AdSense closes account for no reason

[Filtered]

Is this common practice for google?
I had my account for about 4 months. I was getting average clicks,nothing major. Then they close my account and tell me I was clicking on my own links and that I was faking clicks. They would not respond to my numerous support emails. Has anyone had this problem with them? If so, what happened in the end?

 

[IAmAllanShore]

Being totally honest here: The fact that you don't deny you were getting fraud clicks of some type is not a good sign for you. Not implying, necessarily, that you were clicking your own links, but it would sit better if you did maintain your innocence (Unless you aren't, in which case don't fight it ).
And yes, Google cancels accounts that don't look legit, and I am at least "ok" with that because as an adwords advertiser I don't want to pay for clicks that aren't legit. The better question may be, IMHO, whether or not the advertisers will be refunded for what they paid to you, essentially. Because although I've spent thousands with adwords, I've yet to successfully have any money refunded to me.
The next part of your question: I've never heard of anyone successfully appealing a cancelled account decision.
-Allan

 

[Filtered]

Ok, so, you being an advertiser, would you be upset if a webmaster clicked on your link, on their page and purchased something from you.
If I see a an ad that interestes me why should I be penalized for clicking on it. I"m not saying that I sat around clicking on all of my links, that I did not do. But I have clicked on a link, and bought something from the advertiser. And for that I lose my account??

 

[equity78]

Well if you bought something I think that is cool but GOOGLE runs as the big bully they don't care what anyone thinks and they do what they like, As some have said Justifiably Ebay needs Competition so does Google IMO Allan is much smarter than me in this area, SO ALLAN does CLICKSOR or anyone else come close to adsense?

 

[DJZ]

An individual advertiser's standpoint is different than Google's. Google doesn't know if you had a legitimate interest in a link, or whether or not your clicking on it led to a purchase.

"Please note that clicking on your own ads for any reason is prohibited..."

They state very clearly in their Terms and FAQ not to click your own links, so in their eyes you're just violating the terms by ignoring that. They have sophisticated IP address and geographical tracking. If there are high number of clicks from your home town, Google will take notice, so encouraging friends and family to do so will also lead to trouble. It's best to play it safe, and by the rules. Never click on your own ads or tell anyone else to do so.

 

[HFear]

I"m not saying that I sat around clicking on all of my links, that I did not do. But I have clicked on a link, and bought something from the advertiser. And for that I lose my account??

Whether or not you purchased from the advertiser, this won't make a difference. Your account will be banned either way for violating the TOS of Google. If you were really interested then why not type in the website address instead? There's always green text in the boxes which give the URL's to the website. Google is very strict about click fraud!

 

[jeter4982]

Ok, so, you being an advertiser, would you be upset if a webmaster clicked on your link, on their page and purchased something from you.
If I see a an ad that interestes me why should I be penalized for clicking on it. I"m not saying that I sat around clicking on all of my links, that I did not do. But I have clicked on a link, and bought something from the advertiser. And for that I lose my account??

Yes, this does seem logical, but it is not how Google works. I contacted their customer service about this, just because I was curious, and they confirmed that it is still considered click fraud. Sorry about your account,

Tom

 

[kw31]

IMHO, from the income I get (although not much) I get a few times more on Adsense than on Clicksor

 

[IAmAllanShore]

A couple of notes:
1) Clicksor still can't compete with Adsense, although I am still trying it out on a few pages in the hopes of figuring it out.
2) Of course you could have purely pure intentions when clicking on ads that are on your own page. But guess what Google can't see? That's right, your thoughts and intentions. So to play it safe, they institute the policy that no clicks on your own ads, as there is an obvious conflict of interest if you were allowed to click your own ads.
Have fun folks,
Allan

 

[snoop]

Ok, so, you being an advertiser, would you be upset if a webmaster clicked on your link, on their page and purchased something from you.
If I see a an ad that interestes me why should I be penalized for clicking on it. I"m not saying that I sat around clicking on all of my links, that I did not do. But I have clicked on a link, and bought something from the advertiser. And for that I lose my account??

not smart at all, see nothing wrong with what google have done.

 

[www.AmCy.org]

If I see a an ad that interestes me why should I be penalized for clicking on it. I"m not saying that I sat around clicking on all of my links, that I did not do. But I have clicked on a link, and bought something from the advertiser. And for that I lose my account??

Yup. TOS clearly states that you can't do this.

AdSense came out with a preview tool that AdSense publishers can use to preview a page's AdSense ads. With this tool, you can view the same ads that the page is displaying and if you decide to click an ad, the advertiser doesn't get charged anything:

https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.py?answer=10005&topic=160

I use this tool often because like you I often see ads on my own websites that interest me.

AmCy

 

[Mayur]

Is this common practice for google?
I had my account for about 4 months. I was getting average clicks,nothing major. Then they close my account and tell me I was clicking on my own links and that I was faking clicks. They would not respond to my numerous support emails. Has anyone had this problem with them? If so, what happened in the end?

This happened to me too. I had made a good amount of money with adsense in two months then they cancel it for no reason. And I never click on my own ads. They stopped responding after the second email.

 

[equity78]

Well you can't click your own ads agreed But Google gets a free pass that no other company gets as far as transparency IMO they feel they don't have to tell anyone anything just we said so, that's WRONG IMO No other company gets that.

 

[The Equivocate]

Well you can't click your own ads agreed But Google gets a free pass that no other company gets as far as transparency IMO they feel they don't have to tell anyone anything just we said so, that's WRONG IMO No other company gets that.

*cough*PAYPAL*cough*

 

[weblaunch]

An individual advertiser's standpoint is different than Google's. Google doesn't know if you had a legitimate interest in a link, or whether or not your clicking on it led to a purchase.

"Please note that clicking on your own ads for any reason is prohibited..."

They state very clearly in their Terms and FAQ not to click your own links, so in their eyes you're just violating the terms by ignoring that. They have sophisticated IP address and geographical tracking. If there are high number of clicks from your home town, Google will take notice, so encouraging friends and family to do so will also lead to trouble. It's best to play it safe, and by the rules. Never click on your own ads or tell anyone else to do so.

How many clicks would be considered fraudulent? In the course of putting AdSense ads on my site, I can remember unintentionally clicking on my own ads on more than one occasion. For text ads you don't even have to point your cursor to the text links, clicking anywhere on the text box will take you to an advertiser site. For those who have had their account cancelled for no apparent reason, there must be some glitch in their anti-fraud algorithm. It's scary that they can cancel your account and ignore your pleas to have it reinstated. But I guess you'll have to accept this if you're going to deal with a giant company like Google.

 

[www.AmCy.org]

It's scary that they can cancel your account and ignore your pleas to have it reinstated. But I guess you'll have to accept this if you're going to deal with a giant company like Google.

I don't think that fair to G00gl-e. I've had one or two occasions in the past when I inadvertently clicked on my own ads. A few months ago, my baby girl was playing with my mouse and accidentally clicked on an ad on one of my sites. I contacted G00gl-e right away and let them know what happened and they replied basically telling me to refrain from such behavior and they provided me with a link to the download page for their Preview Tool. If they wanted to be evil, they could have just cancelled my account and written me an email like, "OK thanks for letting us know about your daughter. Your account has been terminated. Bye-bye!"

No, I think that their people go over lots of evidence before they make a decision to terminate an account. I cannot say for sure because I don't work for them and I don't know anyone who works there, but that's my opinion.

AmCy

 

[weblaunch]

No, I think that their people go over lots of evidence before they make a decision to terminate an account. I cannot say for sure because I don't work for them and I don't know anyone who works there, but that's my opinion.

AmCy

I surely hope you're right. Every testimonial from people who have had their accounts terminated seem to suggest otherwise. That there is little or no appeal process for reversing terminated accounts is rather scary. Many people claim that Google simply ignore their emails. After all the hours I've spent incorporating AdSense ads into the hundreds of pages on my many websites, it would be a nightmare if they cancelled my account for no apparent reason. Maybe I'm just paranoid from reading people's horror stories about AdSense...I hope I am!

 

[www.AmCy.org]

After all the hours I've spent incorporating AdSense ads into the hundreds of pages on my many websites

Yup, same here, so I hear what you are saying. I have their code on over 450 sites. There are some halfway-decent alternatives out there nowadays but ad-sen_se is still king when it comes to content matching, revenue and consistent payouts. I'll never cheat but there is always the chance that someone could sabotage my account by generating too many suspicious clicks. But I have faith in their system's ability to find the real cheats and not victimize the innocent. I hope to have a long relationship with them.

%%-

AmCy

 

[equity78]

You bring up a good point AMCy people could do things and Google should have a process to evaluate each acocunt not just close and say get lost. IF someone had a vendetta against someone they could click their adsense ads on one of their sites all day, most likely Google will close that persons account they have to have ways to figure these things out.

 

[OvenMitt]

*cough*PAYPAL*cough*

:bingo: :bingo: :bingo:

 

[gesture]

Because although I've spent thousands with adwords, I've yet to successfully have any money refunded to me.
-Allan

They refund money, I ran an ad, got frustrated and stopped using them, no results. A month later they said someone was charged with click fraud and my funds went back into my account. I've started using AdWords again, and now I'm having some success I feel.

- Bill

 

[rongshihong]

They refund money, I ran an ad, got frustrated and stopped using them, no results. A month later they said someone was charged with click fraud and my funds went back into my account. I've started using AdWords again, and now I'm having some success I feel.

- Bill

They're really nice to advertisers.
Maybe I should consider being an adwords user in addition to using their adsense program.

 

[www.AmCy.org]

They're really nice to advertisers.
Maybe I should consider being an adwords user in addition to using their adsense program.

Heh. You're probably right. It's probably why I haven't been kicked out by now.

Just make sure that you use the same email address for both programs

AmCy

 

[IAmAllanShore]

They refund money, I ran an ad, got frustrated and stopped using them, no results. A month later they said someone was charged with click fraud and my funds went back into my account. I've started using AdWords again, and now I'm having some success I feel.

- Bill

I should have been more specific: When I've gone to them with specifics, I've never gotten a refund. We all get the almost fixed monthly adjustments, that seems to be in direct relationship to the amount of money spent.
-Allan

 

[suthra]

Whatever your intension is, Clicking ads on your own site is BAD. Google adwords is one of the best program to advertise. In such a vast ad market, some publisher may get offended even if they are innocent, but quality is still to be maintained for the security of the immense advertisers around the world.