From time to time, you may encounter Google Play policy issues with your apps. The Google Play policy team has been working hard to provide you with the resources and support you need to resolve policy issues.
If the app review team notices a policy issue with your app or app update, you’ll receive an email with the subject line “Notification from Google Play.” (If you didn’t receive this email, make sure to update your email address on the account details page in your Developer Console.)
The policy notification email includes the policy your app violated and the steps you need to take to resolve the issue. If your app is rejected, you can fix the issue and submit the app again for another review - you don’t need to reach out to the policy support team.
If you disagree with a policy violation, or if you’d like help resolving your policy issue, you can always contact our support team. Simply use the contact details in the notification email or click on the question mark at the bottom of each page in the Developer Policy Center.
For the quickest response, make sure to include your package name. As soon as you submit the form, you’ll receive an automated response with a case number in the subject line. This means your appeal has been submitted successfully. A specialist will review your case and respond to you within 72 hours.
In a previous blog post, we introduced the Google Play Developer Policy Center. To go along with making the policies more accessible and useful to developers, the policy team has created an engaging video to help developers stay on the right side of Google Play policy.
Here are the 10 tips to stay on the right side of Google Play policy;
Review the Policy Center: It’s recommended that you review the Policy Center whenever you're unsure if your app violates policy.
Describe your app appropriately: Take the time to describe your app appropriately in order to avoid metadata policy violations. Remember that every translation of your app description needs to be compliant with the metadata policy.
Use images you have the rights to: Your app icon and any graphic assets in your Store Listing should only include images you have the rights to use. If you have been granted permission to use assets owned by others, you can notify the app review team using this form. Make sure that all text and images used in your Store Listing are appropriate for app lovers of all ages.
Rate your app accurately: When answering the content rating questionnaire, it’s important to provide accurate responses in order to receive an accurate rating.
Handle user data with care:User data can include information provided by a user, collected about a user, or collected about a user’s interactions with the app or device. If your app is collecting personal or sensitive user data, you’ll need to handle it securely and include a privacy policy in your Store Listing and in your app.
Make sure ads in your app are policy compliant: Ad behavior should be straightforward - it’s against policy to show ads that are disruptive or deceptive, including ads that pose as system notifications, ads that aren’t dismissible, or ads that appear after a user closes the app. Additionally, ad content in your app should not include adult images, violence, or anything else that would violate the restricted content policy. You may want to check with your ad provider to learn about filtering options.
Don’t forget the restricted content policy: Check your app and your Store Listing for any restricted content, such as adult content, violence, or drugs. If you're concerned about any content in your app, read through the restricted content policy for more details and examples. If any content in your app is user-generated, you’ll need to take additional precautions in order to provide a policy compliant app experience. Check out the user generated content policy to learn more.
Update your email preferences: Make sure to update your email address on the account details page in your Developer Console. That way, if a policy issue does come up, we can contact you with the steps to address it.
Fix any policy issues found in review: Even though you’ve checked your app against the policies, it’s always possible that your app gets rejected or suspended after review. If your app or app update gets rejected, keep in mind that many violations can be fixed! Just follow the steps in the “Notification from Google Play” email you received.
Reach out to us for support: If you disagree with a policy violation, or if you’d like help resolving your policy issue, you can contact our policy support team.
In the next blog post, we’ll talk more about our enforcement process and policy support resources.
Until next time, be sure to stay connected on all things AdMob by following our Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ pages.
To maximize your app’s revenue potential, you’ll want to make sure your app is compliant with Google Play policies. If your app violates Google Play policy, ad serving can be disabled, so it’s a good idea to regularly review policy updates.
The Developer Policy Center (found at play.google.com/policy) was launched earlier this year and includes:
Policies organized by themes, such as Monetization & Ads, Privacy & Security and Restricted Content
Visual examples and detailed guidelines for the most common violations
A simplified layout to help you navigate more intuitively on mobile or desktop
An Updates section to help keep you informed of recent additions to Google Play policy
You can select a specific policy to learn more about it.
Stay tuned to learn more about policy best practices - we’ll be posting a short video highlighting 10 tips to stay on the right side of Play policy.
Until next time, be sure to stay connected on all things AdMob by following our Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ pages.
Today we have released a new video ‘10 tips to stay on the right side of Google Play policy’. The video provides 10 best practices to help you develop and launch apps and games which follow Google Play’s Developer Program Policies.
Watch the video to learn how to review your app, to ensure you have appropriate content and the rights to use it, how to handle user data, and more. Also, find out how to stay up to date with policy updates and get support from our policy team.
Whether you're just starting out on AdMob or already have several successful apps under your belt, you'll almost inevitably want to test ads on your app to see if they're working properly. Today, we're here to provide helpful tips to help ensure you're compliant with AdMob policies.
Ultimately, it is your responsibility as the publisher to ensure that the activity on your ads is valid. Publishers may not click on their own live ads, even for testing purposes, or use any other means to inflate impressions and/or clicks artificially. During app development and testing, please use test ads.
If you need to render live ads before launch, avoid clicking on them. If you're showcasing your app to friends, family and/or beta testers, ask them to avoid clicking on live ads.
Example of Test Ads
Your AdMob account may be suspended for invalid activity if one or more users are repeatedly clicking on live ads in your apps, including for testing reasons. If, after the designated suspension period has cleared, and invalid activity continues contributing low value traffic to our ads ecosystem, your AdMob account may be disabled.
Reference our developer documentation on how to implement test ads (Android or iOS). Additionally, the ad unit and samples in our developer tutorials (Android or iOS) return test ads. Test ads are always available for use, even if your AdMob account is suspended or disabled.
For more information about account suspensions, visit our AdMob help center.
Posted by Danielle Chang, Ad Traffic Quality team.
Could you remind me what a PolicyViolationError looks like? Absolutely - glad you asked! In the following sample, after the policy changes go live, the content in externalPolicyName, externalPolicyUrl, and externalPolicyDescription may change, but the policyName field will stay the same.
<errors xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:type="PolicyViolationError"> <fieldPath>operations[0].operand.ad.headline</fieldPath> <trigger/> <errorString>AdPolicyError.POLICY_ERROR</errorString> <ApiError.Type>PolicyViolationError</ApiError.Type> <key> <policyName>nonstandard_punctuation</policyName> <violatingText>!!!</violatingText> </key> <externalPolicyName>Non-standard punctuation</externalPolicyName> <externalPolicyUrl/>...</externalPolicyUrl> <externalPolicyDescription>Google ads aren't allowed to have excessive or unnecessary punctuation or symbols such as the following: ... <a href="https://support.google.com/adwordspolicy/answer/176095" target="_blank">See the full policy</a> </externalPolicyDescription> <isExemptable>true</isExemptable> <violatingParts> <index>18</index> <length>3</length> </violatingParts> </errors>
What should you do? If your application looks for specific values of externalPolicyName, externalPolicyUrl, or externalPolicyDescription to decide if a failed AdGroupAdOperation should be resubmitted with one or more ExemptionRequests, please make the following changes:
Modify your application to use the policyName instead of one of the externalPolicy fields. The values for policyName are non-localized constants, so this is a more reliable field for this use case.
In early June, 2016, monitor your logs for occurrences of PolicyViolationError. Look for any new policyName values that you may want to incorporate into your application's logic for submitting exemption requests.
In a previous publisher blog post, we discussed tips for writing a successful policy appeal. In today's topic, we’re exploring what happens when publisher accounts are disabled due to invalid traffic, when to submit an appeal, and tips for making those appeals successful.
Invalid traffic includes any clicks or impressions that may artificially inflate an advertiser's costs or a publisher's earnings. Invalid traffic covers intentionally fraudulent traffic as well as accidental clicks.
In the ads ecosystem, advertisers rely on the relevance of our ad placement and the quality of the interaction their ads receive. Publishers in turn count on advertiser participation that contributes to the success of their apps and business. Without this trust, the Google advertising network could not exist. Google treats invalid traffic very seriously, analyzing all clicks and impressions to determine whether they fit a pattern of use that might artificially drive up an advertiser's costs or a publisher's earnings. If we determine that an account might pose a risk to our advertisers, we may take actions against the account, such as suspending or disabling it, in order to protect our advertisers' interests.
Before we continue, let's clarify the difference between an account suspension and an account disablement.
If your account was suspended due to invalid traffic, ad-serving has been turned off for a fixed period (typically 30 days). While suspensions are not currently appealable, if you would like to provide additional feedback to help us improve our processes and communications, you may do so using our suspended publisher feedback form. If there are no further compliance issues with your account, it will be automatically unsuspended after the fixed period. For more information about account suspensions, please visit our AdMob Help Center.
If your account was disabled due to invalid traffic, your account is no longer serving ads, and you will be unable to monetize with any Google ad solutions. You're eligible to file an invalid activity appeal, but please be aware that that filing an appeal does not guarantee reinstatement. For more information about account disablements, please visit our Help Center.
If you would like to file an invalid traffic appeal for account reinstatement, please first review the AdSense program policies and top reasons for account closure. These policies and reasons apply to all Google ad solution products, including but not limited to AdMob, AdSense and YouTube.
Here are some tips that you may find useful in writing your appeal:
Review the top reasons for account closure. Think about if any of these reasons applied to you and your content. Did your friends click on your ads too many times? Did you purchase traffic that led to a surge of invalid activity? Can you make content and/or behavioral changes to prevent the activity from happening again?
Review ad implementations on your desktop site, mobile site, and/or mobile app. Think about what your typical user workflow would be, and see if the ad implementations may cause users to accidentally click on your ads.
In the appeal form, provide the e-mail address that is associated with your disabled AdSense/AdMob account. This will help locate your account and reduce delays in appeal processing time.
Tell us what changes you’ll make for the future. Once again, carefully consider the top reasons for account closure. What systems or behaviors have you put in place to ensure this won't happen again? For example, tell us how you've adjusted your ad implementations, evaluated your traffic sources, hired testers to properly test your content, etc. We will appreciate your honesty in the appeal.
Publishers are a vital part of the online ads ecosystem, and we want to see you succeed while keeping your users happy and engaged. Everyone in the digital ecosystem benefits when publishers provide engaging content and useful resources, which in turn incentivizes advertisers to bid for space on your content. We hope that these resources can provide some guidance.
Posted by Danielle Chang, AdMob Ad Traffic Quality Team
When monetizing an app with ads, you want to make sure that you’re implementing them in the right way to create a positive user experience. Banner ads are an effective way to monetize because they work well in a variety of apps.
Mobile phones have limited screen size, which means that careful planning for your ad placement is especially important. Close proximity of banner ads to other elements within an app is one of the biggest causes of accidental clicks. If accidental clicks occur, publishers may see a portion of their revenue deducted in order to refund affected advertisers. Publishers may also have ad-serving suspended until the issues are resolved.
Learn how to implement banner ads the right way by watching our new best practices video.
Invalid activity is an important topic we'd like to discuss in today's post.
Invalid activity consists of any clicks or impressions that may artificially inflate an advertiser's costs or a publisher's earnings. Invalid activity covers intentionally fraudulent traffic as well as accidental clicks.
Publishers can take many preventative steps to prevent invalid activity on their accounts. If we find invalid activity in your app(s), you may be at risk for account suspension or disablement. We may also refund revenue generated from invalid clicks to affected advertisers.
Publishers must not artificially inflate the impressions or clicks the ads receive, either through automated or manual means. Clicks on Google ads must result from genuine user interest.
We understand that a third party may generate invalid activity on your ads without your knowledge or permission. However, ultimately, it is your responsibility as the publisher to ensure that the activity on your ads is valid.
Here are some tips on how you can prevent invalid activity on your ads:
Don't click on your own ads. This includes manually clicking on your live ads and employing automated means, including but not limited to robots or other deceptive software. Testing your live ads by clicking on them is not allowed. Please use test ads (available for Android, iOS, or Windows Phone) to avoid generating invalid impressions and clicks.
Don't encourage or ask your friends, family, co-workers, etc. to click on your ads.
Don't encourage or ask general users to click on your ads. This includes asking for users to support your app, offering rewards to users for clicking ads, and promising to raise money for third parties for such behavior.
Make sure your ad implementations don't encourage accidental clicks. User flow is very important to consider when implementing your ads. For instance, interstitial ads unexpectedly surprising the user, and close proximity of banner ads to other elements within an app, are some of the biggest causes of accidental clicks. Check out our AdMob implementation guidance for more information.
Avoid partnering with untrusted / low-quality parties. Some publishers have had issues with invalid activity when partnering with low-quality ad networks or app promotion sites in efforts to increase traffic to their app, which may increase the likelihood of ads being viewed or clicked. Again, it is ultimately the publisher's responsibility to ensure that the activity on their ads is valid. To help determine the source of your visitors, we recommend using Google Analytics for AdMob. For more information please visit our AdMob Help Center.
-