Google flagged 9.5 billion ads, suspended above 6.7 million advertiser accounts in 2022

Google, a U.S.-based technology company, last year, suspended 6.7 million advertiser accounts and flagged 9.5 billion advertisements, removing 5.2 billion and restricting 4.3 billion to provide a safer online experience.

This represents an increase of 2 billion ads removed in 2022 compared to the previous year, according to a statement signed by Alejandro Borgia, director of Product Management for ads safety. “We also blocked or restricted ads from serving on more than 1.5 billion publisher pages and took broader site-level enforcement actions against more than 143,000 publisher sites,” he said.

Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) launched in 2000, is an online advertising platform developed by Google, where advertisers bid to display brief advertisements, service offerings, product listings, or videos to web users

Borgis also said that the tech company added or updated 29 policies for advertisers and publishers to help protect billions of users. In 2022, Google was visited 89.3 billion times every month, making it the most visited website.

“Providing a safe and trustworthy ads experience for users is a critical contribution to Google’s mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” he said. “We do this impoant work because a healthy ad-supported internet means everyone can access quality information.”

The new policies were developed with a focus on protecting users from fraud, scams, harmful content, and misinformation, as well as prioritizing child safety and providing users with greater information and control.

Thus, Borgia noted that enforcing these policies at scale required a combination of human reviews and automated systems using artificial intelligence and machine learning to detect violations worldwide. “Google has thousands of people working constantly to create and enforce effective policies for advertisers and publishers to prevent abuse and foster success,” he said.

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Regarding the new Ads Transparency Center, a searchable hub of all ads served by verified advertisers, Borgia said “This one-stop shop was designed with you in mind by ensuring you have easy access to information about the ads you see from Google.”

“With the Ads Transparency Center, you can look up the advertiser and learn more about them before purchasing or visiting their site,” he said. “As 2023 continues, we will stay diligent in our efforts to combat abuse across our platforms while helping advertisers and publishers grow their businesses.”