ADSENSE AD SERVING HAS BEEN LIMITED INVALID TRAFFIC CONCERNS

3/10/2021

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If you're reading this post looking for reasons why your Google Adsense ad serving has been limited, I don't have any answers for you. I do have theories, my own story, which you might like to read, and an alternate provider to get you back up and running. All of this happened to me in quick succession, so I can say for certain that if you're getting a notification about Adsense invalid traffic concerns, there is hope to get that revenue stream going again and you can even get customer service to go with it. (read more)

AD SERVING HAS BEEN LIMITED ADSENSE
VIDEO

If you'd like to watch the video, here you go.

AD SERVING HAS BEEN LIMITED ADSENSE

You've built your website, you've written great content, you've done everything right, and you're starting to earn some money from the ads you're running with Google Adsense. Then you wake up one morning, go check your earnings from the day before, and....you get this notification.

There's a link to the Policy Center to the right of this notification, so you click on it and see the picture below. (Note that I couldn't even click this link for a full 10 days, I just kept getting an error.)

My first reaction to the notification was that it must be a mistake. I've had my Adsense account for more than two years and have spent that time writing what I hope are solid, helpful articles. I don't do click bait, I don't do gimmicky stuff. I write about things that matter to me, in the hopes that they are things they matter to someone else.

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Since I wasn't actually able to click on the Policy Center link (it would bring up an error and ask me for my patience) until today, I figured it must be something on Google's end, a glitch, not a true concern.

Still, I searched for things, everything I could think of in every variation: adsense limited ads, adsense limited ads serving, adsense ads limited solution, adsense invalid traffic, etc.

I watched a ton of videos as well, but the longer the ban went on, the more I realized that, error or not, I was completely and totally helpless to do anything at all about this.

Not only can I not do anything about it, I can't talk to anyone about it, I can't message and get answers. I can't do ANYTHING!

It's frustrating.

After searching, reading, and watching, I did come up with some theories, so I'll share them with you below. I'm going to totally disregard the idea that this is based on me buying traffic or somehow paying for people to come read my posts or click on ads. That's stupid, I have worked too hard to build this up from nothing, and I wouldn't risk it. If you have purchased traffic or engaged in any of these things, you probably know why you've gotten the Google Adsense limited ad warning.

If this isn't you, I've got a few ideas, but again, we'll never really know. However, there are other options, quick options, and I'll go over those at the end, but for now let's move on to why I THINK I got hit with the ban hammer.

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REASONS YOU MIGHT BE GETTING THE AD SERVING HAS BEEN LIMITED INVALID TRAFFIC CONCERNS WARNING

I've come up with a few reasons why my Google Adsense account might have been limited:

1. Accidental Clicks - If you use Auto Ads (which I was), you aren't controlling where the ads are placed. Google places them for you wherever they think it will be most beneficial, but it's a computer making that decision, not a person. If an ad is placed too close to a clickable link on your site (for example, if you are an Amazon Affiliate and use Amazon links) the user might accidentally click the ad instead of your link. This could be especially true on mobile devices where the screen is small and a tiny touch is all that's needed to accidentally click a link.

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2. You've experienced some website traffic growth - This would be something to celebrate, but maybe not if you're Google Adsense. I noticed in January that my growth really went up in Adsense, growing by 84%. My page views didn't really go up, but I guess my site was quality enough that more advertisers were bidding on placement, so I made more money. A normal amount of growth for me over the past six months was anywhere between 6% and 25% per month, so this 84% was high, but it was also in January, a full month before I got the warning on my Adsense page.

3. It's random - Based on all of the searches I've done and things I've read, this happens to A LOT of people. Also based on these searches I don't have high hopes for Adsense coming back online for me. Many people report that their account has been choked, only to be let up in a few weeks or a month, and then choked down again.

Since I didn't pay anyone to visit my site or click links, none of the reasons I could have legitimately been limited really matter to me. What does matter is that they did it and that there is no recourse. You aren't contacting anyone about it, period.

What I needed was a new place to align my site with, a place that has actual people who will actually talk to me when something happens. It just so happens that I found a place and was able to talk to them about all of these issues and even get a little insight. What a NOVEL idea!!

Let's talk about Ezoic.

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GOOGLE ADSENSE ALTERNATIVES
WHAT IS EZOIC?

The hardest part of trying to figure out where to take my site once Adsense killed off my revenue was researching the legitimacy of any potential advertiser. The reason so many people use Adsense is because it's so well known. It's linked to Google, the name brand itself inspires confidence, even if you go into realizing that you are a small fish in a big pond and you're not very likely to get any help when issues arise.

I was only making about $150 a month (A MONTH) when I got choked, but I'd read stories of people who were making thousands of dollars each month getting the same treatment, and still having no recourse.

For me, no amount of brand name confidence changes the fact that my revenue was basically erased overnight. I wasn't even worried about going some place where I could make the same amount of money. It was far more important to go someplace where people would TALK TO ME if I needed help.

All of my searches for advertisers eventually took me to Ezoic, where they put me in touch with an onboarding specialist named Ryan. Ryan has been in constant contact with me about my site. If I have questions, I email Ryan and he answers me in a timely (and helpful) manner.

It's a breath of fresh air.

I plan on doing a separate blog post about Ezoic, but I want to hit on a few highlights. First off, they have an affiliate program. So anytime you see me link to Ezoic, that's my link. I like affiliate programs and am happy to be a part of them when it's a service I currently use. If I'm going to be talking it up, getting a referral link is a bonus.

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Second, they have real live human beings for customer service. Wow!

I messaged Ryan and talked to him about the issues I had encountered with Adsense. This was really important because I wanted to make sure any new company I partnered with was aware of what's going on. I'm all about transparency. It's doubly important in this case because Ezoic works with Adsense, meaning that you can have Ezoic put ads on your site, but you can also do "Mediation" with Adsense so they can also bid to put ads on your site. However, if you are going to mediate with Adsense, you need to be in good standing with Adsense. And while Adsense has NOT said I am not in good standing, I'm just going to assume that since they're treating me like I've got the plague.

Ryan was able to look at my traffic, verify that it was "high quality, organic" and allow me to continue my onboarding. It took a few days (mainly because you have to change a lot of ad code), but I've been up and running with them basically since a week after my Adsense revenue tanked. While I'm not making quite as much as I was with Adsense, I am at about 75% as much. I figure I'll make more as their advertisers get more comfortable bidding on placement on my site, and I'm good with that.

The biggest thing is that there is customer service. I will gladly give up some revenue to have a real person to talk to.

And, since Adsense is an additional company you can add to Ezoic, I can switch mediation on for them if I ever get back to where they're not choking me down. If not, I just flip that switch off and go on with my day. It's pretty simple.

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QUESTIONS? LET ME KNOW
AND AN UPDATE

As I said, I didn't plan on going into great deal about Ezoic in this post, but I'll be writing one soon. I'll also update this post if and when Adsense ever brings back my revenue or gives me a reason as to why the revenue was taken away. Honestly though, I don't hold out a whole lot of hope that either will happen.

UPDATE - After more than two weeks, Google Adsense discreetly removed the notification from my site. I have not gotten any email or information about why my account was semi-banned in the first place. I am not going back to Adsense as my main advertiser, it's too risky. I am staying with Ezoic, but I have clicked the box to open mediation to Adsense, so they can bid to put advertisements on my site if they want.

UPDATE 2 - I just got an email from Adsense letting me know they see that I've stopped using Adsense, and asking me to give it another try. This is obviously a form letter, something they send to everyone once they realize all the Adsense ads have been removed from a site. I thought briefly about responding, but in the end I can't see the point. I definitely will not be going back. That extra 20% (which Adsense claims users will get when they switch back) isn't worth not having a human being to talk to when something goes wrong in my account. It's simply too much work and effort to give control of my site advertising to a company that can't be bothered to speak with me.

Many things I've read say that, if Adsense does this to you once, it will continue to happen at random intervals and you'll never have anyone to talk to about it. So I have very little faith that the issue is resolved, but I'm very glad I found another place to work with.

I hope this helps you out, and I hope you get your Google Adsense back up and running sooner rather than later. If not, at least you know you have some options.

Ty

6 Comments

JON G

3/26/2021 08:20:22 am

Hi Ty,
Thank you very much for your well written article.
I have just received a "Ad Serving has been limited" notice. No other reason (Mar 21). I have built up a few websites under one Adsense account. What started as a hobby 20 years ago is now my main income stream with Adsense my only income. All eggs in one basket. I have never had a problem at all in the past and my traffic was growing nicely, but it was not preforming as well as others. I have spent the last year, not on new content but on improving on google. I addressed page speed and now achieve 90% - 100%. I have been addressing seo mistakes and bad links (9,500 pages), i have been using screaming frog to spider my websites and i believe this maybe the problem. It crawls my websites checking links work, so I presume it acts like traffic ??? and google reads it as traffic??? I dont know? I am the same as yourself, i do not know why? There is no known point of contact for adsense... This is now my main income... what if I had staff to pay? It really does not seem fair, I am being penalised for absolutely nothing. Now I am reading most posts say this may be in effect for 4 weeks or more... Losing a whole months income is not funny.
So I have some questions about Ezoic, I have read prior to reading this, to qualify for an Ezoic account i must also qualify for an adsense account. I do qualify for adsense and have done for the last 20 years, BUT with the adsense account suspension, would this stop me from obtaining an Ezoic account? It says you can only apply to Ezoic once in 6 months.
Would i have to apply after the suspension is lifted?
How is the revenue in comparison, Ezoic vs Adsense?
Paid Monthly?
Can i place the ads where i want? The same as Adsense, I only have 3 ads per page at the moment.

Yours
Jon G

SHEILA (TY THE HUNTER)

3/26/2021 09:08:53 am

Hi Jon. I'm sorry to hear you're going through this, it's really frustrating. I'll answer your questions as best I can.

You do not have to use Adsense with Ezoic. When I applied for Ezoic I was under the "ban" from Adsense. I explained what was going on to Ezoic (they give you an onboarding specialist to help you out) and Ezoic was able to crawl my site and verify that my traffic was good and organic. They advised me to simply turn off the Adsense mediation. I turned it off, and then turned it back on when the ban was removed, which for me took about two weeks. Mediation simply means that Ezoic will be supplying the bulk of your advertisements, but Adsense can also bid on them. To this point on my site Adsense has not bid, and I'm just about back up to making the same amount in advertising as I did before Adsense banned me, a little less, maybe 10%

So you do not need Adsense to use Ezoic, but definitely tell your onboarding person what is going on once you sign up for Ezoic.

The revenue on Ezoic has been about the same as Adsense for me, a little less, about 10%, but I figured that would happen since I was starting from scratch with Ezoic. I expect it to grow (and it has grown just in the few weeks I've been a part of Ezoic).

Apply now, don't wait for the suspension to be lifted.

Paid monthly, with a $20 minimum.

You can place the ads where you want, same as Adsense, but also better because you can choose different sizes to go in one ad spot and Ezoic will test different sizes in order to figure out which one makes you the most revenue.

You will have to go in and put in the ezoic code, it's not the same as Adsense. That for me was the most time consuming. I have about 200 blog posts, each with maybe 3-5 ads, so I had to redo the code on all of those.

Once you're done with that, though, I think it's miles better than Adsense. Just the ability to analyze sizes, have a person to talk to if there are issues, the lower payment threshold, etc.

I hope that helps, but by all means ask more questions if you like. I'll answer as best I can!

Ty

3/29/2021 07:37:16 am

Thank You very much for your prompt reply.

My account is still showing the Ad serving Notice, but my ban seems to have been lifted after 5 / 6 days and my $ / £ have returned. I have seen some posts of 4 - 6 weeks, so it must be traffic based. But all of this is speculation, no one knows for sure? This is the problem / issue, as a customer of google, we should be given a valid reason and a way to appeal.
The internet has 2 types of websites, products / sellers and information providers. Without information providers the product sellers do not have a platform to sell on. One needs the other and the gods of google, needs competition, as they are just the middleman.
I do have all my websites with Adsense, it would make perfect sense to split between Ezoic and Adsense.
Thank you very much and good luck for the future.
Yours
Jon G

CECILE

10/8/2021 07:45:44 am

Thanks for sharing...I have made a website for the 1st time, start putting Adsense and as I have lot of followers on Social Media made a huge just in 3 months (+1000%), Google does not like that at all and now they blocked my account :'(
I will work on building regular traffic so they will be more happy. If it does not work, I will join the other program you recommend. Thanks a lot

10/8/2021 08:10:01 am

Hi Cecile, In your case, google bot has triggered unusual traffic, give a few days and probably a human will check it out and see it is not spam and you will be reinstated. My came back, then went again for a month whilst under investigation, got it back and no problems since. I would just hang fire for a week. it is frustrating that there is no one to call or email.

VINCENT OKEDILINK

5/21/2022 05:02:45 am

Facing this ad limit is hell