That Fateful Day

I still remember the day like it was yesterday. I had received an email from google about my adwords account. I was pretty excited because my adwords campaigns weren't running. My ads weren't receiving any impressions. After increasing my bids to astronomical rates I decided to give google a call and see if they could tell me what was going on. They said they would look into it. Shortly there after I received an email from them.

Suspended = Banned Forever

The email said something to the effect of my adwords account had been suspended. I later learned that suspended is a pretty deceptive word. Banned is a more appropriate word than suspended. Suspended is usually associated with something temporary that will go away after a period of time. As I later found out I was banned for life.

The email instructed me not to contact google regarding this issue anymore. Their decision was final. I decided I didn't have anything to lose, so I gave them a call. I explained to the lady what was going on and she asked me if I wanted to "escalate" the issue. I guess "escalating" would be the equivalent of appealing the decision, they ask someone hire up to review the case. I said yes, and they looked into it. I received another email saying that they were standing by their decision.

I called them back a final time. I asked them what suspended meant. How long was the suspension for? The lady's reply chilled me to the bone: "It's permanent." I felt like someone had kicked me in the gut. I felt angry, sad, and disgusted all at once. After about a week of feeling sorry for myself I looked into what I could do.

Sneaking Back In

I did a couple of searches online. I found a website where a guy had been banned as well. He provided a guide on how to get back in with Google Adwords. This involved getting a different phone number, checking account and credit card, mailing address, gmail account, and using a proxy to access adwords. He said to login into your old accounts, change the password to something you would never remember by typing random characters on the keyboard, and then logging out.

It seems that if you log into your old google account that has been banned and then log into your new account Google will be able to associate the new one with the old one and they will ban your new adwords account as well. In order to get a new account you have to change everything that they could identify you by. Name isn't a big deal since lots of people have the same name, but everything else has to be changed.

Another solution was to get a close friend or relative to open up an account for you.

If you want to get back in on good terms without sneaking in then find out what you did wrong. Read through their terms and conditions, their webmaster guidelines, and then go back through all your campaigns and find out where you violated their rules. Once you find the violation(s) fix the problem and give them a call. Once you call be very polite and courteous. Explain to them that your account was suspended. You went over your campaigns and found where you violated their terms and conditions and you fixed the problem and that you were wondering if you could get your account reinstated.

If it was a small mistake that you did on accident or out of carelessness then you might get your account back. I've heard of people getting their accounts back. However, if you were blatantly disregarding their rules then I wouldn't be hopeful.

What I did

I ended up doing nothing. I figured if Google didn't want me playing on their playground I would find somewhere else to play. I decided to focus on article marketing and SEO something that I had been avoiding by using PPC. I loved the idea of direct linking because I wouldn't have to make a website or write a bunch of content.

However, now I'm realizing that making a website and writing content isn't that bad. It can be pretty enjoyable and fun. Also, I'm providing valuable content to people who are searching for it, instead of just trying to get by with the bare minimum. Although, I wish I wasn't banned from Google Adwords I think it was a good thing. It shifted my focus from trying to make money online by doing the minimum amount of work possible to making money by helping people find solutions to their problems.

Don't worry there is life after Google Adwords!