Benjamin Cohen, the former teenaged dot.com millionaire, has run into a problem as he tries to make his next million: Google won’t pay him for ads run on his website
This story sounds exactly like what happened to me and loads of other people on the web I know who are honest people that do not click there own ad’s and got banned from Google AdSense:
From day one, I integrated Google AdSense adverts on to PinkNews.co.uk. It instantly provided advertising that was both relevant to my readers and that fitted into the context of the website. In addition, I was able to weed out advertisers that I didn’t want my brand to be associated with, such as pornography and dating.
Sure enough, a couple of months later, a cheque for a couple of hundred pounds arrived from Google, which was duly banked and the funds cleared. So far, so good.
But a couple of days later, I was informed by e-mail that my AdSense account had been terminated due to “click fraud”, and that I would receive no further payments and be unable to use Google’s advertising products again.
After a number of e-mails to Google without replies and no response from their press office, I decided to cut my losses and concentrate on selling advertising direct to clients, thereby bypassing Google’s system.
Then a few months ago, I got chatting about my experiences with Google’s AdSense product with some friends in the industry and it became apparent that the false allegations of fraud were not unique to my business. I also learnt that some advertisers claim that money they spent on “fraudulent clicks” was never returned to them.
In order to test Google out, I signed up to Google AdSense once again. I was accepted, despite the fact that they had previously told me in no uncertain terms to never use their products again. I wrote to them to make sure that my site would meet their admission criteria. Trinh, from the American based AdSense team, checked us out and said that we were approved for the ads.
A couple of hundred dollars’ worth of revenue later, once again an e-mail from Google appeared in my inbox. It told me: “It has come to our attention that invalid clicks have been generated on the Google ads on your site(s). We have therefore disabled your Google AdSense account. Please understand that this step was taken in an effort to protect the interest of the AdWords advertisers.
“A publisher’s site may not have invalid clicks on any ad(s), including but not limited to clicks generated by:
“a publisher on his own web pages; a publisher encouraging others to click on his ads; automated clicking programs or any other deceptive software; a publisher altering any portion of the ad code or changing the layout, behavior, targeting, or delivery of ads for any reason.
“Practices such as these are in violation of the Google AdSense Terms and Conditions and program polices.
“Publishers disabled for invalid click activity are not allowed further participation in AdSense and do not receive any further payment. The earnings on your account will be properly returned to the affected advertisers.”
Now let’s be clear: I informed staff not to click on the Google ads, or indeed any other adverts on our site. We do not encourage others to click on the adverts, we do not run automated clicking programs nor had we altered any portion of the advertising code.
So seeking some sort of clarification from Google of which particular heinous offence our site was accused of committing, I wrote to the AdSense team asking them to explain what had happened.
In what I believe to be an automated reply, I was informed: “As you know, Google treats instances of invalid clicks very seriously. By disabling your account, we feel that we have taken the necessary measures to ensure that invalid clicks will not continue to occur on your site. Due to the proprietary nature of our monitoring system, we’re not able to disclose any specific details of these clicks.” I was also given the opportunity to appeal this decision but reminded that, “Google reserves sole discretion in considering whether to take any action on an appeal”.
By refusing to give details of the clicks involved, it was hardly going to be an easy job to explain why I felt that their decision was reached in error. However, I gave it a shot, explaining that: ” We do not click on our own adverts, we just wouldn’t have time. The Google AdSense revenue constitutes a tiny fraction of our revenue.
“In addition, you have provided no evidence of IP addresses of the relevant clicks, so I cannot double check that they were not clicked on by a member of staff by accident. All staff are however informed not to click on adverts displayed sold either by us or by agencies so as not to distort the click through ratio we achieve.”
As we suspected would be the case, Google denied the appeal. They said: “We understand that you wish to receive specific information regarding the invalid clicks we observed on your account. However, due to the proprietary nature of our algorithm, we cannot disclose any details about how our monitoring technology works or what specifics we found on your account.
“Publishers disabled for invalid click activity are not allowed further participation in Google AdSense. We appreciate your understanding.”
This left a number of questions in need of answers. Such as whether the money earned by PinkNews.co.uk was returned to the advertisers concerned. On this, Google was, at best, ambivalent: “Unfortunately, due to our confidentiality restrictions”, ah, those again, “we cannot provide you with a written declaration that the remaining earnings of your account will be returned to the affected advertisers.
“However, please be assured that the affected advertisers will be properly refunded in this way.” Hardly reassuring at all, really.
Even most calls to its press office are left unanswered. Google, as a virtual company, is largely uncontactable, and judging by this instance, pretty much unaccountable as well.
In particular, I am concerned at the fact that both advertisers and syndication partners are denied the right to audit the figures produced by Google. All you are provided is an average cost per click figure, together with the total revenue for the day.
