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Understanding AdSense account suspensions due to invalid traffic
- tehwebguy 10y agoAdSense team has zero credibility until a proper response and solution is offered to Fark.com Edit: Fark's post about the incident: https://www.fark.com/comments/blog673/Fark-NotNewsletter-Google-farked-us-over https://www.fark.com/comments/blog673/Fark-NotNewsletter-Goo...
- tomjen3 10y agoNever heard of the case, and I don't think most other people who have used google adsense have either, so they probably have plenty left.
- lnanek2 10y agoHadn't heard of it either, but it does sounds like the typical Google incorrect algorithm ban followed up by atrocious customer service: http://www.fark.com/comments/blog673/Fark-NotNewsletter-Google-farked-us-over http://www.fark.com/comments/blog673/Fark-NotNewsletter-Goog... I've definitely talked to other people who tried to monetize with Google, had their ads shut off with no clue why, and were looking for new solutions. So it isn't a rare story. Google is sort of the PayPal of ads in terms of incorrect account freezes and bans that never get resolved. I don't even bother with their advertising solutions in my mobile apps any more since competitors generally offer better pay for the same clicks with less hassle.
- graeme 10y agoSounds worse. I think you can usually resolve paypal freezes.
- nikanj 10y agoBased on this, it should be easy to get your competitors' accounts suspended. And as always with Google, there's no appeal process - you just gotta hope your story makes it to the front page of reddit/HN/other.
- jdalgetty 10y agoIt is and it costs very little to do so.
- prodmerc 10y agoWhen I did SEO, it was extremely easy to drop a page or entire website off the first page by buying a ton of trash links to them. Even disavowing links in Google's Webmaster tools (a feature they introduced to combat that) did little to restore them. I imagine PPC is even easier (just buy tons of views/clicks) and harder to fix. It's basically a DDoS on your revenue accounts.
- diminish 10y ago"One or more users repeatedly clicking your ads: Don't encourage or ask your friends, family, co-workers, or general users to click on your ad" Actually it makes sense to use Adsense only if your daily traffic is above a certain level, which will make "friendly" clicks negligible.
- SCHiM 10y agoFor a long time now cybercriminals can and will target the ads of people/groups/companies they don't like to make Google flag your account as suspicious and get it closed.
- tehwebguy 10y agoSame with YouTube accounts
- 21 10y agoI find this suggestion very funny: "Additionally, YouTube publishers should skip ads when viewing their own videos to avoid artificially inflating advertiser costs." Maybe they should recommend installing an ad-blocker :)
- diminish 10y agoAn ad-blocker for publishers is actually very good idea. Don't forget to install on all of your teams' devices, and on the devices of friends and relatives.
- tehwebguy 10y agoIt's incredible that there isn't just the most basic "same logged in account" debug mode feature.
- jeffmould 10y agoThey somewhat do have a tool (although I don't think it works with YouTube ads). The Google Publisher Toolbar works decent for testing ads on your page (you can click and doesn't count), block ads, and reporting ads. https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/2411951?hl=en&ref_topic=2414281 https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/2411951?hl=en&ref_...
- omarchowdhury 10y agoI lost $100K+ on AdSense due to what I believe is a nasty competitor seeking to get my account disabled. After making the case to Google, they said they would reinstate the account and pay me what was owed. I then suggested measures that we were going to take on our end to prevent competitors from doing that again, and lo and behold, 24 hours later the Google rep tells me I'm not getting paid. No lawyer was willing to take the case, because it's Google. I literally lost $100,000 because I suggested to Google that we would take proactive measures to prevent fraud. As if having the knowledge to do so meant we were committing fraud.
- halflings 10y agoWhat do you mean by "lost $100K+". Does that include revenue from potentially fraudulent traffic? The thing is, if it's impossible to tell if that traffic was fraudulent, Google is most likely reimbursing the advertisers. It's not like they are putting the money in their pocket.
- omarchowdhury 10y agoI had $100K in total earnings that were unpaid by the time the disable happened. We were getting regular payments beforehand.
- Silhouette 10y agoNo lawyer was willing to take the case, because it's Google. That seems bizarre. The last account I read of an actual legal action against Google was a small claims procedure for a few thousand, and IIRC the conclusion was that Google basically didn't show up on court day and lost by default. I could understand not working on contingency if a lawyer feels the case isn't clear-cut, but no-one taking a six-figure case? Surely they must have had more than just "It's Google" to put them off if everyone was saying no?
- adventurer 10y agoLawyers are really expensive. You would need to turn it into a class action or you would be blowing through a ton of money, up against the best lawyers in the game.
- de_cat 10y ago"We have found that there are two types of publishers who may have invalid traffic issues with their accounts. The first are publishers who may unintentionally send invalid traffic to their accounts, typically by testing on live ads. For those, we hope that increased transparency into our policies and processes can decrease these unintentional violations and help our publishers play by the rules. The second are publishers who intentionally bypass our rules, ending up with a variety of invalid traffic issues in order to artificially inflate their ad revenue. That’s why we work hard to maintain a policy compliant ecosystem for our publishers, advertisers, and users. In short, if you play by the rules, AdSense is here to help you grow your business." I feel that this a slap in the face to any people who face malicious adsense abuse traffic in an effort to attack their site. Google has once again just brushed this by.
- revelation 10y agoThis is how you know it's an authentic Google publication. Written as if to address kids and juveniles, it's all your fault and we're not telling you why. The ultimate insult are the "helpful tips" like "don't ask friends and family to click ads".
- lloydde 10y ago"We recommend learning how to segment your traffic to help you best understand, monitor, and evaluate the traffic to your site. This may also help you identify sources of invalid traffic." May, might, could... Google is happy to continue to encourage a whole industry of SEO and Adsense snake oil salesmen.
- vesrah 10y agoOf course, see AMP for another blatant example.
- matwood 10y agoBanning accounts because a few friends or family click an ad seems like overkill and ripe for incorrect bans.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- redm 10y agoIt's a testament to Google's dominance that Adsense can be so opaque and frustrating related to abuse or suspensions and still be mostly unchallenged after a decade. I'd love to see an alternative, but I've seen nothing on the horizon.
- throwawayhv 10y agoI'd love to see an alternative, but I've seen nothing on the horizon. I switched from AdSense to another ad network and my revenue doubled overnight.
- kirchhoff 10y agoWhich network?
- throwawayhv 10y agoActually, "network" was the wrong term to use. It's a company that utilizes header bidding and machine learning to maximize revenue. (To keep my anonymity, I won't name the company.) There are many companies that do the same thing. I would never work with a single ad network ever again. I wasted a lot of time testing different ones.
- jdalgetty 10y agoPlease let us know!
- throwawayhv 10y agoSee my response to kirchhoff.
- dfabulich 10y agoWe were banned from AdSense in 2010 with no explanation. https://www.choiceofgames.com/2010/08/were-banned-from-google-adsense/ https://www.choiceofgames.com/2010/08/were-banned-from-googl... Over the years, Google has published posts like these, little FAQs that tell you nothing useful. Just once I wish they'd answer the only question anybody really has: what do I do if I'm innocent? What if Google made a mistake? There's a clear path forward for organizations who admit wrongdoing and promise to change, but no one can help you if you've done nothing wrong.
- Entangled 10y agoAround the same time I created a web page just for currency exchange in my country, a kind of fire and forget page that had like a thousand visitors a day, nothing big. I swear to god that I've never ever clicked an ad on that page which I seldom visited, once a month I checked my winnings and they were adding up like $5 a month on average... Then all of a sudden bam!, unplugged without any reason, they stole my money and never gave any chance to appeal. Sent an email that got an automated response, sent another one got the same automated response, then gave up. They served all the ads, they got all the money from advertisers, they pocketed it all including my goddamn money. Plain thievery if you ask me, no matter how you dress it with all the PR in the world.
- TAForObvReasons 10y ago> my winnings and they were adding up like $5 a month on average... > they pocketed it all including my goddamn money. It's worth pointing out that it's not your money until it's in your bank account and they can't claw it back. Unless you are really driving serious traffic, it's best not to expect any payout from any of these ad platforms
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- joecool1029 10y ago>It's worth pointing out that it's not your money until it's in your bank account and they can't claw it back. Unless you are really driving serious traffic, it's best not to expect any payout from any of these ad platforms It's worth pointing out that there's ways to claw it back even after that point: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58268-2005Apr16.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58268-2005Apr...
- tuxidomasx 10y agoI was also banned from AdSense a few years ago. They kept $30k that I had earned and I got no response. Still banned to this day.
- tehwebguy 10y agoAre there any class actions you can join?
- 20years 10y agoWe had a site that was banned with little explanation. We eventually got it reactivated but never got a good answer as to why. My guess is because the ads did really well and CTRs were crazy good. We had an Adwords account banned at one point too. Totally different site but also really good CTRs and we were able to optimize things to achieve really low CPCs. I think if your Google Adsense/Adwords accounts do well in these areas to an extreme that doesn't appear normal, their automated system bans you. Problem is then getting in touch with someone who can get you unbanned. The run-around is crazy and it can take months and cost you a ton of money.
- yeldarb 10y agoMuch like many of the other commenters in this thread we had our account banned and were never told why. We were not doing anything against the terms of service (and they never accused us of doing so). We didn't have "invalid traffic". We had millions of users and an account rep at Google. Details: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3803568 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3803568 Since then we've transitioned completely away from ad based revenue which in my opinion is much better anyway because it aligns our interests better with our users (they are now our customers not our product).
- fantiago 10y agoMy situation: https://productforums.google.com/forum/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer#!msg/adsense/npy8YP3tOhY/1XD2-c_MDgAJ https://productforums.google.com/forum/?utm_medium=email&utm...
- fantiago 10y agoMy situation and discussion @ adsense forum: https://productforums.google.com/forum/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer#!msg/adsense/npy8YP3tOhY/1XD2-c_MDgAJ https://productforums.google.com/forum/?utm_medium=email&utm...
- gesman 10y agoGoogle dominates this space and needs to boost their bottom line. Account suspensions, especially soon before the payouts are due [1] helps. Valid or invalid traffic is irrelevant and is not a cause, it's an excuse. That's why there are no appeals and no answers on specific questions. Expensive lessons for some to bet their business on someone else's platform. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7672910 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7672910
- jgalt212 10y agoSo Google seems to err on the side of assuming too much traffic is bots, but from what I read in the general ad tech media it seems all other players err on the side of assuming to much traffic is human. In short, what drives the different approaches?
- vijayr 10y agoAre there any reasonable alternatives to adsense?
- charonn0 10y agoYears ago I put Google's ads on my website. Just before the revenue reached the payout threshold they disabled my account and withheld all the money I had earned up to that point. No detailed explanation, no appeal. While I can't prove anything I was left with the distinct feeling that I was being scammed.
- Silhouette 10y agoWe once spent a small amount of money advertising with Google, just to try it out for a new business. The referring page with the most "visitors" was literally a bunch of buzzwords in something like 6pt grey on slightly darker grey text. It was like some sort of spoof stereotype of an ad-abusing landing page, which any crude detection algorithm I could imagine would have red-flagged. Various other pages were similarly obviously deceptive. We wrote off the small amount of money since it wasn't worth legal action to recover it, called it a lesson learned, and none of my businesses has ever given Google a penny in ad spend in the years since.
- malchow 10y agoOr you could use a performant, standards-based ad exchange with malvertising mitigation and human account managers, like Publir.
- lmb 10y agoYou should let people know that you have skin in the game. You are one of the founders of the company according to your profile.
- DanBC 10y ago> You should let people know [...] according to your profile. They did let people know.
- Macha 10y agoI think it should be much closer to where they're plugging their site
- malchow 10y agoLook, I suppose you're right, but it is the first line on my HN profile. If I was trying to dupe folks, I probably would have done something different.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- keithnoizu 10y agoOh adsense. I had my account blocked after spending a few thousand for ad generating sites on flippa. No transparency on there end, no ability to appeal, life time block. On a side note it seems like a good racket, sell people ad generating sites then click on adds a few times after the sale and buy it back at a discount.
- Grollicus 10y agoI always click ads of companies I don't like. Am I invalid traffic? Also, would it be possible to hurt a website - eg breitbart - by simply spam clicking their ads? Thats incredibly dangerous :o
- jwatte 10y agoOr the third source of bad traffic: Third parties you have no control over heating clicks because of free registration spam, comment spam, generating "legitimate looking" accounts for later credit card fraud, or plain ddos reasons. And there's no human being to discuss this with, or even get details from. Note that this blog itself has dozens of suspicious or obvious bot spam comments. If Google can't filter this out, how am I supposed to?
- tlow 10y agoAround 2004/2005 about a year after Adsense launched some friends and I from Stanford made a fake company and blogged about high CPC adwords content, then made a couple hundred bucks clicking our own links... received payment, never got shut down.
- tedivm 10y agoYet in the same time period I ran a website that was legit, made a few hundred bucks, and then when I tried to withdraw that money had my account closed for click fraud. It was only a few hundred bucks but as a poor college student it really sucks for google to essentially mug me.
- ploggingdev 10y agoI hope someone at Google reads this thread and shares it with the relevant team. They really need to provide proper customer service for products where money is involved.
- clessg 10y agoUnfortunately, Google has long been aware of the issue, and presumably chooses to do nothing about it. I have suspicions as to why this is, as I'm sure others do. When it comes to HN discussions about AdSense, Google typically gets their resident HN employee to flag threads, talk condescendingly, and accuse others of lying.
- tn13 10y agoScrew Adsense. I mean it. Google's policies over these matter are more opaque than functioning of NSA and their responses or FAQs are worse than the well rehearsed statements of scandalous politicians. We found moving to native ads to be significantly more profitable when you have a website that has lot of genuine content. For me adsense = spammy ads. We were blocked twice by adsense in past (two different companies owning two different web properties) for perfectly legitimate traffic giving no excuse what so ever.
- taormina 10y agoGiven all of the people in this thread complaining about Google stealing their money and these same sorts of stories I've constantly heard over the years, has anyone seriously considered joining forces in a class-action suit against Google? I personally don't have a dog in this fight, but it also seems like this keeps happening because they haven't been punished for doing it.
- Filligree 10y agoSo it turns out that people lie, and a large number of the people who complain probably do have an idea of why they got banned. They won't say that, of course.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- jedberg 10y agoIn 2004, shortly after Google launched Gmail, I put some ads on a friend's website that had about 10 monthly visitors, using my gmail account. The ads didn't really bring in any money, and then we got a notice about "fraudulent clicks" where they took away the $2 we had earned. So we took them down. 12 years later, my account is still blocked from signing up for Google ads.
- wiradikusuma 10y agois it possible (as in, allowed) to have dedicated Google Account just for AdSense? it's very risky to tie this to account where you have Play Developer, GSuite and Cloud attached to it.
- mohsinr 10y agoThis post and comments bring back too many bad memories and horrible experience I had with Google Adsense banning my account, with automated responses. I better build my own product or services , I learnt years ago. In this post they say, if a user clicks again and again... so don't ask your friend to-do so, what kind of bs is this, how they know if the user was our competitor or some ex friend doing to hurt.... they just go ahead and suspend...
- rebootthesystem 10y agoI've written about this in a recent thread. Google truly needs to face a massive class action lawsuit regarding this. I hate that sort of thing but they are large enough not to care and the only way they will care (well, at least fake forced care) is if they kicked in the balls very, very hard. The only way for this to happen is a massive class action lawsuit. It is beyond obvious they have caused untold damage to thousands of businesses who, after deciding to trust their products to create a revenue stream, get cutoff summarily for reasons beyond their control. This thread has enough people with stories of real (and very unfair) damage that attorneys frequenting HN should take notice.