We are a small start-up in Seattle that provide tournament platform for Social game applications reaching millions of users. We also work with more than 20 Ad networks, including AdSense, to serve advertisements inside these tournaments. We have been making everyone happy for the past two years.
We do have a very good relationship with all Ad Networks, or so I thought, till early February 2012. So it was quite a shock when I received an email from Adsense that our account has been disabled from spam activity.
My first reaction was denial. I felt it was an error or kind of scam that redirects you to some other site. But it was not. I also reached out to the other Ad Networks we work with to check if they have experienced any unusual activity. No one had any problem.
AdSense was taking a small portion of our inventory. We were mainly using adsense to serve Ads in Philippines, Indonesia and Turkey which accounted for 30% of our traffic. The graph below shows how much of our ad inventory was served by Adsense.
As surprised and shocked as I was, what’s even disheartening was the fact that Adsense will not be paying previous month earnings, which was $9,964.85. It says the will reimburse the money to their clients. Totally false!
As they suggested in the email, I filled an appeal hoping someone will reach out to me and explain what has happened. I waited, waited and am still waiting. I am still in disbelief how Adsense grew so big with such an awful practice.
I have repeatedly tried to contact people from the Ad Sense team but it’s virtually impossible to reach any person who is willing to talk or refer you to anyone. The email below basically sums up the whole practice. Its a response I got from A Google account Executive who manages Adsense Partners.
I have always felt there needs to be some level of decency and fairness when dealing with any one; big or small. What Google Adsense is doing is both shameful and unfair.
I have also sought legal advice, hoping we will be able to file a lawsuit. That too is very expensive and one can only do that in Santa Clara County, California.
If you search the internet, there are thousands of complaints by similar publishers who have been stripped off their earnings due to some screwed up algorithm Adsense uses. What’s worse is, no one will ever get any decent response for from the Adsense/Spam Team.
My story doesn’t end here.
We have had a good working relationship with Admeld (part of Google) from which we regularly bought Ad Spaces. We owed $1,600.
In the wake of the Adsense incident, I made a stop on the payment to Google. I suggested they withdraw the $1,600 from our $9,964.85 balance in our Adsense Account. Few weeks later, I received a mail and email from a collection agency requesting I pay what I owe to Google.
By any meansurement, what Google has done is shameful and appalling. I am sure you will pay the price for what you’ve done to us and the thousands of other publishers that trusted you when you said “Don’t do Evil”
I wish I’ve read or came across web posts about AdSense’s evil practice. I did not and am paying the price. Don’t let others repeat my mistake. Share this post.
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- http://www.siliconprairienews.com/2012/04/hatchlings-hears-from-google
- http://www.nichepursuits.com/i-just-got-banned-from-google-adsense-now-what/
