
I politely said “no” and that I would no longer be using AdWords. And that’s when I realized…
Google Has a Multiple Personality Disorder!
My firsthand experience with Google’s AdWords Team caused me to realize just how dysfunctional they are.
They’re spending gobs of money trying to get new advertisers in the door… while at the same time permanently banning old advertisers for minor infractions and then refusing to divulge any specific information about the reasons for the suspension.
They’ve got one team trying to bring in new advertisers… and another team that has been given a “license to suspend.” The latter has the authority to override the former — causing all kinds of internal conflict and confusion.
I strongly suspect there are some individuals on this “AdWords Suspension Team” who are power-tripping. These individuals probably know zilch about running a business. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re former TSA or IRS agents hired exclusively for their lack of empathy for fellow human beings.
As John Jonas wrote in his 2008 post about his personal experience of getting suspended from AdWords: “The people who ‘run’ AdWords are Nazis with no feeling for human beings. If you make a mistake, there is no warning system and no appeals process.”
And let’s not forget, the people they’ve put in charge of business development have probably NEVER spent their own money to advertise on AdWords, yet they’re the ones building out campaigns for new advertisers. (As I said, the campaign they built for me was the worst I’ve ever seen.)
Is It Time to Boycott Google Search?
It’s my personal opinion that Google has grown too big for its britches. It’s become a virtual monopoly and is now behaving like monopolies do: with complete disregard for the customers it allegedly serves. (Emphasis on “allegedly.”)
There are, of course, certain things I love about Google. For instance, Gmail and Google Docs are services I would be happy to pay for.
But the fact is, until a company like Bing or Facebook steals a big piece of Google’s market share, Google will continue to be unfair and impossible to work with.
It’s for this reason I’m no longer using Google as my primary search engine. I’m using Bing instead.
Furthermore, I’ve been advertising on Bing and promoting Bing as much as I can. I visit Bing daily to see the new picture of the day, then I click the “Like” button so it shows up on my Facebook page.
Over time, I hope this builds exposure, familiarity, and usage of Bing. And I hope it helps them steal more of Google’s share of the search market. Now, I realize I’m just one guy — but maybe I can make a difference. :-)
Google Is Not the Only Game in Town!
Thankfully, when it comes to pay-per-click advertising, Google is not the only game in town. Bing and Facebook are excellent alternatives. And while search volumes on Bing are far lower than Google’s, you can drive a TON of qualified traffic through Facebook — often more than you can get on Google, depending on your market.
With that in mind, here are a few options to explore…
- Bing Ads: At the moment, Bing is probably as close as you’ll get to a paid search experience with capabilities that are similar to AdWords.
- Facebook Ads: Advertising on Facebook is fun because you get to combine images with ad copy. Advertising on Facebook lets you target groups of people by interests and demographics.
- Amazon Pay-Per-Click: If you sell physical products, then you may want to advertise on Amazon. Right now, you can start advertising for as little as $0.10 a click.
- LinkedIn Ads: If you are in the B2B market, then consider advertising on LinkedIn. You may actually spend less to acquire sales and leads on LinkedIn given your ability to target exactly who you want to reach.
- Business.com PPC Ads: Another avenue for PPC advertising in the B2B market is Business.com.
- Infolinks In-Text Advertising: This company lets you place text links on a network of publishers’ web sites. When a reader rolls over your link, an ad pops up. This medium is similar to Google’s Content Network — but you get more than just text to get readers to click.
And I’ve only scratched the surface here. The more I investigate, the more I begin to see how many alternatives to AdWords are available.
Whether your AdWords account has been suspended or not… I strongly suggest you explore other advertising options and begin to divert a portion of your ad spend away from Google.
Because the way things are going at Google, it’s only a matter of time before your AdWords account is “permanently suspended.”
-Ryan M. Healy
P.S. If you agree Google’s business practices are unfair and Draconian… and you’d like to do something about it… then please share this post with all the online business people you know. Thanks.
About Ryan M. Healy
Ryan Healy is a direct response copywriter. Since 2002, he has worked with scores of clients, including BoostCTR, Alex Mandossian, Terry Dean, and Pulte Homes. He writes a popular blog about copywriting, advertising, and business growth, has been featured in publications like Feed Front magazine, and is a regular contributor to WordStream.com, BoostCTR.com, and MarketingForSuccess.com.
Even the best copywriters sometimes get stuck for words and struggle to write winning ads. But what if there was a surefire way to smash through writer's block and write winning copy almost every single time? Good news -- there is. Click Here to Read the Complete Article » |
{ 39 comments }
Ironic that Ryan Google +1′d me to let me know that a Google boycott might be in order. That’s f*cked up.
Members of my private Marketing Junkies’ Club are DRILLED into the concept of having multiple streams of traffic and income.
And to steal a famous Caple’s headline, “They laughed at me when I told ‘em that Google is a from for the NSA, but when they got slapped…”
Google is an essential arm of the NSA. Matt Cutts is ex-NSA. Google is an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) in disguise as some “do no evil” tech company.
Google cutting off accounts has nothing to do with money or profits.
It’s all about control.
They help the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. This trick has been used on the profane and the masses for donkey’s years.
Of course a regular private company wouldn’t drop $30,000.00 accounts without explanation. (Actually, Google has dropped 6-figure accounts without explanation, either.)
Heck, I wouldn’t drop a $100 client without explanation. And neither would any of us, right?
Never forget the word Government in Latin is:
Govern: “Control”
Ment: (e.g. as in mental) is “mind”
“Control your mind.”
And the idea that switching to Bing or Yahoo! to protest is a sick joke, Ryan. They’re the same company with different names. There is no competition. Just look at board of directors of any big company… for example, the CEO of Google was once on the board of Apple. Google’s new Prize.org lets you login under your FaceBook account. I can list thousands of examples of these weird, noncompetitive synergies.
We’ve been had. And the sheeple still believe in Santa Claus.
It is ironic… but I reach people how they want to be reached. Also, I made sure to specify “Google Search.” It would be very impractical to boycott all things Google. But switching to a different search engine is easy and could tip the balance of power enough that Google adopts friendlier customer service policies.
In the end, I’m not against Google’s products — I’m against their piss-poor “one strike and you’re out” approach to customer service. And one of the only ways to force change that I know of is to help create competition.
Markus,
I might add that when you dissect the word “politics” you find that “poli” comes from the Latin meaning “many,” and “tics” are “blood sucking creatures.”
Of course, you already knew this…
- John
Now that’s just crazy talk right there… ;-)
BINGO!
Unfortunately it’s not just Google slapping people silly. The same thing was happening to a lot of people who switched over to Facebook PPC ads as well.
Buying traffic isn’t as brain dead simple as it used to be. Or as cheap.
It’s harder to boycott Google when we use so many of their services. We shouldn’t forget that they also own YouTube as well. :(
Don’t even get me started on Google+.
When I heard the words Google+ I got goose bumps. It was like some prehistoric beast was sneaking up behind my back waiting to munch on my bones.
The internet isn’t the free paradise of low-hanging fruit it used to be for so many. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of new business owners who don’t know that…
Being sold a lot of old info on how to market themselves.
Though it feels as though this topic has been beaten to death. It won’t feel that way when the Internet is no longer the land of opportunity it once was…
Courtney – Thanks for the comment. Yes, Facebook has some interesting policies, but they’re currently easier to work with than Google is.
Also, I’m not suggesting a total boycott of Google, only a boycott of their search engine. As I replied to Markus above:
“I made sure to specify Google Search. It would be very impractical to boycott all things Google. But switching to a different search engine is easy and could tip the balance of power enough that Google adopts friendlier customer service policies.”
Preach
on Ryan!! same thing happened to me where we were running adwords for
several months and bam…just like that they canceled it without notice
or word or explanation…even after repeated attempts to find out why so
we could change it but they had no answers
I feel your pain!
Sounds like a case for the InfoWars team…
Haha! Seriously…
Although as soon as that happens, the idea that Google is suspending AdWords accounts will no longer be a fact, but a “conspiracy.”
Great post Ryan. Had similar experience with adwords and have learned to deal with it as some of the other commentors have. I hope you are right about Bing be an up and coming competitor.
In my estimation, Bing is the only search engine with enough resources to give Google a run for their money. The irony of switching to a Microsoft company because Google is too big is not lost on me. But I don’t see any other viable competitors in the search market at the moment.
Blekko is growing, but they’re still small and don’t offer PPC advertising. Maybe they’ll grow into a viable competitor.
By the way, here’s an interesting interview with the founders of Blekko:
http://www.techcrunch.tv/watch?id=l4dmtrMTrlyjsC41_mk1jkhPs2NJ1KeA#ooid=l4dmtrMTrlyjsC41_mk1jkhPs2NJ1KeA
Trying to get answers out of Google about anything is pretty much impossible. Even their help and support pages seem to take you in circles. It’s kind of ironic that a company that prides itself on the ability to help people find answers on the internet can’t even provide answers to their own (paying) customers.
Almost as ironic as you putting an ad for Perry Marshall’s Adwords course under this post :-)
Oh, that’s funny. I have an ad rotator that randomly places ads between posts on my blog… and I haven’t updated the ads in about a year. Good reminder that I need to do that — and soon! :-)
P.S. Spent some time yesterday updating the ads on my site. Removed the one promoting Perry’s AdWords course… now promoting Perry’s free Facebook training. :-)
Sorry to hear this! Unbelievable that they’d decline business from a long-time, paying customer with no explanation.
Thanks, Brett. Fortunately, I wasn’t using AdWords for much of anything, so the impact on my business was insignificant. But since publishing this post, all kinds of people are coming out of the woodwork. I just talked to a guy today who had his AdWords account suspended… and his business dropped 40-50% almost immediately.
That’s a real good reason to be diversified. Don’t have all your marketing eggs in one basket. I’m afraid it’s far too late to overthrow Goggle with Bing. Of course David got Goliath. I’m afraid that Google has become so powerful that nothiing short of government legislation will stop them. They can pretty much get away with anything they want to do.
I’m sure it must seem crazy to think Google could ever be less than it is. But Blockbuster has given way to Netflix (and Hulu, etc.). Big phone companies are finally giving way to VOIP like Skype and Ooma. And so forth.
So there is hope. :-)
Of course, if Google is a front for the NSA as Markus and others suggest, then government legislation against Google will merely be used to make the public believe the government is “trying to do something.”
Sorry to hear about this. My Facebook account was shut for two months because of a virus – no help from Facebook.
That’s strange… was it a virus on your web site that caused Facebook to shut down your account?
Dave,
Yep, although Google only mentioned RyanHealy.com when they suspended my account, I strongly suspect some of my old deleted campaigns influenced their decision.
Back in 2006, I used the Google Cash method for a couple months as a test — basically linking straight to affiliate products from AdWords. I deleted those campaigns because I found they were not profitable.
As far as PPC Renegade goes… never heard of them, but their promises sound good. :-)
Ryan
Eventually this spitting in their customer’s faces will hurt them badly. What’s even scarier than having your Adwords account suspended is having your Adsense account suspended. I’ve read horror stories of people who were owed 5-figures in Adsense commissions and Google unilaterally shut them down, gave no reason, and refused to pay them their rightfully earned income.
Dictatorships always, always fall.
Hey Jim – I’ve heard the same thing about Adsense accounts. Fortunately, mine is still active. But it’s a small amount of income, so losing it wouldn’t be a major event for me.
But for people who depend on Adsense, it’s a totally different story.
Although I COMPLETELY agree on Google acting like a monopoly and basically being a “Hitler of online advertising”… I nearly always get a response back from them.
The trick is being NICE to them. Show that you’re actively trying, genuinely are trying to help people and promote a good site, etc. and they’ll help.
They do for me at least :)
I don’t promote my copy services on there anymore though as they don’t allow testimonials/success stories, etc. And having no proof of my results isn’t exactly a good way to get people to spend several grand to get copy written ;)
Jeremy
I’ve been nice to them in my correspondence — have never shown animosity toward them. Nevertheless, their “help” involves canned responses and apologies that they can’t help, there’s nothing they can do, etc.
I don’t think it’s logical or reasonable to expect a person to send 30 nice emails to get a resolution, which is how many emails one guy said he had to send before he got his AdWords account reinstated.
Ouch!
Maybe I’ve just been lucky then…
Yea, I totally agree that their customer service is despicable. And
definitely not reasonable/logical
to have to send 30 emails…
It is interesting to say the least that Google’s corporate moto is “Don’t be evil.”
Of course they are just another company who espouses a sincerely altruistic mantra as a means to deceiving the masses.
When any entity, corporate or political has that much power, it’s very easy to squash the little guy. I would suspect that 30,000 dollars in spending for them is relatively small when compared to the behemoth spending budgets that larger ad groups have.
It’s no different than dealing with cell phone companies. They are the only companies which you can get service from( huge monopolies) and it’s easier to get a divorce than it is to get out of your contract without paying an early termination fee.
I would suspect something more devious, although I’m typically inclined to do that.
But, for what it’s worth I think that I’ll try and stay away from the Big G, and I certainly won’t be doing any type of adwords advertising without expecting to take it hard from them.
Now if only I can get out of google +…
I think Google’s new motto is “Control the world with an iron fist.” Or something like that. :-)
Mike Filsaime created PayDotCom. It’s a competitor of ClickBank, but still uses PayPal.
Here’s a must-read article on Google’s latest round of unexplained Suspensions. This time, they’re suspending Google+ accounts. In some cases, they’re suspending people’s Google IDs entirely, blocking access to ALL Google services: Docs, G+, Adsense… everything!
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/violetblue/google-plus-deleting-accounts-en-masse-no-clear-answers/567
@HeyHealy — Interesting article. But is 30k a month that much money compared to a big brand advertiser that will spend millions?
Just read an article in the SF Chronicle yesterday about how Wally World is gearing up to market there online presence, they even bought another company just to do so. And with a few billion dollars in the war chest you can bet your bippy they will drop a chunk with the big G.
@StumpMarkus:disqus — Never thought about that before. Hmm
The worth of a customer is always relative. So $30K a month may be an annoying zit on Google’s chin.
But if Google scorns the “small money,” I think they’re setting themselves up for a colossal fall.
Not saying I agree with the practice, just the way I see it. I have to believe unless they scorn some politician (or ally) and retain a monopoly on search it won’t change.
Perhaps Markus is right, there is something more big picture and nefarious going on. I could believe that when looking at my EPN account.
Great info all, I am in the same boat since November 2010, and is just emails after emails coming from Adwords and account still suspended, an idea: since Google is public traded, and because of Google lack of good management they are loosing revenue to the stockholders, every $30K counts, if we make enough search engine noise, eventually the companies who own GOOG stock can make some pressure from the top.
Clearly, pressure from the bottom is not working… yet. Since Google’s first allegiance is to shareholders, they might respond better to shareholder criticism.
Timely for me. I don’t advertise on Google, but I have a page on a certain popular cloud-based encyclopedia where apparently I’ve made a powerful enemy (and have a few defenders). At least there, the subject of whether my page stays or goes is fully public and open for discussion (and I can see how bizarre his reasoning is for wanting me out).
Unfortunately, I haven’t found a search tool that gives the quality of results that Google does–but I have my trust issues with them.
Good luck!
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