Google has released a massive crackdown on advertisers, suspending a staggering 39.2 million accounts in 2024 alone. The tech giant’s latest Ads Safety Report reveals this figure represents more than a 200% increase from the 12.7 million accounts suspended in 2023. That’s not a typo. Triple the bans in just one year.
While account suspensions skyrocketed, other enforcement metrics showed mixed trends. Google blocked or removed 5.1 billion ads in 2024, slightly down from 5.5 billion the previous year. They also restricted over 9.1 billion ads and blocked advertising on 1.3 billion publisher pages – a notable decrease from 2.1 billion in 2023. The company also blocked a hefty 146 million ads for gambling policy violations across its platforms.
Google’s AI-powered crackdown shows surprising contrasts—fewer total ads removed while account suspensions triple year-over-year.
The company credits artificial intelligence for this enforcement surge. Since 2023, they’ve launched more than 50 Large Language Model enhancements to detect violations. AI apparently spots fraud signals like fake payment info and impersonation attempts before ads even run. Pretty convenient timing with all the tech layoffs, right?
Major violations driving these removals included network abuse (793.1 million ads), trademark violations (503.1 million), and personalized ads policy violations involving sensitive topics (491.3 million). Google also nuked 280.3 million ads for legal requirements violations and 193.7 million for financial services policy breaches.
Scam fighting was another priority. Google suspended over 700,000 accounts specifically for public figure impersonation scams, claiming this reduced reports by 90%. They also blocked or removed 415 million scam ads overall. Despite these efforts, there remain community concerns about the continued prevalence of scams across Google platforms, particularly on YouTube.
Publisher enforcement saw Google taking action against more than 220,000 sites in 2024, down from 395,000 in 2023. Election integrity efforts ramped up too, with 10.7 million election ads removed globally from unverified sources – up from 7.3 million in 2023.
The crackdown shows Google’s increasing reliance on AI for policy enforcement, with machines now driving over 90% of page-level enforcement actions. The message is clear: break the rules, and the algorithms will find you.
