Logging into my account AdWords account this morning and I see that I have 0 impressions. I then do a quick search on Google.com for some of the keywords that I pay for, they are not there. I get a little worried but at the same time I think it might be one of Google’s little glitches. I then contact an adwords specialist via AdWords online chat.
I explain to the person on the chat what is going on and I wait a few minutes as they are “checking into the problem”. Unsure of the what the problem is, the person then “escalates” it to the “AdWords technical department”. I wait 2 day to get a response back (still no traffic) and I get this lovely email.
Google’s email
“Thank you for your patience. It has come to our attention that your
Google AdWords account does not comply with our terms of service and
advertising policies. You have repeatedly submitted ads that violated our
Affiliate URL policies in a related account. As a result, this account has
been suspended, and your ads will no longer run on Google.
As noted in our Terms and Conditions, Google reserves the right to
terminate advertisements for any reason. To view our Terms and Conditions,
please visit https://adwords.google.com/select/tsandcsfinder.
We appreciate your cooperation.”
I almost had a heart attack, after I read this seriously. I have a family to feed and Google just turned off the waterfall of money. I admit it was my fault, but it was unintentional really. I never meant to break their rules, it’s just that their rules are so vague, they are seriously hard to interpret. They could at least have some suggestions on how I could fix my landing page so I wouldn’t be violating their terms. Their only suggestion was that I direct link to the affiliate company, basically scrap my landing page all together. Is that a good idea, I don’t think since it limits my ability to control how the user interacts with the page. Basically my landing page was designed to convert with a big “click here” button, with some basic information about the site in bullet points, something they don’t like as it is an “affiliate bridge page” in their eyes. It’s tough to make AdWords happy and at the same time have a profitable campaign going, that converts into buyers.
I emailed back stating I was truly sorry and it would never ever happen again.
This is their response
“As mentioned in our previous email, your Google AdWords accounts have been
suspended due to multiple policy disapprovals. We are unable to revoke
your account suspensions, and we will not accept advertisements from you
in the future.
Please note that our support team is unable to help you with this issue,
and we ask that you do not contact them about this matter. If you need
more information about our content policy guidelines, please visit
https://adwords.google.com/select/contentpolicy.html.”
I then called then and pleaded my case, still no go. The AdWords specialists decision is final… ( like a judgement from God). I cannot do anything, I am banned from Google for life, FOREVER. I explained that I was truly sorry and also explained I spend roughly $45,000 per month with them on advertising, no go. $45,000 x 12 months=$540,000 per year that they are saying goodbye to. I am truly in shock that they would let that amount of money disappear, for such silly “violations”.I got kicked to the curb, and I was completely shocked as you might imagine.
Google is my business without it I have nothing. This to me is like life and death, honestly. It’s how I support my family and how I planned on retiring.
So Now What?
Well I started researching online for “banned by AdWords”, “suspended by by AdWords”, “AdWords suspension” and so on. It seems like Google AdWords teams like to ban people very frequently and easily. For the time being I am relaxing and remaining calm. I am still in shock as to how they treated me, I wasn’t trying to advertise porn, it wasn’t gambling. I made the mistake of not designing my affiliate landing page properly (which they call a “bridge page”). I didn’t realize how to create the right design for an affiliate landing page so as to not break Google’s golden rules. I was wrong I admit it, but do they need to ban me forever for advertising for such small mistakes. Even criminals get second chances. We are human and we make mistakes, don’t you Google??? Have compassion for people, it would do you a world of good.
In any case it’s their company they can do whatever they like. I would love to know what amount of advertising income is derived from people like myself, affiliate marketers? They hate us, but how much money do we make Google AdWords? I would love to know………
I did find numerous posts from people wondering if they can create a new AdWords account. Apparently this is a difficult task to do, to say the least. In order to create a new Google AdWords account from what I have read you need to do the following:
- New business name
- New address
- New name.
- New credit card
- New websites
- New computer
- New IP address
That is an insane amount to do for being banned from AdWords, to get back in. I guess it would be worth it to do, but seriously I’m too stressed to even bother. Maybe I’ll get my real estate liscense and forget AdWords and their Nazi attitude. It’s amazing how poorly they treat people., but what comes around goes around. No one can stay on top forever, especially if you bit the hand that feeds you…..
