Ever worry about receiving that dreaded email from Google saying there’s a ban on your AdSense account? AdSense can do it with little explanation, and publishers trying to appeal the ban often have little success. You may be confused and wondering how you’ll continue generating revenue from your website without AdSense ads. The risk of getting banned is why sticking to one ad platform can be risky; instead, it’s a good idea to diversify your demand partners and have multiple revenue sources. In this article, we’ll discuss why bans occur and how you can continue monetizing your website without Google Adsense.

Two Types of AdSense Bans

There are two main types of bans that AdSense will enact: a website ban and an account ban. In this section, we will go into the differences between the two kinds of restrictions and what they mean for your company’s use of your Google Adsense account.

Website Ban

Google notifies you your website is on a ban. Why?

AdSense bans on the site level for repeated content violations on individual websites and the account level for fraudulent activity on entire accounts.

They will ban websites for a variety of reasons. Adult content, ad placement, malware, and copyright infringement are the most common reasons.

AdSense is also cracking down on and banning websites that contain what they consider prohibited content. As a result, AdSense bans websites that fall under the following categories: marijuana, extreme right-wing political sites, and the promotion of guns, violence, and other drugs.

It’s important to know why your site is banned by AdSense, especially if you’d like to file an appeal.

For more details on why it might have occurred, see their terms and conditions for publishers page. Unfortunately, they are usually unwilling to work with publishers to re-open ads serving on a banned domain.

The good news if only your website is banned is that you can still work with an AdSense program on other websites from your same account. It will definitely still impact your ad revenue from google ads, but it’s not the worst outcome that can occur.

Account Ban

Having an entire Google Account disabled is a much more serious problem than having a website ban. Because of this, accounts that violate Google’s terms & conditions severely are nearly impossible to get back. Reasons for an Account ban may include:

● Click fraud: when an individual, computer program, or generated script repeatedly clicks on a PPC (pay-per-click) advertisement to generate fraudulent charges. Click fraud is also known as invalid click activity.

Even if you are unaware of invalid click activity on your ads, it is still a violation that can get your account disabled. For instance, if your friend or family member is trying to help you out by clicking on a PPC ad, this action might warrant an AdSense ban.

You also are not allowed to encourage your audience to click on or interact with your ads to increase revenue. This kind of invalid click activity includes offering incentives or rewards for clicking, engaging with, and refreshing ads on your site. 

This infraction is a common reason why many accounts, such as YouTube creators and bloggers, receive a ban sentence from AdSense. 

● Impression fraud: when an ad is not viewable to the human eye, but impressions are still counted. For example, if your google ads consist of white text on a white background, this may be counted as impression fraud.

● Invalid traffic: occurs when you, as a publisher, click your own ads on your own content. Invalid traffic also encompasses anything that artificially inflates engagement and impressions of ads, such as an unaffiliated blogger repeatedly clicking on your ads (invalid click activity).

● Having multiple accounts related to a banned account. Once you have been banned from AdSense, you cannot create new accounts. AdSense code will use a combination of IP address tracking and its algorithm to discover related accounts.

● iFraming: an HTML element that allows you to make a frame within a frame to display a secondary webpage on your main page. An AdSense publisher’s use of AdSense code within an iFrame is expressly forbidden. 

This rule is related to the manipulation of ad placement to increase revenue. Using an iFrame can cause reporting discrepancies that make it difficult or impossible to track the location of your ads. 

Other Reasons For Suspension

A few other less common scenarios could result in an AdSense ban. Most of these reasons will involve an account suspension for various policy violations. 

Usually, AdSense will send out an account warning before issuing an account suspension. If you have only received a warning, this means that your google ads are still functional and still producing ad revenue, but you are on thin ice.

Under a warning, your content will be monitored more closely for additional violations. However, when initial violations are severe enough, AdSense will sometimes skip over giving a warning and go straight to suspending your google account.

Your account may also be temporarily suspended before being entirely banned. During a suspension period, there will be a hold on your payments, so you will not make money from your ads. Your advertisements will also not be displayed.

The length of a suspension will vary from case to case. Google states that the purpose of suspending accounts is to give creators a chance to revisit and fix the ad content on their sites to fall within their guidelines. 

Understanding AdSense Policies

AdSense account banned, and you don’t know why? Here are some tips for understanding their policies and what makes up most policy violations.

Among various bloggers, companies, and other affected advertisers that have had a Google AdSense ban their accounts, a common complaint is that AdSense does not provide specific feedback about the degree kind of policy violation that took place. This lack of information makes it difficult to appeal these decisions.

However, if you know where to look, you’ll be able to find Adsense’s program policies to understand the kind of content and AdWords they prohibit.

Google AdSense’s official guidelines can be found here.

The core policies that they focus on are ad behavior, ad placement, and site behavior.

Publishers are allowed to modify the AdSense code, but there are certain limitations that they must adhere to. Specifically, the modifications of ad behavior must not be detrimental to advertisers. 

Ad placement refers to the locations of ads on the screen. Ads are not permitted in a pop-up or an email, for example.

Site behavior refers to how users experience an ad on a website. They should be easy to navigate and not initiate any downloads or include malware. 

What Happens After Your Account is Suspended?

One of the first things you can try to do in this situation is to appeal the ban on your suspended account. 

Users rarely successfully create a new AdSense account, and the appeal process also infrequently results in a ban reversal. If an attempt to appeal a ban proves unsuccessful, the best thing to do is find good AdSense alternatives to partner with. 

With AdSense being one of the biggest names in the display advertising industry, it might seem surprising that there are other alternatives out there to google ads. But in truth, many of these affiliate programs can compete or completely outdo the google AdSense team! 

You may see a pleasant surprise in the monetization benefits that come with looking elsewhere.

(Some of the) Best AdSense Alternatives

Let’s take a quick look at some of the best Adsense alternatives:

Newor Media

Newor Media has grown rapidly in popularity as a leading AdSense alternative, and for a good reason. It has a wide range of ad types and an easy-to-use interface that makes it simple for you to start profiting even more off of your content.

Media.net

Media.net offers a variety of different kinds of ads and is one of the best-paying alternatives out there. However, some users have trouble getting in touch with their customer support. 

Amazon 

One very simple and effective strategy is to link to Amazon products in your content. When viewers click on the link, and especially if they buy something you linked to, you get paid.

Adsterra

Adsterra is another strong competitor to AdSense that has consistently high CPMs. A downside is that they lack the optimization technology to help make the most out of your ads. 

Ezoic

Ezoic has a reputation as an analytics-focused option. They do have some of the best optimization technology and analytics reports, but these features come at the cost of a service fee.

You can do a deep dive on these and more AdSense alternatives to find the option that best fits your goals here!

What to Look For in an Ad Network

With the vast abundance of networks out there, it’s essential to do your research and choose one that’s most suitable for you. Some things to be on the lookout for are:

Network size

Be sure to find a partner with a decent size network offering a significant amount of advertisers. Network size is important, as it will impact the relevancy of the ads shown, fill rate, and ad unit value.

Compensation

The ultimate reason for selecting an ad network is to make money, and not receiving payment is a big risk that publishers face when joining an ad company. This may happen because of bankruptcies, network clawbacks, or (sadly) scammy networks that never intended to pay. 

In most of those situations, revenue recovery is impossible. Protect yourself by investigating your payment history for reasonable rates and dependable payouts.

Ensuring that your ad revenue gets deposited directly to your bank accounts should be one of your top priorities when looking for an ad network.

Ad Management

Having control over your ad units is instrumental in maximizing ad earnings. To create high-performing ad units, you’ll need control over what types, what ad layout design, etc., and the capability to experiment and test them. Your webmaster will need to have extensive experience in ad code to optimize ad management.

Since it’s a competitive market for publishers trying to access premium campaigns, it’s essential to have the right requirements when applying to a platform.

From a publisher’s perspective, earning with ads is all about traffic and website quality. You should put extra care into those aspects if you want to join a top-performing platform.

The Header Bidding Solution

The best option to consider is partnering with a header bidding network such as Newor Media.

They offer an advanced programmatic way of bidding, bringing an array of ad networks together to bid in real-time for your ad units simultaneously.

They can vet through thousands of ads from multiple demand partners and place the highest betting ad on your website, all within a fraction of a second.

Since Newor Media can simultaneously work with several demand partners, it’s practically guaranteed your inventory sells at an optimal price.

Beyond a premium network stack, Newor Media offers services to optimize your ad units completely. You’ll have access to all the elements that make up a good ad network, with the added bonus of proper user balance and revenue maximization.

Without Google in the mix, revenue will always be a bit lower than it otherwise would be. That said, using header bidding on your site still allows other networks to bid, and you can generate meaningful cash!

Final Consideration

Even if your site is not banned, it’s a good idea to diversify your website’s income source.

Although AdSense is the typical start for most beginners, it’s often far too limiting to hit the highest revenue marks.

Diversifying with header bidding can get you ahead especially given the possibility of being banned with no warning or explanation. Switching or adding to your stack is an easy way to benefit from:

● Increased revenue through an increase in competition
● More control over your ad units to craft a strategy you can be proud of
● Transparency into the auction and value of your ad units
● More relevant ads served from the diverse and increased network stack size

There are lots of gains to be made when partnering with header bidding providers. If you’d like to partner with Newor Media but currently use AdSense, don’t worry; we don’t require exclusivity. 

To learn more about Newor Media’s header bidding solution, feel free to try our earnings calculator to see how much your website could be making from ads with Newor Media. Like what you see? 

Contact us today to get started testing ads on your website!