• Marketing Land
  • Sections
    • CMO
    • Social
    • SEM
    • SEO
    • Analytics
    • Display
    • Retail
    • MarTech
    • Resources
    • More
    • Home
  • Follow Us
    • Follow
  • Marketing Land
  • CMO
  • Social
  • SEM
  • SEO
  • Analytics
  • Display
  • Retail
  • MarTech
  • Resources
  • More
    • Follow
  • SUBSCRIBE

Marketing Land

Marketing Land
  • CMO
  • Social
  • SEM
  • SEO
  • Analytics
  • Display
  • Retail
  • MarTech
  • Resources
  • More
  • Home
  • Newsletters
  • Home
Display Advertising

Google took down 2.3 billion bad ads, 1 million ad accounts in 2018

The number of removed ads was down, but banned advertiser accounts nearly doubled from 2017.

Ginny Marvin on March 14, 2019 at 2:19 pm
  • More

Google took down 2.3 billion “bad ads” in 2018, according to its annual report on actions it took to address policy violations on its ad platforms.

That’s about a million fewer ads than it removed in 2017. However, the ad giant said the number of advertiser accounts it terminated last year nearly doubled from the previous year to nearly one million.

Sectors targeted for clean up. For-profit bail bond services, addiction treatment services, third-party tech support, ticket resellers, cryptocurrency and some local services such as garage door repair topped the list of sectors Google focused on in 2018.

It banned bail bond ads effective July 2018 and restricted ads for addiction treatment services to those certified by LegitScript (after suspending them in 2017). Thirty-one new policies went on the books to address abuses by the other industries listed.

On the publisher front. Some 734,000 publisher and app developers were removed from its ad network, and ads were removed entirely from nearly 1.5 million apps, Google said.

In 2017, Google added the ability to identify and remove ads from specific web pages that violate its publisher policies, rather than removing ads from an entire site. With that technology, coupled with manual reviews, the company said it removed ads from more than 27 million pages that violated its policies last year.

The spread and monetization of fake news and misinformation has been a focus for the platforms — and lawmakers — for more than two years now. Google added new policies in 2017, and highlighted its efforts in this year’s report, noting it took down ads on roughly 1.2 million pages, 22,000 apps and 15,000 sites for violating policies around misrepresentative, hateful or low-quality content.

Google also launched election ads policy in the U.S. ahead of the midterm elections last year and created a political ads transparency report to provide more information about who bought election ads. It said it verified nearly 143,000 election ads in the U.S.

Why you should care. Bad actors impact every aspect of the digital ecosystem. For good advertisers, they can affect campaign performance and brand safety. Many YouTube advertisers would argue the company still has work to do in policing its own backyard. As the dominant leader in digital advertising, Google is the primary gatekeeper of how and which types of ads appear online.

It’s also regularly updating its ad policies, which can sometimes catch up good actors. On Thursday, Google announced the launch of a new Policy manager to help advertisers navigate policy decisions and restrictions in their accounts.

This story first appeared on Search Engine Land. For more on search marketing and SEO, click here.

https://searchengineland.com/google-took-down-2-3-billion-bad-ads-1-million-ad-accounts-in-2018-313979


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Marketing Land. Staff authors are listed here.



About The Author

Ginny Marvin
Ginny Marvin is Third Door Media’s Editor-in-Chief, running the day to day editorial operations across all publications and overseeing paid media coverage. Ginny Marvin writes about paid digital advertising and analytics news and trends for Search Engine Land, Marketing Land and MarTech Today. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, Ginny has held both in-house and agency management positions. She can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.

Related Topics

Channel: Display AdvertisingDisplay AdvertisingDisplay Advertising: Ad FraudGoogleGoogle AdsGoogle: Display Advertising

We're listening.

Have something to say about this article? Share it with us on Facebook, Twitter or our LinkedIn Group.

Get the daily newsletter digital marketers rely on.
See terms.

ATTEND OUR EVENTS

MarTech 2021: March 16-17

MarTech 2021: Sept. 14-15

MarTech 2020: Watch On-Demand

×

Attend MarTech - Click Here


Learn More About Our MarTech Events

February 23, 2021: SMX Report

April 13, 2021: SMX Create

May 18-19, 2021: SMX London

June 8-9, 2021: SMX Paris

June 15-16, 2021: SMX Advanced

August 17, 2021: SMX Convert

November 9-10, 2021: SMX Next

October 2021: SMX Advanced Europe

December17, 2021: SMX Code

Available On-Demand: SMX

×


Learn More About Our SMX Events

White Papers

  • 6 Powerful Ways Experience Analytics Can Help Your Business Now
  • Email Tune-Up: A 5-Point Inspection to Get Your Program in Gear
  • Digital Marketing Report Q4 2020: Benchmarks and Insights for 2021
  • Data SEO – The Next Big Adventure
  • Getting Started with Email Marketing Automation
See More Whitepapers

Webinars

  • The Secret Behind SEO Success: Predict Rank with the Power of Data Science
  • How to Avoid the Digital Transformation Trap
  • How to Build a Marketing System of Record
See More Webinars

Research Reports

  • Local Marketing Solutions for Multi-Location Businesses
  • Enterprise Digital Asset Management Platforms
  • Identity Resolution Platforms
  • Customer Data Platforms
  • B2B Marketing Automation Platforms
  • Call Analytics Platforms
See More Research

h
Receive daily marketing news & analysis.
Marketing Land
Download the Marketing Land app on iTunes Download the Marketing Land App on Google Play

Channels

  • MarTech
  • CMO
  • Social
  • SEM
  • SEO
  • Mobile
  • Analytics
  • Retail
  • Display

Our Events

  • MarTech
  • SMX

Resources

  • White Papers
  • Research
  • Webinars
  • MarTech Conference
  • Search Marketing Expo

About

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Marketing Opportunities
  • Staff
  • Connect With Us

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • Youtube
  • iOS App
  • Google Play

© 2021 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

Your privacy means the world to us. We share your personal information only when you give us explicit permission to do so, and confirm we have your permission each time. Learn more by viewing our privacy policy.Ok