How to unban (re-activate) AdSense account?

It is certainly no new phenomenom to see forum posters complaining about being banned. In fact, many forums members have grown tired of the repeated posting which typically look something like:

I wuz banned frum assent for no reason! How do I get my acct back

Plzzzz Help!!!

There are so many posts like this that I thought I would address the issue from both an analytical and personal standpoint. To debunk some of the myths going around that people are banned for no reason and even more to the point that these bannings of accounts (more of a suspension really) are completely and easily reversible provided there has been no violation of the Google Terms of Service.

How can I give such advise? I am one of the muppets who has banned and posted in a forum. Now I can’t say my post was anything like the one sampled above, and I actually chose the forum I was going to post my questions in as carefully as I chose my words. I decided against posting them at Digital Point basically because for once I wanted a highly moderated environment. I wanted to avoid the natural backlash and rubber necking associated with these threads. If its a brand new member there is a “here we go again” attitude (highly deserved unfortunately) and if its a long time member there is a “whats the site, thats a shame” attitude. Neither of which informs nor helps your case so in my instance I decided to go with WMW. I thought at the time, I might even get a look from AdSense Advisor who hadn’t started posting at Digital Point yet.

My account was banned August of 2005 and of course I found out by not being able to login. The dreaded letter did not arrive announcing the ban for around 2 days and I have to say it was a stomach turner. Before I get into my eventual reinstatement and my tips for others, I should first explain why I was banned. The official reason was invalid clicks but as we all know, that is a catchall phrase and does not neccesarily mean “clicking on your own ads” (Although thats most common). The actual reason was because I was featured on a Radio Show syndicated throughout the world. This show sends out a newsletter which goes out to a few million people so its routine that your site goes down as all that traffic hits you. I was prepared for that aspect but I never thought to notify Google about the feature.

Now I can’t discuss specific days and CTR’s as I do not want to violate the Google TOS. However, I will talk about monthly numbers which is allowed and will give you an idea on the numbers involved and why it was signifigant enough to get red flagged. In the month before that feature I had done $1,800 with the majority of that being the affected site. The month in which I received my ban I did $7,800 (I was down for around 7-8 days due to the ban otherwise I would have probably hit 5 figures) on what was around 500,000-600,000 impressions. This is quite a signifigant difference, made even more problematic by the fact that most of these carried blind refferers seeing as how they got to the site through their email client.

Now on to how I was actually able to get the account reinstated. I want to take this chance to reiterate that I never violated the TOS. That means I didn’t click on any of my ads ever (even by accident) nor where there any other violations. This is important because your strategy may differ slightly if you made a “mistake” and clicked one of your ads or something similar.

Step 1:


Email Google - You can do this either by replying to the notification mail or using their online form.

As far as the contents of your emails:

• Remain Nice. Rather then going into a rant on how they can’t do this or they are being unfair, remember that they are the ones that will reinstate you so kiss a bit of butt. Use phrases like “I realize that click fraud is a real issue facing AdWords Advertisers” and “I have full respect for your program and would never violate the TOS”



• Don’t Threaten Legal Action. This is a biggie because as soon as you say “I am going to sue you”, they pass your account off to the legal department who file it away awaiting your lawsuit. So unless you have already sent the paperwork, don’t even mention the word lawsuit


• Offer Anything You Can. This is most commonly logs but it can also include emails, letters or screenshots. Basically make the offers and be sure to let them know “If you need anything, Please let me know”


• Check the Grammar and Spelling. So many people put 10 seconds into their letters and not only are they difficult to understand, they severely hurt your credibility. Right or wrong, Google may think “If this guy/girl can’t take the time to properly write an email that decides the fate of their account, are they really the type of Publisher we want?”.

Step 2:

Prepare Documentation - If you think your ban was due to a jump in traffic, put together your logs and burn them on to CD as a backup to your server. If there is a reason for the traffic, try to get a letter from the refferer. In my case I wrote to the Radio Show and they provided a letter explaining the whole situation and gave their contact information.

Step 3:

Don’t Give Up - Develop a regular schedule of emailing Google. Try to always save a few pieces of information so that you are able to send an email each day. It can take anywhere between 5-30 days for a human review which is what your goal is here. If you give up after 2 days, don’t expect a response.

Step 4:

Don’t Post About Your Experiences Publicly - A human review takes time so posting to a forum with all your details can only hurt your case for reinstatement.

In my case, I received a lot of this advise from others who I respected and had been in the same situation. For my account it actually worked and not only did I get the account back but all back monies were reinstated.

So if your account has been banned and you firmly believe you did not violate the TOS, there is hope. I have spoken to probably around 20 people who were banned in similar circumstances and every single one got their accounts back with full reinstatement of funds.

Best of Luck on Your Crusade!

Note: This discussion has been taken from http://yfs1.com/2006/you-too-can-be-banned-from-adsense-with-no-money-down-enquire-within.html