Google Ads suspended me and turned a deaf ear • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Ads suspended me and turned a deaf ear

#121

Post by devwastaken » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 5:13 AM UTC

jefftk wrote: post #77

zorpner wrote: 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.

Thats apart of the world behind the world. What people say and what people do are entirely different things. Do you know the kind of things Google execs had to do to get into the china market? It sure wasn't all in good fun. Business by human nature operates by drama, lies, deceit, and leverage.

The lies and dishonesty come from the highest authority in Google. The only real solution is to force the dissolution of big tech and create competition once again. The only thing that can change business behavior is effects to profit.

Re: Google Ads suspended me and turned a deaf ear

#122

Post by matheusmoreira » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 5:25 AM UTC

ilamont wrote: post #4

Good luck getting a straight, specific answer from anyone at Google regarding supposed problems that violate one of their vaguely worded policies. Some of the stuff flagged by their automated systems are laughable - one that comes to mind is an ad promoting genealogy research that was blocked for promoting birth control. Not that the other platforms are much better. A nonfiction book publisher once told me her Amazon…

> was blocked for promoting birth control

Is this prohibited? Why?

Re: Google Ads suspended me and turned a deaf ear

#123

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 5:28 AM UTC

post-it wrote: post #61

anm89 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paying off an insider to get something done that actually needed to be done seems a hell of a lot less problematic than capriciously destroying someones livelihood with no justification at all as the parent indicates that Google did to them. There's nothing wrong with taking gobs of money to work at a huge corporation but at least be honest that they are terrible.

You misread, I think. > Later we learned their old agency paid off a Google insider to flag our client’s account resulting in suspension.

[deleted]

Re: Google Ads suspended me and turned a deaf ear

#124

Post by anm89 » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 5:29 AM UTC

post-it wrote: post #61

anm89 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paying off an insider to get something done that actually needed to be done seems a hell of a lot less problematic than capriciously destroying someones livelihood with no justification at all as the parent indicates that Google did to them. There's nothing wrong with taking gobs of money to work at a huge corporation but at least be honest that they are terrible.

You misread, I think. > Later we learned their old agency paid off a Google insider to flag our client’s account resulting in suspension.

You are right. I thought someone else paid to get the account restored.

Re: Google Ads suspended me and turned a deaf ear

#125

Post by anm89 » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 5:29 AM UTC

burnished wrote: post #66

anm89 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paying off an insider to get something done that actually needed to be done seems a hell of a lot less problematic than capriciously destroying someones livelihood with no justification at all as the parent indicates that Google did to them. There's nothing wrong with taking gobs of money to work at a huge corporation but at least be honest that they are terrible.

TFA states that a google insider was paid by a competitor to suspend their account.

You are right. I thought someone else paid to get the account restored.

Re: Google Ads suspended me and turned a deaf ear

#126

Post by matheusmoreira » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 5:35 AM UTC

chevman wrote: post #96

mtgx wrote: post #5

There needs to be some kind of law that mandates that a company MUST reply to customers and/or users within a given time and offer a proper redress process. I remember years ago FB would block your site and they would give you NO OPTION to contact them - like AT ALL (they used to hide the support chat button, and I think they still do from some people). I also knew a company that got its own IG account indefinitely s…

No new law needed! All you need to do is serve Google in court and they'll respond, trust me :) A lot of the stories you hear and see online of this flavor are planted by Google and others to dissuade you from filing simple legal actions!

Legal action sounds like a massive waste of time and money. Google can afford that slow burn, normal people and smaller businesses cannot.

Re: Google Ads suspended me and turned a deaf ear

#127

Post by saltdoo » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 5:41 AM UTC

grog454 wrote: post #104

jefftk wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I had a similar experience and haven't seen it put this way before. Great point about false positives.

Re: Google Ads suspended me and turned a deaf ear

#128

Post by bruce511 » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 5:49 AM UTC

nickfromseattle wrote: post #46

2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #37

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?

There is a reasonably well documented underground economy of bribing Instagram employees to verify accounts (blue checkboxes) [0] and steal sought after usernames.[1] Amazon employees have been convicted of bribery for taking $ to "leak information about the company’s search and ranking algorithms, as well as share confidential data on third-party sellers they competed with on the marketplace".[2] If this happens at…

How long before some enterprising soul offers Bribary as a service?

I can see it now - and intermediary that links willing briber with willing bribee in an anonymous way. Kinda like task rabbit for big tech...

I'm just joking right?

Re: Google Ads suspended me and turned a deaf ear

#129

Post by js4ever » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 5:56 AM UTC

ent101 wrote: post #103

jefftk wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Agreed, I have been burned in the past (2015) by a ban on google play store and adsense on one of my business. It was impossible to talk to a human or get any details and this killed the company.

I'm now a Google hater, I'll never do any business with them like EVER even if they pay me to use their products.

Also I'm the opposite of an ambassador for Google brand. I managed to turn several huge customers in EU and US to AWS or Azure solutions instead of Google cloud... Several times and I'll continue to recommend companies to not do anything with Google. Yes in the long run their attitude and people's like me will continue to destroy their brand.

Re: Google Ads suspended me and turned a deaf ear

#130

Post by chowells » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 6:07 AM UTC

grog454 wrote: post #107

george0812 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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,…

Why do you think your new product deserves customer awareness? Why is it so important to impose yourself upon the awareness of others? How is doing that with a goal of acquiring money even slightly morally acceptable?