Tech giant Google revealed that it has blocked or removed over 3.4 billion ads this year for violating its Google Ads policies, a 300 million increase on the number of ads it blocked in 2020, according to its annual Ads Safety Report. Last year, around 3.1 billion ads were blocked or removed while in 2019, the figures stood at 2.7 billion.
Abusing the ad network (652.1 million), adult content (286.6 million), and trademarks (136.9 million) were the top three most enforced policies in 2021. Other reasons why ads were removed are related to misrepresentation, gambling, healthcare, copyrights, and alcohol.
In addition to that, they were able to suspend over 5.6 million advertiser accounts, restricted over 5.7 billion ads, and blocked ads from serving on 1.7 billion publisher pages. Google also took broader site-level enforcement action on approximately 63,000 publisher sites in 2021.
“User safety is at the top of our list when we make decisions about ads and monetized content on our platforms. In fact, thousands of Googlers work around the clock to prevent malicious use of our advertising services and help make them safer for people, businesses and publishers,” Google said in its annual report.
With the tripled number of account-level suspensions for advertisers in the last year, Google said they continue to see bad actors operate with more sophistication, and at a greater scale. They saw a variety of tactics such as creation of thousands of accounts simultaneously and using techniques like cloaking and text manipulation to evade their detection.
They also shared that they focused on preventing abuse in ads related to COVID-19 this year for claims related to vaccines, testing, and price gouging for critical supplies like masks.
As a result, they blocked over 106 million ads since the pandemic began related to the pandemic and supported local NGOs and government agencies with $250 million in Ad Grants to help connect people to accurate vaccine information.
Google issued a warning about cryptocurrency where they saw a sharp increase in the number of ads promoting it.
“This year, we’ll continue to address areas of abuse across our platforms and network to protect users and help credible advertisers and publishers. Providing more transparency and control over the ads people see is a big part of that goal,” it added.
Going forward, the tech giant said they are still working to verify advertisers in 180 countries who fail to complete verification when prompted are automatically suspended.
The tech giant also vowed to roll out new innovations on features like “About this ad” menu to tell advertisers why an ad was shown, and which advertiser ran it.
According to Truelogic General Manager Ibarra Villaseran, Google’s move to suspend accounts and enforce stricter ad policies is “all in favor of its users.”
“It’s about trust. For the consumers, it’s trusting that your privacy is protected whilst ensuring that you get to enjoy Google’s products and services. To advertisers, this helps balance the field and promote the legitimacy of your brand or business.”
And with the continued improvements in Google and other platform policies, he adds that “advertisers –whether agencies and businesses themselves– need to be on your toes all the time and keep abreast with all these changes. There will be more to come.”
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