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Poll: Were you banned by AdSense? When in the cycle were you notified?

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Re: Poll: Were you banned by AdSense? When in the cycle were you notified?

#11

Post by oal »

I was first banned back in 2010 a few days before the payout date. After that I made numerous attempts at getting the account reopened, via their support forms. Then in the fall of 2013, it was reopened, after yet another support "ticket". I didn't start using it again immediately as I had to prepare my sites to at least partially go back to Adsense, after years of using other services. Guess what? A month after I was back on Adsense, the account was shut down again, without warning, and my money was gone.

I would not be surprised if yesterday's "leak" is indeed true.

Edit: I should add that I had been using Adsense since ~2006, when I was first banned. No big changes had been made to my website (one at the time), in the time before the ban. I never got an explanation other than the standard "illegal activity" message everyone seem to get.

Re: Poll: Were you banned by AdSense? When in the cycle were you notified?

#12

Post by mandlar »

fara wrote: post #2

I use AdMob for a mobile game I made. After successfully using it for years I got a notice that Google had bought the company and that my account would now be an AdSense account. I started earning money there and when I reached the 100usd amount, with no explanation at all I got banned. I filled up contact forms but not reason was given to me. They just said that I was not going to have my money since it was going to…

I had a very similar issue. I signed up for AdMob and right before I was payed out they banned my account for "click fraud". This was a legitimate app, no tricks to try and get people to click the ads. I just displayed an ad banner at the bottom of the Android app. I ended up just rolling my own custom in-house ad system and just cross-promote my other apps. I make more money from selling pro versions of my apps anyways.

Re: Poll: Were you banned by AdSense? When in the cycle were you notified?

#13

Post by Donzo »

I find it hard to believe that a multibillion dollar company is plotting to steal hundreds of dollars from publishers.

Perhaps a more productive activity would be to post the reasons Google cited for ceasing the ad serving on your site and then explain what you changed.

Linking to your site would also be helpful.

In this way we can determine more reasonably whether they were right in suspending your account.

Surely it is not the number of accounts that were banned that is important but rather the reasons why they are banning them and the fairness of the review process.

Re: Poll: Were you banned by AdSense? When in the cycle were you notified?

#14

Post by watwut »

mandlar wrote: post #12
fara wrote: post #2

I use AdMob for a mobile game I made. After successfully using it for years I got a notice that Google had bought the company and that my account would now be an AdSense account. I started earning money there and when I reached the 100usd amount, with no explanation at all I got banned. I filled up contact forms but not reason was given to me. They just said that I was not going to have my money since it was going to…

I had a very similar issue. I signed up for AdMob and right before I was payed out they banned my account for "click fraud". This was a legitimate app, no tricks to try and get people to click the ads. I just displayed an ad banner at the bottom of the Android app. I ended up just rolling my own custom in-house ad system and just cross-promote my other apps. I make more money from selling pro versions of my apps anyw…

Is that completely legal for them to do? I know nothing about ad business, but I would expect that if you provided service (shown ads) they should not be able to withhold your money without explanation. How is that different from refusing to pay for, say, rented car?

Re: Poll: Were you banned by AdSense? When in the cycle were you notified?

#15

Post by RealGeek »

I run a network for community forums. My forums have been spammed a few times with objectionable content.

When this happens, usually I get warning from adsense asking me to remove the objectionable content with in 48 hours. Sometimes, they block adsense on my website and email me about it. I promptly removed the content and reverted back. Adsense was restored on my website after a few days.

Re: Poll: Were you banned by AdSense? When in the cycle were you notified?

#16

Post by sp332 »

Donzo wrote: post #13

I find it hard to believe that a multibillion dollar company is plotting to steal hundreds of dollars from publishers. Perhaps a more productive activity would be to post the reasons Google cited for ceasing the ad serving on your site and then explain what you changed. Linking to your site would also be helpful. In this way we can determine more reasonably whether they were right in suspending your account. Surely i…

Maybe they're not plotting, maybe they're just overlooking an overzealous ban-bot.

Re: Poll: Were you banned by AdSense? When in the cycle were you notified?

#17

Post by AhtiK »

fara wrote: post #2

I use AdMob for a mobile game I made. After successfully using it for years I got a notice that Google had bought the company and that my account would now be an AdSense account. I started earning money there and when I reached the 100usd amount, with no explanation at all I got banned. I filled up contact forms but not reason was given to me. They just said that I was not going to have my money since it was going to…

> "They just said that I was not going to have my money since it was going to be refunded to advertisers."

Has anyone ever seen that their AdWords or any other Google-related ads spending got partially refunded?

I wonder how's this feasible given the delay between the ad spending and account asset freeze. This can take years if the freeze validation occurs close to an actual payout.

Is Google sending the amount back to my adwords-associated credit card or does it go as a budget for future ads?

I find it hard to understand how this kind of refunding works full scale to make sure all the account freezes will distribute the spending back to the advertisers.

Re: Poll: Were you banned by AdSense? When in the cycle were you notified?

#18

Post by Cameron_D »

shocks wrote: post #7

Yes, a few days from a $400 payout. I was 15 at the time. All attempts to get my account unbanned have been completely ignored.

Mine was banned a month ago with around $300 in the account, I haven't tried to get it back due to how difficult they make it to understand why you were banned - how am I supposed to fix what they don't tell me is broken? Such a shame there aren't really any other good ad CPM providers for small or medium sites.

Re: Poll: Were you banned by AdSense? When in the cycle were you notified?

#20

Post by colechristensen »

watwut wrote: post #14
mandlar wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a very similar issue. I signed up for AdMob and right before I was payed out they banned my account for "click fraud". This was a legitimate app, no tricks to try and get people to click the ads. I just displayed an ad banner at the bottom of the Android app. I ended up just rolling my own custom in-house ad system and just cross-promote my other apps. I make more money from selling pro versions of my apps anyw…

Is that completely legal for them to do? I know nothing about ad business, but I would expect that if you provided service (shown ads) they should not be able to withhold your money without explanation. How is that different from refusing to pay for, say, rented car?

There are solid differences between renting cars and serving ads.

In the end, it's would be a civil legal matter and probably not worth anybody's time for $100 coupled with the high chance of losing considering the terms of service agreed to.

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