Today, after 48 hours of my placement ads appearing as “active”… but getting ZERO impressions, I decided to contact Google.
What follows is an excerpt of that rather disconcerting conversation. (Note that they have had NO complaints against the specific product that I was attempting to advertise!)
Mari Ann Lisenbe: I have a placement campaign - MY-CAMPAIGN - I placed this on Monday morning. It shows as active, but there have not been any impressions, even though I have raised the bid. Can you look into this?
Jennifer S: These ads are not showing on the content network due to multiple complaints from our users and publishers, we’ve limited the appearance of certain categories of ads on our content network, which may have affected your number of impressions. This includes (but not limited to) low quality affiliate advertisements and other business models that we have received multiple complaints in reference to. Please note that in some instances, your ads may not appear on placements that are considered irrelevant to the services or products promoted, and impressions may be limited.Mari Ann Lisenbe: So, you’ve had complaints about this specific product? or just the weight loss genre in general? I’m trying to target women on Facebook, so I know the placements are relevant.
Jennifer S: It’s for the industry in general.
Mari Ann Lisenbe: Does this apply to exercise equipment, too? (my product was an exercise program)
Mari Ann Lisenbe: I don’t want to waste time putting up ads that will just get disapproved.Jennifer S: This policy is only for certain products that have received multiple complaints.
Mari Ann Lisenbe: Has this product, MY-PRODUCT, received complaints? Is that why it is not showing?
Jennifer S: It’s a policy for the group of products in general, not your specific product.
Mari Ann Lisenbe: What is that “group of products”? Exercise equipment? Exercise DVD’s (which is what this is)? Weight loss supplements? I’d like some clarification.
Jennifer S: I’m sorry I can’t give you any further information but it centers on ads deemed unacceptable due to their business practices.
Jennifer S: DO you have concerns about anything else?
Mari Ann Lisenbe: Well, you haven’t really answered my questions about why this product is being disallowed.
Jennifer S: I’m sorry for any frustration or disruption this is causing you but, we firmly believe that this decision is vital to our users’ and publishers’ experience and to the longer-term viability of our advertisers. As noted in our advertising Terms and Conditions, Google may refuse any ads or terminate any of your ad campaigns at any time, for any reason. This only concerns our advertising and in no way affects the search results we deliver.
Mari Ann Lisenbe: I’d like to know what about this specific product is unacceptable.
Mari Ann Lisenbe: Does someone at google just make the determination about whether or not something will work?? Or have there been specific complaints about this specific exercise program?
Jennifer S: Not it’s not based on specific complaints.
Mari Ann Lisenbe: So, someone just decided it won’t work, and disallowed it?
Jennifer S: Yes, due to multiple complaints from our users and publishers.Mari Ann Lisenbe: But, you said there have been no complaints about this specific product. Are you saying that ANYTHING that promises to give quick results will be rejected?
Mari Ann Lisenbe: What industry? Exercise? Exercise equipment? Weight loss?
Jennifer S: It’s done on a case by case basis.
Mari Ann Lisenbe: So, basically, someone at google just decided that this exercise program will not work.. and disallowed it — even though there have been no complaints about the program?
Jennifer S: I’m sorry I can’t give you anymore information.
Jennifer S: Chat support for AdWords is currently a trial program with limited availability. So that I can assist other waiting customers, please feel free to visit https://adwords.google.com/support if you have other questions.
So, I have a word of caution for anyone advertising a product on Google’s Content network — whatever you do, don’t claim that your product will work!
BTW… And, just WHAT “dangerous, lose inches quick” exercise program is Google protecting the public from??
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, That is a real eye opener! I think you could have gone on for a very long time with that person and never got an answer to your real question.
I have had similar discussions with paypal, an organization that can do multiple credit checks on you without even asking your permission;
Just try upgrading your account with them.
Thanks for the great post.
Denis Foley
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It’s rather scarey when you think about the power these organizations have!
Notice that she finally did admit “No it’s not based on specific complaints” when I asked her if there had been specific complaints against my product.
So, basically, someone at Google just looked at my product, and “decided” that it should not be shown to the public (as though the public cannot make up their own minds about such things).
Unbelievable!
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HA, You are right, it does remind me of USSR, i migrated from there because of terms and regulations that made no sense and made life so much harder. IT is scary, we as users created monopolistic company that can impose any regulations they want. Thank you for your post.
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That’s scary but also kind of predictable. Google must have so many employees now all scared of losing their job by allowing “poor” content on their engine that they just “play safe” and ban anything they just aren’t sure about.
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Hi Mari,
Very interesting report and one that might just answer a question that is frustrating me at the moment. I am having the same problem on MSN - no impressions despite raising the bid price in a market which I know has good traffic. I must get onto MSN and ask the same kind of questions.
Thanks for that
Jon
P.S To add a little to the admin comment about “the power of large organisations” - I have recently had my Business email address terminated by Yahoo for no apparent reason, without them telling me it was happening and I cannot get an answer from a human being, just a computer generated email response!!!!
USSR indeed it seems to be!!!
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We have also learned that you really have to be careful about these big online giants. Recently my husbands Paypal account was suspended forever, for no reason and not because of any complaint. When pressed for an explanation he was told that they could not divulge proprietary information. We think it might be because his ebay account was suspended. That is the only thing we can think of. None of our customers has ever made a complaint.
One of our main businesses was heavily dependent on Paypal and now we have had to get creative about how we cash out our money from that venture. We had to go to Google Check out for payment processing and subscriptions and its been a royal pain in the butt. Thank goodness at the time we only had $100 in the PayPal account. They have frozen that money for 6 months just in case someone makes a claim against it.
Ever since then we have been reluctant to even use my PayPal account for fear of what might happen. This is very limiting. You can’t use eBay at all without PayPal and a lot of people are very PayPal exclusive.
Life moves on and we find ways to keep things going without too much of a hiccup. Its just an eye opener about how much these companies can just cut you out at any time for no reason because its in their terms of service.
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I can relate to this experience with Google. Google shut down my Adsense account because of a high click-through rate on my blog. The blog was a group blog written for 150 teachers throughout the State who were interested in online learning. The Google ads were related to resources relevant to the teachers who were launching into this new area. Despite explaining to Google that the blog was highly targeted to a highly motivated group with resources to purchase, they shut down my Adsense account and have never let me back in. It’s interesting that if you do offer genuine products to a highly targeted group you can actually be penalized for being “too good” in terms of Google’s own goals.
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I had the exact same situation on facebook. They wouldn’t give me any specifics other than I couldn’t advertise my home business, because it falls into the “get rich quick or job alternative” category.
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