Google has banned over 780 million so-called ‘bad ads’ in 2015 alone, explaining that these advertisements have breached the terms of their policies.
In an official blog post, titled How we fought bad ads in 2015, Sridhar Ramaswamy, senior vice president of ads & commerce, said that so-called bad ads are “a problem they take very seriously”.
Bad ads, the expert explained, include those that promote fake goods, carry malware or mask the content people are trying to view.
It also includes any adverts that assist fraudsters; for example, one that leads a user to a phishing site that then tricks them into handing over sensitive data.
Some of the specific achievements made by Google include the suspension of more than 30,000 sites for "misleading claims", including promising impossible-to-achieve weight loss without diet or exercise.
Google also blocked approximately 7,000 phishing sites, more than 10,000 counterfeit sites and over 12.5 million ads that “violated the healthcare and medicines policy”.
Mr. Ramaswamy also highlighted the tools that are available to users to help control the types of adverts that appear.
One example is Mute This Ad, which lets users click an ‘X’ at the top of an advert so that Google can stop showing similar ones from that particular advertiser.
It’s all part of an overarching strategy that appears to have been a huge success in 2015, which the tech giant is looking to build on in 2016.
“We’re always updating our technology and our policies based on your feedback and working to stay one step ahead of the fraudsters,” Mr. Ramaswamy added.
“We want to make sure all the ads you see are helpful and welcome and we’ll keep fighting to make that a reality.”
