This post was most recently updated on August 22nd, 2019
Google and Doubleclick have been notorious in taking down bad ads – and for a good reason. We all want a safe, and useful worldwide web. Since 2015, Doubleclick has been banning harmful ads in its network. In July last year, they made an objective to take down all payday loans ads because most are scammy. Google has also been taking huge steps to free the web from ads that install harmful software on your browser or computer. To make sure they catch these, they’ve enhanced their technology to spot and takedown “trick to click ads” much faster. The result? 112 million “trick to click” ads have been put down in 2016 – a whopping six times larger than the number of ads Google has banned the year before.
Is this good news for you as a publisher? Definitely! You and your users will gain more confidence in your site when we have these safety measures in place. All in all, it improves the user experience for everybody.
As a publisher, the course of action for you is to make sure your network is safe from bad ads so you are aligned with Google’s policy. Check out the types of bad ads below that you should steer clear of:
The policy is clear against certain pharmaceutical products, as well as gambling activities. These are not permitted in the Google network. There are only a handful of countries that allow gambling-related ads.
Check the ads that serve on your site and review if they are misleading users with their content. Some ads may advertise miracle pills, or pose questions to readers asking of they are suffering from a certain rare disease. These types of content elicit clicks yet only provide fake information. That is misleading.
Related: How to Capture and Block Bad Ads
There have been ads on mobile in particular that force users to downloading an unfamiliar mobile app without their intention. Clearly, these are bad ads, and Google has dubbed them “self-clicking ads”. They act in such a way as they lead you to a page without warning, while you’re browsing something else on your phone.
These are what we call “tabloid cloakers”. They pretend to be news – normally about current popular events. But once you click on their headlines, they lead to payday loan ads or weight-loss pills. Clearly, they are both misleading and scheming as they try to get around with the detection system against bad ads.
Google has also taken notice of the websites that are featured in these bad ads. They’ve figured that the brands or websites (destination pages) being advertised on these ads are equally accountable. So these also got banned from the system.
If you need help in keeping your publisher properties safe and compliant with Doubleclick policies, sign up FREE as our Premium Publisher. We do periodic site and ad reviews for our publishers.
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Kean Graham is the CEO and founder of MonetizeMore & a pioneer in the Adtech Industry. He is the resident expert in Ad Optimization, covering areas like Adsense Optimization,GAM Management, and third-party ad network partnerships. Kean believes in the supremacy of direct publisher deals and holistic optimization as keys to effective and consistent ad revenue increases.
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