Idris Sami: banned from Google.
Idris Sami
Idris Sami is a 19 year old French-Moroccan entrepreneur who created a website where people can text their friends for free. Don’t have a phone or want to avoid mobile data charges? No problem. With MesTextos, French speakers can text their friends from the website. MesTextos won’t threaten WhatsApp anytime soon, but in Europe and the Middle East, where alternative messaging services are more popular, free text is a nice little niche to occupy.
And MesTextos.com was doing really well until the beginning of this year.
Sami ran Google’s AdSense advertising system on his website. It enables website publishers to display Google-powered search ads and drive down revenue.
By December 2013, so many people were clicking MesTextos’ ads that Sami’s Google account hit $ 46,000.
But then he learned that the search giant will penalize you if you’re an AdSense affiliate and your website doesn’t run ads exactly the way Google wants you to.
Banned by Google
Google closed Sami’s account and returned all of the money he made to its advertisers.
Idris Sami’s Google Adsense Income Account. (Click to enlarge.)
Idris Sami / BI
All of it $ 46,000.
He is excluded from Google’s advertising programs until further notice.
Sami is angry about the money he made and then lost. While this is an extreme example – a large portion of Google’s customer base is made up of individual publishers making only a few hundred dollars a month – this is a typical example of the frustrations Google’s customers experience with the company.
Google is currently being sued in the US on allegations that it suddenly and without explanation withholding advertising money from website publishers once their sites are successful. And the company is the subject of an infamous and blatantly bogus conspiracy theory that states that publishers making $ 5,000 or more per month will be banned from the system immediately before their checks are paid. (The theory has a huge hole – Google only earns revenue from serving these ads. Banning successful websites would actually make Google poorer.) This theory has been around for years.
Google emails praised the website
Google praised Sami’s work … (click to enlarge)
Idris Sami / BI
In an email Google sent to Sami, Google says MesTextos incentivized or forced people to click on ads to use the website, which is against the rules. Sami denies it. He says two different Google sales reps praised his revenue-generating efforts and offered in separate emails to optimize his website to improve its performance. He says he wasn’t warned that something was wrong with his website until it was too late.
Google declined to specifically comment on Sami, but a spokesperson told Business Insider:
… we always send the publisher a note explaining what the policy is and, in many cases, give them the opportunity to make changes to their pages to keep the account in good shape. Publishers also have the opportunity to appeal against political decisions.
Google: “That’s great.”
… and wanted to help him earn more money just a few days before he was shut down.
Idris Sami / BI
The problem is even more complicated because Google’s ad rules in French are slightly different from those in English, says Sami. The ban is annoying for Sami because it came on January 28, just 13 days after he received an email from Google that helped him grow his earnings. “I spoke to the team again later and was told everything was fine,” Sami told Business Insider.
Obviously, Google’s sales force and AdSense compliance staff don’t necessarily coordinate.
Sami first received an email from Google Sellers on January 1, 2013, asking him to increase his sales. It came from a Google employee in Dublin who praised MesTextos: “I’ve seen that … the recent changes have had a positive impact on click-through-rate, which has improved your AdSense earnings. That’s great. Can you share this with me ? ” Email: What changes have you made so that I can produce an accurate report with optimization tips for you? “
The next email on January 15, 2014, was in French and looked like a form letter created for customers meeting certain sales goals.
“We have deactivated your Google AdSense account.”
But by then it was too late.
… and then Sami was banned from the system.
Idris Sami
On January 28th, Sami received a third email, also in French: “We have deactivated your Google AdSense account. Your account suspension is final. We have blocked the payment for your corresponding credit.”)
Sami says he begged and asked with Google, but he can’t figure out what Google thinks is wrong with their website. It is noteworthy that Sami’s website is currently running a large ad that requires a click before you can use it. Exactly what Google said was wrong with the website in the first place. Sami says he didn’t run the ad for another of his sites until after Google cut him off and his ad revenue dropped.
On the one hand, it’s a simple case: Google publishes its rules and Sami allegedly broke them. As mentioned earlier, Google has a PR problem here: AdSense can be complicated. The basic rules are 2,500 words long. It’s a pretty opaque company, and it doesn’t break down in detail on where its advertising revenue comes from. And because it’s so massive and so many companies in the online ad ecosystem are completely dependent on it, Google is becoming a ripe target for rumors and complaints.
Google is also being forced to publicly explain how it detects bad behavior and click fraud on the web as it would help those who cause the scam. As a result, its bans often feel secret or arbitrary to publishers. Publishers may not even be aware that their websites are being used as hubs for fake traffic.
That is not much consolation for Sami. He says he’s working with an attorney to get Google to get what he thinks he deserves.
