Transparency is a core value of Late Night Internet Marketing, and sometimes that means telling you about the dumb things I have done. Getting my Google AdWords account permanently suspended is one of those things.
How It Happened
I started internet marketing in late 2007 after seeing a Today Show segment about someone earning $11,000 a month from AdSense. Like most beginners, I tried everything in those early months, including CPA (Cost Per Action) marketing combined with Google AdWords.
In early 2008, I ran a brief experiment driving AdWords traffic to CPA offers in the weight loss niche. The campaign was tiny, only 49 clicks total. At the time, I believed the landing pages met Google's terms of service. I moved on to other things and forgot about it entirely.
Years later, when a friend asked me to check something in my AdWords account, I discovered the suspension notice. Google had reviewed my account history, found those 2008 campaigns pointing to sites that violated their current advertising policies, and permanently banned me.
The Appeal Process
I contacted Google explaining that the campaign was from 2008, consisted of only 49 clicks, and that I was no longer running any AdWords campaigns. Their response was a polite form letter confirming the suspension was permanent and they would not accept advertising from me in the future.
This is standard. Google's AdWords enforcement is strict and largely automated. Once flagged, individual circumstances rarely receive meaningful human review. The message is clear: violations on your account, regardless of when they occurred or how small, can result in permanent consequences.
Why Google Does This
Google's priority is user experience. They do not want people clicking on ads and landing on sketchy weight loss sites, dubious CPA offers, or anything that damages trust in their ad network. When your parents search Google and click an ad, Google wants that experience to be legitimate. Filtering out internet marketers running marginal campaigns is part of that effort.
Lessons for Google Ads in 2026
Google Ads (rebranded from AdWords in 2018) remains one of the most powerful advertising platforms available. Here is how to use it without getting banned.
- Only advertise sites you control. Drive traffic to your own content where you have full control over what appears on the page. Do not send AdWords traffic directly to affiliate offers or third-party landing pages you cannot modify.
- Read and re-read the policies. Google's advertising policies are detailed and updated frequently. What was acceptable last year may not be acceptable today. Ignorance is not a defense.
- Avoid restricted niches without proper documentation. Health, finance, legal, and political advertising all have additional requirements. Make sure you meet them before launching campaigns.
- Start small and monitor closely. Run small test campaigns and watch for policy warnings. Google often warns before they ban, but not always.
- Do not assume old violations are forgotten. As my experience shows, Google can and does look at your complete account history. Clean up anything questionable proactively.
The Bigger Lesson
This experience reinforced two principles I return to constantly. First, play by the rules of any platform you use. The short-term gains from bending policies are never worth the long-term consequences. Second, diversify your traffic sources. If Google Ads is your only way to reach customers, you are one policy change away from having no business. Build organic search traffic, an email list, a social media presence, and direct relationships with your audience.
I recognize that Google generally has the best interest of their visitors in mind. But I think they are too inflexible at times. It would seem logical to me that they provide some path to redemption, rather than just cutting someone off forever. I wish they had a better competitor to keep them a little more honest on these matters.
@chazzbro I do agree with that. It’s like they need a scalpel and all they have is a chainsaw.
@chazzbro Exactly what’s needed. Some kind of path to redeem yourself, to correct errors. They should be trying to proactively educate their clients instead of life-banning someone. This market needs a competitor who can rival them and bring balance and order to these methods of marketing i.e contextual ads and pay per click. What we currently have in the market place doesn’t cut it and I don’t see anyone loosening their stranglehold anytime soon.
This part concerns me: “They replied to me with a form letter and said basically once you point to any site that ever violates Google’s terms of service you’re done and have a nice day.” If I understand that right, what you’re saying is even if the site meets their TOS now, if it fails to do so in the future – either because of something the site owner does or because of a change in the TOS – you can lose your account. This seems quite narrow minded to me. I guess the takeaway is to never promote a site you don’t own.
Hey Mark,
Interesting post this. What was most interesting was the way in which you objectively assessed Google’s behavior and came to a level-headed and logical conclusion that didn’t involve the words “Google are pure evil”. Are you sure you’re an internet marketer? 😉
Cheers,
Tom
I lost my adsense and adwords account and it was awful because I relied heavily on both services the adwords was similar to yours in which I pointed at a CB site and for the adsense I stacked advertising networks and I guess ads showed twice on the same page which I believed is against policy nevertheless the one thing that helped keep my traffic up was article marketing and banner advertising or advertising in general.
Really sobering Mark. The frustrating issue to me is it seems Google is so inconsistent in their actions. I read bloggers who claim to be making 6 figures annually from Adsense that appear to be doing some really questionable backlinking maneuvers. Not to mention the risk associated with having such a large chunk of income in one stream that can be halted forever overnight.
Thanks for Sharing Mark.
I can’t agree more with your ‘tip’ to only send traffic to those sites you actually control. It is shocking that Google just suspends your account for live, a bit arrogant and inhuman. I mean, we’re all human we all make mistakes… Wouldn’t it have been much better if they’d send you a warning mail to get your account cleaned up within 5 working days?
Glad to hear that it won’t be affecting your business!
Cheers, Marc
@MarcBenda I think that’s a model they (Google) need to consider in the future.
Tough luck. Google take no prisoners and trying to get a response from them, let alone to unban an account, is nigh on impossible.
It seems that Google is really strict and has a no nonsense policy about account violations. Better to be safe than sorry.
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