October 08, 2003

Guns > I've Been Suspended from Google Adwords

Google Adwords suspended my account. I was bidding on the keyword "e-commerce" and related terms. Why did they suspend me? Because I talk about firearms on my blog.

Bear in mind, Google allows people to buy AdWords for many questionable products, but they won't allow me to discuss legal gun ownership. Google needs to produce a legal reason why they can't sell advertising to gun-related sites. Otherwise a lot of people will assume their motives are political. Meanwhile I'll move my advertising to Overture.

Here's the email I received:

From: adwords-support@google.com
To: adwords@lesjones.com
Subject: Your Google AdWords Approval Status
Date: Tue, 7 Oct 2003 10:13:46 -0700

Hello Les,

Thank you for advertising with Google AdWords. After reviewing your
account, I have found that one or more of your ads or keywords does not
meet our guidelines. The results are outlined in the report below.

----------------------------------------------
Campaign: 'Campaign #2,' Ad Group: 'E-commerce'
----------------------------------------------

AD TEXT:

LesJones.com
E-commerce Manager's Blog.
News, links, tips, commentary
www.lesjones.com

Action taken: Suspended - Pending Revision
Issue(s): Unacceptable Content
~~~~~~~~~

SUGGESTIONS:
-> Content: At this time, Google policy does not permit the
advertisement of websites that contain "firearms". As noted in our
advertising terms and conditions, we reserve the right to exercise
editorial discretion when it comes to the advertising we accept on our
site.


---------------------
Please read below for definitions of the issues I found:

Unacceptable Content: Google believes strongly in freedom of expression
and therefore offers broad access to content across the web without
censoring search results. Please note that the decisions we make
concerning advertising in no way affect the search results we deliver.


---------------------

If a keyword has been disapproved, your ad(s) will no longer be
displayed for searches on this keyword.

If an ad has been suspended, please edit it based on our suggestions,
and then save your changes to automatically resubmit the ad for review.
We're confident that these changes will improve your ad performance and
increase your return on investment.

Our goal is to help you reach your target audience and maximize your
investment. All ads are reviewed by AdWords Specialists to ensure that
our advertisers create successful, high-impact advertising in keeping
with our program’s Editorial Guidelines.

For more information about our ad requirements, please read the AdWords
Editorial Guidelines at:
https://adwords.google.com/select/guidelines.html

Please feel free to email us at adwords-support@google.com if you have
any further questions or concerns. We look forward to providing you
with the most effective advertising available.

Sincerely,

The Google AdWords Team

Posted by lesjones

Say Uncle linked with Google & Guns again
AlphaPatriot linked with Google Sucks
Say Uncle linked with More Online Gun Censoring


Comments

That is pretty outrageous. I use them in real life to promote my business web site. I'm surprised they haven't found some word they find "unacceptable". Also, they must be using a 'bot, because if a human actually looked at your blog they would see you are not selling or promting guns. Sheesh!

On the other hand, you can google "boobies" and get this adword ad:

Big Naturals
Young Babes with Big Natural Breast
Real Breast pics & movies affiliate
www.bignaturals.com

(don't go there - not safe for work!)

Go figure...

Posted by: SK Bubba at October 08, 2003

In my day job, I buy four figures worth of advertising every month from Google Adwords. I'm a little steamed.

I've been trying to figure out why they've cut certain categories out of Adwords. It may be because of Google Adsense, which lets web sites include ads on their site in return for a cut of the advertising. It may be that some sites don't want advertisements that link to sites with certain kinds of content.

Posted by: Les Jones at October 08, 2003

PS, Bubba: if you want some help with online promotion for your business, let me know. I've got a fair bit of experience in that field.

Posted by: Les Jones at October 09, 2003

Beter you advertise with ezines

Posted by: andy at March 08, 2004

Google is ruining the internet as a source of information and is ruining ecommerce. They need about a $1,000,000,000 suit against them as they have obviously become a monopoly.

Posted by: Bubba My !@# at June 08, 2004

Don't feel bad google canceled my entire sporting goods line of adwords because I sell bb guns, and ammunition.
Not fire arms but freaking bb guns.
They didn't mind taking the money but they sure as heck didn't do anything to earn it.

Posted by: Gary Light at August 17, 2004

Last week my ad was running great. I already got charded from google $67 for my clicks. Then all the sudden Thurs. everything stops. No explanation. My ad says it is active but is running nowhere. After sending them at least 20 emails I finally get a reply Monday evening saying they stopped showing it because they can't link to my credit card. Mind you they just charged it and were paid Wed. So now I have to copy and send my credit card to prove it is valid which I did. Still no ad running. No response from my emails. Any suggestions? Thank you

Posted by: Stacey at March 29, 2005

Hey-

Google uses a computer to handle these things, and Adwords has tons of glitches.

They refused my site at first, and later when requested allowed it.

I'll bet there was an algorythm that fucked this up, because Adwords have been on gun sites.

Anyway, they are a private company and can do whatever the fuck they want - that's Libertarianism.

Posted by: dslklk at April 18, 2005

"Anyway, they are a private company and can do whatever the fuck they want - that's Libertarianism."

And libertarianism also says I can disagree with them.

Posted by: Les Jones at April 18, 2005

Google disapproved everything regarding firearms for my site. I gave them a verbal lashing, but it won't affect them. I plan to write to gun magazines editorials.

Posted by: Farting Chicken at November 15, 2005
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