Over 5.5 Billion Ads Blocked In 2023, Google Reveals As More Policies Are Enforced

Google blocked over 5.5 billion advertisements last year alone.

The 2023 Ads Safety Report reveals that nearly 7 billion ads were restricted and 12.7 million advertiser accounts suspended.

This represents an account-level increase of nearly double from the previous year.

“And we blocked or restricted ads from serving more than 2.1 billion publisher pages and across more than 395,000 publishers sites, up from 143,000 in 2021,” the report reads.

Google’s policies are designed to support a safe and positive experience for the users; thus, prohibiting harmful content.

Among the most enforced policies in 2023 was abusing the ad network. This policy led to the blocking of 1.04 billion ads.

Other policies were trademark, personalized ads, financial services, legal requirements, misrepresentation, gambling and games, adult content, health care and medicines, and copyright.

The report further reveals that scams and fraud across all online platforms were on the rise last year.

“Bad actors are constantly evolving their tactics to manipulate digital advertising to scam people and legitimate businesses alike,” the report further reads.

To counter these ever-shifting threats, Google in November 2023 launched a ‘Limited Ads Serving’ policy, which is designed to protect users by limiting the reach of advertisers with whom we are less familiar.

It implemented a “get-to-know-you” period for advertisers who don’t yet have an established track record of good behavior, during which impressions for their ads might be limited in certain circumstances — for example, when there is an unclear relationship between the advertiser and a brand they are referencing.

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“Toward the end of 2023 and into 2024, we faced a targeted campaign of ads featuring the likeness of public figures to scam users, often through the use of deepfakes. When we detected this threat, we created a dedicated team to respond immediately.”

Google is also keen on legal or culturally sensitive ads.

More than 5,000 new election advertisers were verified last year and over 7.3M election ads that came from advertisers who did not complete verification were removed.

The Ads Transparency Center a searchable hub of all ads from verified advertisers, which helps people quickly and easily learn more about the ads they see on Search, YouTube and Display was also launched in the same year.