Help My PPC Account has been suspended

Help My PPC Account has been suspended

Google want quality search results for their users, this has led to numerous updates which have affected a lot of sites in the natural results, but we have also seen an increasing number of Adwords accounts suspended because they fall foul of policy changes.

An account may follow all the guidelines and policies but they can still be suspended, and when it happens it often prompts people to throw their hands up and have a huff and a puff. This response is natural, but it doesn’t often work very well. Many people are left with a feeling that their PPC exploits are over and they may as well move elsewhere.  If you’ve done something really bad you’re probably right but with the majority, a little work can turn an account around.

First find out why?

Google publish their policies and these should be your first port of call to decipher what has happened. Sometimes you may have thought your account was in line with policy only to find that it has been changed without warning. If you cannot garner any information from the written policies, then get on the phone and have a chat to a representative. Be warned they will be quite vague but are often able to atleast tell you which policy you have breached, but it is often up to you to determine what you can do about it.

Here are some common reasons for account suspension:

• Claims on landing pages that can’t be supported  (e.g. miracle cures – even if you have an amazing product, it pays to have a disclaimer so you fully inform your customers)
• Advertising illegal products ( e.g counterfeit products – if your site sells or promotes counterfeit goods you will eventually be suspended, so check your site and links carefully)
• Inaccurate ad copy ( your ads need to reflect what is on your site – if you mention a price for example this needs to be backed up on your landing page)
• Billing check (we have had a client recently whose account was suspended as part of a “security check” and although it was nothing to worry about it did put the account back a few days.)
• Malware – if your site has been infected, then this needs removing.

How Bad is it?

There are a variety of suspension levels which can affect your chances of having your account unsuspended.  The thing to note is that for the run of the mill suspensions you are most likely to have received a few disapproval notices for ads or keywords and in these is a warning that continuous violations may result in account suspension. These shouldn’t be ignored because they are a definite indication that there is something you need to attend to.

If you have been suspended for a policy violation then things are a whole lot tougher as you may have other accounts suspended (even if they aren’t violating any policy), or even blacklist you as an advertiser making it very difficult to advertise with the search engine again, which has proven very painful for a number of people. Find out why your account has been suspended, then you can look at ways of overcoming it.

Time to put things right

If you’ve violated policy your first port of call should be to contact the search engine for more information. Again they are likely to stop short of helping you decide what to do, but if you’re lucky and have a good relationship with your account rep you may get some help.

Have a look back through any emails and determine whether you have overlooked any warnings, which is easy to do when you’re a busy online marketer. They will however point you in the direction and help you uncover what has gone wrong.

Once you’ve found out what the problem is it may be a case of changing your adverts or keywords, or if it is a more severe suspension you may have to change your website to bring it in line with policy (e.g. adding disclaimers, privacy policies, changing the language of your pages to more accurately reflect your products/services etc). Once you’ve done this you can resubmit your site for review and all being well you will be good to go again.

If the violations are of the unforgivable nature, it becomes a matter of whether it is just your account that has been banned or whether it is you as an advertiser that is banned. If it’s the account you may be able to start a new one, paying close attention to policy. However if it is you, then it is likely you are going to have to find a new search engine or find a new channel completely.

Remember… You are not alone!

If you find yourself suspended, don’t think you’re the only one. It happens all the time. Converted has a client on board at the moment who came to us after their account was suspended for policy violations. Their account had been suspended and they didn’t know what to do, so they called us up and after a chat with the Google team we determined that the site simply needed a privacy policy. We let the client know and after adding one the account was unsuspended, and we had a happy new client.

The important point from this is not to give up if your account is suspended. Pick up the phone or email the search engine and find out why you’ve been suspended and if there is anything you can do. If you find out there is, then do it as quickly as possible. If not then there are probably other search engines you can invest your budget.