Google killed over two billion bad ads in 2018

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New technology and policies led to a 28 percent decrease in ads removed

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As part of its ongoing efforts to improve the online advertising industry, Google removed 2.3bn bad ads in 2018 representing a 28 percent decrease from the previous year when it removed 3.2bn.

The search giant has taken a proactive stance on blocking bad ad experiences before users are impacted by scams and its efforts have certainly paid off.

Another way in which Google has become increasingly successful at blocking bad ads is through the use of “improved machine learning technology” to help identify and terminate the accounts of one million bad advertisers which is double the number of accounts it removed in 2017.

The company also launched 330 detection classifiers in 2018 to better detect fraudulent or bad behavior at the page level. This allowed Google to completely remove ads that violated its publisher policies from almost 1.5m apps and nearly 28m pages through a combination of manual reviews and machine learning.

Collaborating with the cybersecurity firm White Ops, the FBI and other security companies even allowed the company to help take down an international ad fraud operation called 3ve which spoofed fraudulent domains and created fake websites to produce more than 10,000 counterfeit domains and generate more than 3bn daily bid requests.

New ad policies

Last year Google introduced 31 new ad policies to deal with a number of abuses including third-party tech support, ticket resellers, cryptocurrency and local services. In total, the company removed 207,000 ads for ticket resellers, 531,000 for bail bonds and 58.8m phishing ads.

Ahead of the 2018 midterm elections in the US, Google also launched a new policy for election ads that verified almost 143,000 political ads. 

Low-quality and offensive content led the company to remove ads from 1.2m pages, over 22,000 apps and almost 15,000 sites.

Google even plans to launch a new policy manager in Google Ads next month to further help advertisers ensure their ads are compliant.

Via VentureBeat

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Anthony Spadafora
Anthony Spadafora

After working with the TechRadar Pro team for the last several years, Anthony is now the security and networking editor at Tom’s Guide where he covers everything from data breaches and ransomware gangs to the best way to cover your whole home or business with Wi-Fi. When not writing, you can find him tinkering with PCs and game consoles, managing cables and upgrading his smart home.