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Google Ads suspended me and turned a deaf ear

kajic.com

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Re: Google Ads suspended me and turned a deaf ear

#102
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering there are over 150,000 people working at Google, I would assume the odds one of them would take a bribe to be pretty good. That said, it certainly doesn't prove this has ever happened.

There are 150,000 people at Google. But how many people can, on their own and without being noticed, flip that switch. And how much are they getting paid that they are willing to risk their job/career/a lawsuit to flip that switch? I assume their compensation from Google at that level is already pretty healthy, so it's not like they'd need that money for a necessity.

It sounds unreasonable. But then again look at how many people complain about being banned by Google or Facebook for no reason and without recourse.

Maybe all it takes is to know a guy who can complain about the account in the right way that it automatically gets suspended and waiting for a human to take a look takes however many weeks.

Maybe 20k a day is still small fry according to Google. That’s only 7million a year. Apparently Coke has a total marketing budget of 4 billion a year. Couple of the big guys on board and 20k a day is just a rounding error.

Re: Google Ads suspended me and turned a deaf ear

#103
post #99
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to be the closest person on this thread who can answer questions about Google. Can you please tell us why Google summarily suspends accounts? Why is there absolutely no way to talk to a human being?

I can't speak for Google, and I don't work in that part of ads, but my understanding is it's primarily because of how adversarial fraud detection is. If you give people who violate policy detailed information about what they did wrong and how you know then it is much easier for them to figure out how to abuse the system without getting caught. I don't like it, but I also don't know how to fix it.

Thank you for the response. Please read this comment.

This does make sense, but why the atrocious support? I mean at least reply to emails even if we have to wait for a month to get a response, just give us something real not the canned, automated email.

I've never ever clicked on any of my own ads EVER and I got suspended for "click fraud" and I'm sure there are many people like me... Why do I have to be terminated without any recourse? This feels, for the lack of a better word, pure evil and cruel. This makes people deeply hurt and hate the brand.

I'm a developer and a business owner and because of my experience with Adsense and Adwords there is NO WAY I'll ever use Google Cloud, no matter how much discount Google is willing to give me and I'm definitely not alone in this. This behaviour is going to destroy Google in the long term. Right now you guys make money on advertising, but as soon as you need to sell something, I'm not sure people who have been hurt are willing to pay for it.

Re: Google Ads suspended me and turned a deaf ear

#104
post #99
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to be the closest person on this thread who can answer questions about Google. Can you please tell us why Google summarily suspends accounts? Why is there absolutely no way to talk to a human being?

I can't speak for Google, and I don't work in that part of ads, but my understanding is it's primarily because of how adversarial fraud detection is. If you give people who violate policy detailed information about what they did wrong and how you know then it is much easier for them to figure out how to abuse the system without getting caught. I don't like it, but I also don't know how to fix it.

>If you give people who violate policy detailed information about what they did wrong and how you know then it is much easier for them to figure out how to abuse the system without getting caught.

I don't really buy this.

The most effective adversaries already have a deep understanding of detection mechanisms and are typically just tweaking parameters to find thresholds of detection. Other companies mitigate this by delaying bans and doing "ban waves", or even randomizing the thresholds (I have done both for certain types of automated bans for attacks on my systems).

More to the point, adversaries already know what they did wrong so telling them isn't going to make much difference. False positives do not know what they did wrong and telling them will make a tremendous difference.

Full disclosure: I have been the victim of a false positive flag in that my app with over 50M downloads on google play was removed and then reinstated when my reddit complaint post got human attention (thank g̶o̶d Google).

Re: Google Ads suspended me and turned a deaf ear

#105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait what? I can bribe a human at google to flip a switch and there are no checks and balances in place to discover a change made to a 20K a day account? How many google insiders can take bribes like this? Have they gotten rich from it? What’s the minimum spend to get official help then?

I don't believe it. A single person likely can't flag a customer without a few checks and balances.

A single user, let alone a single employee, can certainly flag a variety of things. A user flag by itself seems unlikely to permaban a not-tiny customer, and maybe a single employee flag seems the same. However, employees are better positioned than the general public to understand the combination of small actions that will yield a big result when cranked through the mysterious nonlinear algorithm. The employee wouldn't have to understand the algorithm, because theoretically no one does. (Hello alibi!) She would just have to observe its judgments as part of her normal employment duties.

Re: Google Ads suspended me and turned a deaf ear

#106

Google is not your friend and must be treated as an adversary.

I have never worked with a company as evil as Google. What adds insult to injury is the fact their mantra used to be: Don't be evil!

I stopped working with a particular firm immediately after they dropped their "we never eat children" motto.

Re: Google Ads suspended me and turned a deaf ear

#107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The entire advertisement ~~industry~~ racket is a case of an emperor with no clothes, a problem looking for a problem. Products should not be forced upon people at random times. All advertising should be replaced by opt-in directories with better indexing and filtering systems that let people search for what they want, when they want. “I want to see games like Dark Souls but in 2D with pixel art and a soundtrack like…

I'd like to think that the need for advertising is just a bug in capitalism and eventually it'll go away.

What system do you envision for bringing awareness of your product to new customers? Or do you just mean traditional advertisement and not marketing in general (ex: paid or incentivized product reviews).

From the advertiser's perspective, if I can spend $x to acquire a user with an LTV (lifetime value) of $y, and $x I like to think that I'm immune to advertising, and I suspect a lot of people here think that way too, but the bottom line is that it does work well enough on enough people to yield a positive ROI in many, many situations.

Re: Google Ads suspended me and turned a deaf ear

#108
post #77
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have already accepted it, by continuing to work for a company that does it (regularly -- this is hardly a unique story).

Sorry, are you saying that it is common for people to bribe insiders to bypass policy and hurt their competitors? This is the first time I've heard a story like this.

Hey friend - you did something very good today. It was kind of you to offer your help. I hope you have a really good weekend...:)

Re: Google Ads suspended me and turned a deaf ear

#109
post #99
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to be the closest person on this thread who can answer questions about Google. Can you please tell us why Google summarily suspends accounts? Why is there absolutely no way to talk to a human being?

I can't speak for Google, and I don't work in that part of ads, but my understanding is it's primarily because of how adversarial fraud detection is. If you give people who violate policy detailed information about what they did wrong and how you know then it is much easier for them to figure out how to abuse the system without getting caught. I don't like it, but I also don't know how to fix it.

In case you work in the relevant part of ads, could you say why advertisers are allowed to buy their competitors' literal trademarked business names on Adwords? This seems like a protection racket: "nice business you got here; it'd be a shame if that knockoff down the street paid me enough to bury it..."

Re: Google Ads suspended me and turned a deaf ear

#110

Google is not your friend and must be treated as an adversary.

I have never worked with a company as evil as Google. What adds insult to injury is the fact their mantra used to be: Don't be evil!

I feel like when you choose a motto/mantra like "Don't be evil" you're locked in to it because of the obvious implication of removing it.
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