Google Cracks Down On Bad Advertising Practices, Over 350 Million Ads Removed
· BlueHat Marketing
Last week Google continued to wage its battle against the barrage of counterfeiters and malicious advertisers who abuse online advertising tools for harmful and deceptive purposes. Google permanently removed more than 350 million “bad ads,” up from 220 million the previous year. With almost one million suspect ads a day, Google still has a lot of work to do.
Google’s online advertisement business generates billions of dollars a year while enabling countless small to medium legitimate businesses to grow. Of course, online advertising also attracts fraudulent advertisers and scammers. Unfortunately, whenever Google introduces new products on its advertising platforms, scammers are quick to adapt and develop new ways to game the system.
Chances are high that your cursor has probably lingered over bad ads more times than you would suspect. The majority of us have learned to regard these ads as the background noise of the internet - needless to say, some people still fall prey to such scams.
Classics of the dubious-ad genre include photos of attractive people with perfect smiles alongside fake headlines such as “Shocking Diet Secrets Exposed!” or too-good-to be-true stories of a “local mom” who “earns $629/day working from home.” Perhaps the most notorious of all, eye-grabbing animations of disappearing “belly fat” coupled with a tagline promising the same results if you follow one method or take one specific drug. More dangerous examples of bad advertisements are ads for illegal online pharmacies that sell dangerous or counterfeit drugs without a prescription.
Google lists the worst offenders in their report:
- Counterfeit goods: 14,000 advertisers banned for trying to sell these.
- Illegal online pharmacies: 2 million ads removed.
- Copyright infringement: 5,000 AdSense accounts disabled for violating copyright.
- Tech support scams: 4,000 AdWords accounts removed.
- Malware: 400,000 ads disabled from sites hiding malware.
- Get-rich-quick schemes: 10,000 ads disabled for sites promoting these.
What makes a good ad?
In a word: integrity. A combination of honest content, a genuine deal, a strong correlation with the landing page and the offer of a quality product or service are some of the contributing factors to the maintenance of a healthy advertising ecosystem that will keep users safe.
What’s the best way to ensure your ad campaigns are effective and above board? Hire a dedicated team like BlueHat Marketing . We work hard to design creative, smart and clever advertisements that meet the needs and goals of our clients while complying 100% with best practices and SEO guidelines. Call us at 1-866-755-2583.
