Google helps to enable a free and open internet by providing the ability for publishers to monetize their content and for advertisers to reach prospective customers with useful, relevant products and services.

We do well when our publishers do well. Our success is inherently tied to that of our publishers.

We provide transparent policy education through publicly posting our policies, creating policy videos, and hosting webinars and conferences worldwide. We continuously invest in making our publisher policies, publisher restrictions, and enforcement of policy violations understandable, and consistent.

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Please check go/pubprotectionchecklist for a document that can communicate our publisher controls and escalation paths with guidance on best practices. This doc is externally shareable as a pdf.

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When we identify these coordinated threats, we urgently assess the situation and take action. Overall, in 2022, we blocked or removed 142 million advertisements for violating our misrepresentation policy and 198 million advertisements for violating our financial services policy. Again giving you the full scale picture of the preventative work we do, in 2022, we removed over 5.2 billion ads, restricted over 4.3 billion ads and suspended over 6.7 million advertiser accounts. This represents an increase of 2 billion more ads removed in 2022 from the previous year.

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Thank you for reporting the ads, this helps us enforce Google Ads policies. We took swift action on ads and ad accounts that violated our policies once they were detected through reports or proactive tracking. We also conducted a thorough investigation into these ads and accounts. These instances have provided us with specific signals that we are using to detect ads of this nature proactively in future. We are continuously updating both manual review systems and machine learning models to stay one step ahead of abuse and quickly respond to new trends when they appear. Our work to protect users and enable a safe advertising ecosystem that works well for advertisers, publishers and users continues to be a top priority.

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The bad ads featuring <Celebrity/Person X> are part of a global trend of tabloid cloaking ads, where “fake news” ads are used as clickbait to link to unrelated products. This is not specific to <country> - we have seen tabloid cloaking ads featuring personalities from Australia, Europe and the US, amongst others, and are actively mitigating this global issue. The specific combination of Misrepresentation and Cloaking poses particular challenges, technically speaking, to our enforcement. Furthermore, abuse in online ads is a complex and ever-changing space. Fraudsters are constantly evolving, adapting, and trying to outsmart our systems and game the review process. Their ads are using increasingly new and sophisticated methods to circumvent our enforcement systems. These include text and image manipulation.

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We believe that the combination of automation and human review is the best approach to ensure that we can strike the best outcomes in a scalable manner. We are constantly evolving and improving our technology and processes to ensure that bad actors (who are in turn constantly evolving with new techniques) can be identified and actioned on in a timely manner. While our systems catch the majority of bad ads before they serve, similar ads may appear because attackers change their practices often to avoid being detected. Our systems get better over time as they learn more about the patterns of abuse.

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We are unable to guarantee that this won't happen again – fraudsters are always finding new ways to circumvent our systems – but we’re working hard to strengthen our mechanisms based on their escalation.

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Confirmed Click is applied when a Google Ads system determines that the ads on the impacted sites are generating unintended clicks. This creates a poor user experience because the user ends up on advertiser landing pages instead of their intended content.

By introducing the second click, we improve the experience by letting the user confirm their intent to visit the advertised page. Typically, users that intended to click on the ad will still click through to view the ad.

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Visit the Policy center in your account and check the "Status" column. The Policy center displays all of the issues that may affect ad serving on your site or app including Confirmed Click.

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Confirmed Click is automatically lifted when Google Ads no longer detects ongoing accidental clicks. However, this does not happen immediately. Confirmed Click will be automatically removed when Google Ads detects a sustained improvement in the click quality of users interacting with the ad on your content.

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By understanding what causes users to click accidentally on ads, you'll be able to minimize the occurrence of this happening and have more accurate reporting information and a better user experience.

Remember to be careful when placing links, play buttons, download buttons, navigation buttons (for example, “Previous" or “Next"), game windows, video players, down arrows, or applications near ads because they might lead to accidental clicks.

Implementation examples you should review for, include but are not limited to:

• Ads close to navigational elements.
• Navigational elements overlaid on display ads.
• Buttons on top of or close to ads.
• Site content on top of or close to ads.
• Reflow of site content causing confusion.
• Any violations of the ad placement policies

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• Add padding on the top and bottom of ad slots, especially on in-feed or in-article ads and sticky ads.
• Clearly label ads.
• Declare sticky ads.
• Move ads away from navigational buttons, such as next buttons, or clickable content on sites.
• Fix the size of the ad unit container especially on in-article ads, so it doesn't push your site’s content out of the way when it loads.
• Improve your site’s page speed. Remember, poor page speed can cause ads to delay in loading and appear unexpectedly to users as they scroll through your site.
  • Test your site’s page speed with our Page Speed Insights tool.
  • Get personalized recommendations for improving page speed with the Lighthouse tool.
  • Run the Ad Speed report to identify which ad slots are loading more slowly and improve latency across your network.

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First you should identify which ad slots are causing a bad user experience for users by reviewing the disallowed and recommended implementations above. Focus on improving ad unit implementation and page loading speed to improve users’ experience and minimise accidental clicks.

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There are no manual reviews. Google Ads automatically applies Confirmed Click when Google Ads’ ad placements exhibit signs of generating accidental clicks. There is no need to appeal; instead, Confirmed Click is automatically lifted when Google Ads no longer detect ongoing accidental clicks.

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Reflow happens when the browser has to recalculate the positions and dimensions of web elements and leads to re-rendering part or all of the webpage. For example if an ad is loaded into the visible viewport of the page, elements that are currently loaded will be pushed down to accommodate the ad. During this time, your site's visitors intending on interacting with your site may inadvertently click on the ad.

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Many factors determine the performance of an ad including CTR, CPC, user intent, advertiser ROI and others. Lower CTR doesn’t mean lower long-term revenue. This change will improve the overall user experience of your site while minimising any unintended clicks. In the end, this will lead to happier users and better ad performance. CTR is certainly an important signal, but maximising post-click activity is in the best interest of everyone.

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Our system has determined that the image ads on the impacted sites were generating unintended clicks. This creates a poor user experience because the users end up on advertiser landing pages instead of their intended content. By introducing the second click, we improve the experience by letting the user confirm their intent to visit the advertised page.

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Google Ads measures click quality based on many factors. Certain content, layouts and placements can lead to lower quality clicks. Google Ads identifies those scenarios and changes the behaviour of the image ads to improve quality.

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Google Ads considers data from across a prolonged period. Only when the system notices a sustained improvement in the overall click quality will Confirmed Click get disabled and removed from your account.

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No, Confirmed Click will not impact any third party demand sources. Confirmed Click is only added to ads from Google Ads demand.

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Your earnings were deducted either for invalid activity or for activity that was not in compliance with Google policies. Google periodically reviews publisher accounts for such activity. When we find such activity in your account, we adjust your earnings and reimburse the advertisers who paid for these clicks and impressions.

In rare cases, your earnings were deducted because we could not collect payments from certain advertisers. For example, these advertisers may have used stolen credit cards or otherwise defaulted on payments. When this happens, we have to deduct the related revenue from publishers on whose content those advertisers’ ads appeared.

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No, deductions can't be appealed. Please be assured that we have applied due diligence in reviewing the traffic in your account. As mentioned, a deduction is issued when we find invalid activity in your account, when we find activity that's not in compliance with Google policy, or when advertisers who default on payments to Google have served ads on your content.

Please note, fraudulent advertiser accounts that we catch are suspended indefinitely and are no longer permitted to run ads on Google's network.

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The estimated earnings you see in your account give you a close estimate of recent account activity as and when traffic is accrued in your account. The finalized earnings on the other hand include all revenue you'll be paid for validated clicks and impressions minus revenue from advertisers who default on payments to Google and whose ads were served on your content.

On some occasions, Google may notice that activity you've already been paid for is invalid or not in compliance with Google policy. In such cases, Google posts an adjustment to your account in the form of a deduction. Find out more about estimated vs finalized earnings.

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We're unable to provide the date range for which your adjustment was issued. Note that per our Terms and Conditions, we credit advertisers for invalid traffic accrued 60 days prior to the date of invoice. Once we complete our investigation and begin processing the credit, it may take up to 30 days for the deductions to appear in your account.

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To maintain the integrity of our invalid activity detection system and to prevent users from circumventing the system, we aren’t able to provide details on what activity we noticed in your account.

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We encourage publishers to continuously monitor their accounts for potential signs of invalid activity.

It's important for you to know where your traffic comes from. We understand the need to have ad campaigns to promote your apps or other content, but it's equally important to monitor what kind of traffic these promotions generate. To do this successfully we recommend monitoring the traffic driven to your apps or other content using an analytics tool like Firebase.

Additionally, for apps, we also recommend that you review the AdMob implementation guidance. Mobile phones have limited screen size, which means that careful planning for your ad placement is especially important. AdMob publishers should carefully implement ads to provide good user experiences and avoid accidental clicks.

Please note that Google works diligently to ensure that deductions due to advertiser payment fraud are rare in order to maintain a safe ecosystem for users, publishers, and advertisers. Fraudulent advertiser accounts that are caught are suspended indefinitely and are no longer permitted to run ads on Google's network.

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The definitive FAQs for AdSpam - go/adspam-faqs. Updated quarterly based on your input!

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Although publishers are not permitted to click on their own ads for any reason, we do understand that accidental clicks may occur. We therefore don't require that you contact us every time you click on your ads. Rest assured that your account is being properly credited for all clicks and impressions we consider to be valid.

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If you suspect that invalid activity may have resulted from a visitor to your app, we suggest that you review your app's logs for any suspicious activity and notify us with your findings. This information can help us in resolving any issues, although as outlined in our Terms and Conditions, Google will use its sole discretion when determining instances of invalid activity.

You may also wish to review our tips and guidelines for keeping your account in good standing.

Lastly, please note that we'll monitor your situation closely, and that your account is being properly credited for all clicks and impressions we consider to be valid.

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Yes, you're welcome to view your own app without generating invalid impressions. Simply viewing your app yourself will not jeopardize your account’s good standing. However, please continue to avoid clicking on any ads, and don't reload your screen excessively. We take the issue of invalid clicks and impressions very seriously and have a dedicated team of specialists and automated systems to flag and review any unusual activity.

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We understand that your app traffic may significantly increase for various reasons, and that you may feel you ought to let us know. However, there's no need to notify us of a surge in activity, as we continually monitor all clicks and impressions on Google ads to prevent any abuse of the program. We'll monitor your situation closely, and your account is being properly credited for all clicks and impressions we consider to be valid.

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It could be that your account has some clicks or impressions which our monitoring system considers to be invalid. As you may know, to protect the interests of our publishers and those of our advertisers, Google monitors clicks on Google ads to prevent any abuse of the program. Google's proprietary technology analyzes all ad clicks for any invalid activity that is intended to artificially drive up an advertiser's clicks or a publisher's earnings. Clicks deemed by our monitoring system to be invalid will appear in your reports.

Publishers don't receive any revenue for invalid clicks, so you may occasionally notice clicks with no associated revenue. Note that your account is being properly credited for all clicks we consider to be valid.

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You're welcome to view the videos of ads on your app by clicking the play button. Clicks on the play button are not counted as clicks in your reports. We only count clicks that lead a user to the advertiser's site, including on the display URL or on the video while it's playing.

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You’ll need to request a review of your site before the enforcement can be removed. Follow the steps for requesting a review.

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Not necessarily. The Policy center shows sites that our review processes detected as violating one or more Program policies. While we’re constantly working to improve those processes, they can't detect every issue. We may notify you outside the Policy center if we detect an issue through other means.

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No. The Policy center shows violating sites that have generated ad requests in the last 7-10 days. Certain sites (for example, those with very low daily traffic) will not appear in the Policy center. You're responsible for ensuring that your sites comply with our Program policies at all times. We suggest that you regularly check your sites for compliance.

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For your app or site, user-generated content is content that users contribute towards any app or site, visible to at least a subset of other users of your app or site. User-generated content can include text, comments, images, video, profiles, usernames, votes, likes, hearts, or other media, for example. Ads are not considered user-generated content, unless they contain embedded social media. Learn more about ugc and some best practices for managing it here.

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As a publisher, you are responsible for ensuring that all user-generated content on your site or app complies with all applicable Program policies. Practically, this means that to participate in AdSense and/or AdMob you need to ensure that, on pages where your ad code appears, all content, including user-generated content, complies with all applicable Program policies.

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Unlike the rest of your content, which is likely created directly under your guidance and supervision, user-generated content is submitted by users who operate independently of your site or app. Unfortunately, not everyone on the Internet is polite and well-mannered. Because users can post anything, you, as a publisher, need to be prepared to ensure that what they do post complies with all applicable Program policies.

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