Reporting Ads to Google

when affiliates violate google's policies by impersonating your brand or infringing your trademark, you can report them directly to google through marcode this automates the submission process and tracks google's case numbers for you when to report to google for hijackers use "ad impersonates our brand website" or "ad is a phishing or other type of scam" report hijackers when they're not using identifiable affiliate details (often when warming up new accounts) you can't identify them through your affiliate network they're impersonating your website directly important note in our experience, google is very lax at acting on hijackers; the affiliate network should always be the first route of action for brand bidders use "ad breaches our trademark" report trademark violations when someone is using your brand name in ad copy without authorisation bidding on your trademarked terms not selling or facilitating sales of your products significant limitation google won't take action against voucher sites advertising that they have codes/deals for your brand resellers legitimately selling your products second hand stores selling your goods anyone facilitating sales of your trademarked goods for affiliate brand bidders for these cases, report through your affiliate network as "affiliate breaching programme rules" instead google's trademark policy google's policy protects trademarks in ad copy, but has significant limitations they generally won't remove ads from authorised resellers voucher/coupon sites (even unauthorised ones) sites that facilitate sales of your products read google's https //support google com/adspolicy/answer/6118 for details on what qualifies as a violation trademark reporting requirements before you can report trademark violations , you need to provide marcode with a letter of authorisation from google this is a formal requirement that proves you have the legal right to report on behalf of the trademark holder to request trademark reporting access contact team\@marcode ai request a letter of authorisation for trademark reporting note this service requires an additional fee once processed, the "ad breaches our trademark" option will be enabled in your account until authorisation is provided , the trademark option appears greyed out in the reporting interface how to report from any report step 1 locate the advertiser from any report (hijacking advertisers, infringing advertisers, coupon & discount ads) find the advertiser you want to report look at the tasks button under the advertiser name step 2 open the report form click the + button next to "tasks" select "report to google" from the dropdown step 3 choose report type select the appropriate violation ad impersonates our brand website for hijackers pretending to be you ad is for an affiliate site that breaches the affiliate program rules for unauthorised affiliates ad is a phishing or other type of scam for fraudulent sites note it is worth trying hijackers with this, as google is inconsistent with when they act ad breaches our trademark for trademark infringement (requires authorisation) step 4 review pre filled information marcode automatically populates your email address a message describing the violation ad details and evidence from our analysis the pre filled message is a template you can edit it freely stick to the facts state which policy the ad violates explain why the advertiser isn't authorised describe what the ad is doing (impersonating, redirecting, etc ) step 5 submit click "submit" to send the report to google what happens next immediate confirmation google sends you an email with a case number usually within an hour the case number is automatically logged as a comment on the task in marcode's task manager you can reference this case number for follow ups google's review process google reviews reports within a few days you'll receive an email directly from google with their decision marcode can't currently track google's actions automatically if google takes action the ad will be removed or restricted the advertiser may be notified by google you'll be informed via email if google doesn't act google is often lax on enforcement and may not remove the ad even if it violates policies next steps if you have a google representative , escalate to them with the case numbers if google won't act , focus on enforcement through your affiliate network instead for affiliate offenders , we always recommend enforcing via the affiliate network and if needed removing them from your programme reporting best practices don't waste time on google reports when the violation is clearly an affiliate network issue (report to the network instead) it's a voucher site just mentioning your brand (google won't remove these) it's a legitimate reseller using your trademark do report to google when hijackers can't be identified through affiliate tracking direct impersonation of your website is happening clear trademark violations from unauthorised parties (not resellers) you've exhausted affiliate network options keep evidence organised reports are logged in task manager with case numbers add comments to tasks with any google rep responses track which reports google acted on vs ignored use reports strategically google reports work best as a backup to affiliate network enforcement don't rely solely on google they're inconsistent combine with playbooks for comprehensive enforcement reporting one advertiser at a time currently, you can only report one advertiser per submission for multiple violations report the most egregious offenders first focus on advertisers who aren't in your affiliate programme use playbooks to automate warnings for affiliate programme members tracking your reports all google reports are logged in the task manager to view your reports go to task manager look for tasks with "report to google" in the playbook steps check the comments section for google case numbers add your own comments with outcomes and next steps case numbers appear automatically as comments from "marcode support" showing the date and time reported the message sent to google the official google case number keep these case numbers handy for escalations to your google representative common questions "why is the trademark option greyed out for me?" you need to provide a letter of authorisation first contact team\@marcode ai to request access "can i report multiple advertisers at once?" not currently reports are submitted one at a time from each advertiser row "will google always remove the ad?" no google's enforcement is inconsistent many legitimate reports are not acted on, especially those involving hijackers "what should i do if google rejects my report?" escalate to your google rep with the case number, or focus on affiliate network enforcement instead "can i edit the report after submitting?" no once submitted, you can't change it but you can submit a new report with updated information "do i need a separate letter of authorisation for each brand?" contact team\@marcode ai to discuss your specific setup requirements may vary by brand