I’m very confused as to what’s going on with admob, and I’m wondering if anybody can chime in on this to help me understand what the heck they are thinking. I have a very high quality, clean app that is number one in a very popular niche, and gets 3,000-4,000 new downloads per day and growing. It is rated 4.1+ out of thousands of reviews, and has been growing rapidly for the past few months since release. All of the sudden a few days ago out of nowhere I get an email from admob saying that ad serving has been disabled for this app, and it makes absolutely no sense at all.
Hello,
This email is to alert you that one of your applications is not currently in compliance with our AdMob program policies and as a result, ad serving has been disabled to your application.
Issue ID#: XXXXXXXX
Ad serving has been disabled to: XXXXXX (com.xxxxxx.xxxxx)
Action required: Check all other remaining applications in your account for compliance.
Current account status: Active
Violation explanation
LAYOUT ENCOURAGES ACCIDENTAL CLICKS: Publishers are not permitted to encourage users to click on AdMob ads in any way. This includes any implementation that may encourage accidental clicks, such as placing ads near game play area or navigation bars, or placing ads and links extremely close together.
I have never nor will I ever in ANY way encourage accidental clicks, I preload one single interstitial and display it in the onDestroy() method after the user is finished with the functional activity of the app and after they choose to navigate back to the main menu activity. This is the RECOMMENDED implementation as per google’s own documentation at this link below- (In between levels or stages) && (Account for potential ad latency).
https://support.google.com/admob/answer/6066980?hl=en
I of course immediately filed a professional appeal explaining that I have thoroughly read the policy rules and interstitial guidelines as well as always strictly followed the rules of admob and have never had a problem whatsoever. I explained my implementation and asked for someone to please contact me so that I can understand how my implementation is possibly encouraging accidental clicks, because I followed the guidelines to the letter and I want to avoid any future issues with my apps. I thought to myself that surely if an actual human looked at my app, the reviews, it’s revenue, and my appeal than there would be no possible way that they would disable this app when it makes thousands of dollars for admob per month when I use nothing but admob interstitials exclusively in all of my apps, as well as follow the rules. NOPE!
Hello,
Thank you for your email. However, please be aware that because your app was found to be in violation of our program policies, it is no longer eligible for participation in the AdMob program.
Your account remains active, and you are welcome to place Google ads on other apps which comply with AdMob publisher guidelines and policies. To help prevent policy violations in the future, we recommend reviewing these references to help keep your account in good standing.
Thanks,
The Google AdMob Team
I honestly have no idea why they took away my best performing app for no reason at all, with no explanation. I’m confused as to how you can follow the rules and still get shut down UNFAIRLY without any explanation. I am about to release a very high quality multiplayer word game within weeks and after this nonsense I am taking steps to tear google play game services multiplayer and admob out of my current apps and games and use another product because I just can’t trust them to not punish me for following the rules. Seriously what is the deal with this? Is it normal to not get an explanation, especially when you didn’t do anything wrong in the first place? I show one single preloaded interstitial in between app usage, not on entrance and not on exit, and I use no other ad types or companies at all other than admob interstitials. How can that possibly encourage accidental clicks, it’s a preloaded interstitial at a break in gameplay? I’m pretty offended right now…
