Suspended Ad Grants: Navigating A Prickly Situation
Google has the right to suspend any AdWords account that they feel has violated an AdWords policy, or broken at least one of their terms and conditions. When Google suspends an account, all ads in the account immediately stop running, leaving advertisers unable to create any new ads. When that happens, what are your options?
If a new account is created after the original account has been suspended, Google can recognize similar information between the two and will likely prohibit the advertiser from advertising on Google’s network forever. The best thing to do is to make the changes to any violations that Google has previously flagged. Accounts are only suspended after changes are not made to their original warning violation, usually from a single ad or keyword.
Here are some reasons why your nonprofit’s AdGrant’s account could be suspended:
- Policy Violation
- Google’s advertising policies encompass four general areas: prohibited content, prohibited practices, restricted content, and editorial & technical. If policies are violated in any of these categories, Google can block the ad from appearing, and, if repeated, suspend the account altogether.
- Repeated Violations
- Repeatedly violating AdWords terms and conditions will result in suspension.
- Unauthorized Access & Fraud
- Google will suspend an account if they believe that an unauthorized user is attempting to access the account. Reporting the issue to the AdWords Help Center is the quickest way to secure the account and get ads running again.
- Inactivity
- If an account is not used for more than one month, the account will be suspended.
- Advertising an Unapproved Domain Not Related to the Nonprofit
- This suspension is unique to nonprofits advertising with Google AdGrants. When the Grant is approved, the user agrees to only advertise for their nonprofit’s website, all from the same approved domain. If the user attempts to create an ad using a domain that was not approved, the account will be suspended.
- For example, an issue our Digital Analysts often run into occurs when they advertise for an organization’s donation page. Many nonprofits have a donation page that leads to a separate domain. These types of donation pages are not allowed to be advertised using the Grant, causing the nonprofit to miss a chance to advertise their donation page. The only way a nonprofit would be able to advertise a separate domain is if they own the other domain, and have it approved by Google.
With more advertisers on Google’s network, more unfavorable and inappropriate ads are sure to follow. In 2016, Google reports that they removed 1.7 billion “bad” ads. That is more than double the ads removed in 2015. Unapproved pharmaceutical ads, payday loan ads, and deceitful or shocking ads were among the most ads removed. Over 112 million ‘trick to click’ ads were also removed for containing malware. These types of ads looked like system error notifications that would then convince web surfers to download the malware in the ad.
With all these “bad” ads lurking, it seems like a good idea to start cracking down on ads that violate Google’s policies. Best said by Disruptive Advertising, “Google’s advertising policies are in place to protect the user. In many cases a suspension is placed on an advertiser who Google believes is making false claims or has misleading content on their landing page or site.”
Google changes algorithms and policies often, sometimes without warning. Prevent an account suspension by staying up to date with Google AdWords policies and terms and conditions. You can also closely follow your account by changing your notifications to make sure that if any policy violations occur, you’re on top of it.
If your account has been suspended or you need help managing your Google AdGrants account, contact us! We’d be happy to help.
By: Katie Kelderman, Digital Strategist