Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.
Edwin Jonk: Bad ads 2014 in numbers and an info-graphic
Peggy K: Google's Annual Bad Ads Report: removing bad AdWords ads and AdSense publishers
Google's advertising ecosystem has two sides: the AdWords advertisers and the AdSense publishers (who place ads on their own websites or videos). And both sides depend on a clean network that ensures users can "browse, shop and surf with confidence".
Google uses both automated and human reviewers to stop bad advertisers, including scammers, malware distributors and deceptive "trick to click" ads. ;
On the flip side, Google also rejects many applications to join the AdSense program, and disables accounts associated with invalid activity or policy violations. ;
By the numbers in 2014
> more than 1.25 million applications to join the AdSense network were disapproved ;(down from ;3 million disapprovals in 2013)
> more than 160,000 publisher sites in the AdSense network were disabled (down from 200,000 in 2013)
> Google didn't report how many AdSense accounts were disabled this year, but in 2013 250,000 publisher accounts were disabled for "various policy violations"
Learn more of Google's efforts over the past year to fight bad advertising: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2015/02/fighting-bad-advertising-practices-on.html
Provide feedback on AdWords ads: https://support.google.com/adwords/troubleshooter/4578507?rd=1
What "trick to click" means: https://support.google.com/adwordspolicy/answer/176108 Google doesn't allow ad behaviors that might trick a user into clicking the ad: > Ads cannot pretend to be a system or site warning. > Ads cannot mimic or resemble Windows, Mac, Unix, or Chrome OS dialogue boxes, error message, etc. > Ads should be clearly distinguishable as ads and as separate from the page's content. [see the article for more details]
Bad ads 2014 in numbers and an info-graphic
