Google blocked over 5 billion ads in 2024 as AI-powered scams skyrocketed

• Google 2024 Ads Safety report says it blocked 5.1 billion bad ads
• It also blocked millions of advertiser accounts
• Google notes its detection accuracy improved thanks to AI

Google blocked more than five billion bad ads in 2024 and suspended almost 40 million advertiser accounts that were engaged in fraudulent behavior in what was apparently a bumper year for scammers.

In its 2024 Ads Safety Report, Google outlined how bad ads have really taken off in recent months, alrgely thanks to the advancements in Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI).

However, Google is also using AI to improve its deception rates and apparently - it works.

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Banning ad accounts

Google's proactive measures in 2024 were impressive. The company either blocked or removed 5.1 billion ads that violated Google Ads policies. Furthermore, the search engine giant suspended 39.2 million advertiser accounts, which prevented many ads from ever reaching the consumers in the first place.

As a result, the number of stopped bad ads did not grow year-on-year, but remained relatively stable. Last year, Google removed 5.5 billion bad ads, and the drop seems to be due to the fact that Google banned significantly more advertiser accounts (12.7 million).

The company also said to have permanently banned more than 700,000 advertiser accounts for policy violations related to AI-driven impersonation scams.

"To fight back, we quickly assembled a dedicated team of over 100 experts to analyze these scams and develop effective countermeasures, such as updating our Misrepresentation policy to suspend advertisers that promote these scams," Google said in the report.

"As a result, we were able to permanently suspend over 700,000 offending advertiser accounts. This led to a 90% drop in reports of this kind of scam ad last year. While we are encouraged by this progress, we continue to work to prevent these scams."

Google seems to be heavily invested in AI for scanning and detection. It implemented more than 50 enhancements to its Large Language Models (LLMs), enabling more efficient and precise enforcement.

Most of the AI-powered bad ads revolved around deepfaked celebrities.

Via BleepingComputer

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