"Your Google Ads account has been blocked”: unblocking an account for a higher education institution

Client

Ukrainian Private Medical University

Our objective

Engage the target audience and drive traffic to the website of the Polish university branch to encourage student enrollment

Period of work

January 2024 … August 2024

Project’s features

• Long decision-making process by clients
• Inability to track the sources of calls
• Targeting Polish audience with the distinctive behavioral patterns

Starting the work and initials results

Given the project’s specifics — particularly the lack of technical capabilities for tracking call sources and capturing the most valuable website conversions — we agreed with the client to optimize ad campaigns to attract the most relevant traffic. Due to the long decision-making process of selecting an educational institution, our team decided to work with the following three types of ACs:

• Search;
• Performance Max;
• Demand Gen.

Each of these campaigns is designed to engage the audience at different stages of the marketing funnel, and using them together helps achieve the best results.

Engaging the audience at different stages of the marketing funnel based on the types of ACs:

To achieve the highest efficiency of our ad campaigns, we divided the target audience into three segments:

• Poles in Poland;
• Ukrainians in Poland;
• Ukrainians in Ukraine.

This approach allowed us to create personalized ad campaigns for each segment.

*In this case study we analyzed the data exclusively for the audience segment “Poles in Poland” as it is the highest priority and also a brand new direction for the client in the context of working with this target audience.

Our team started working on this audience segment during the initial period of cooperation with the client, and planned to gradually roll out the rest in the coming periods.

Results for the period from January 11, 2024 to February 9, 2024:

"During the initial, yet incomplete phase, we achieved the results that satisfied both the client and our team:

• the total number of clicks: 15,8k;
• average cost per click: 0,13 PLN (1,33 UAH).

For comparison: The average cost per click in Ukraine for the category “Colleges, universities and other higher education institutions” is 1,03 UAH. Meanwhile, we started developing prototypes for the ad campaigns aimed at a different target audience, although it appears Google had its own plans for our strategy.

Blocking Google Ads account

On February 10, 2024, we received a notification that our Google Ads account was blocked due to: “System bypass”. We were confident there was no violation of rules from our side, and we immediately filed an appeal. Based on the support team's response to our inquiry, it became clear that the account had been blocked due to suspicious payment activity. We promptly prepared the necessary documents to verify the legitimacy of payments and reached out to the support team again.

Customer support response after the first appeal:

After reviewing the documents, the support team informed us that in order to proceed with the appeal, it is required to confirm the advertiser's commercial activity.

Customer support response after the second appeal:

We helped the client to successfully confirm his commercial activity, and received the corresponding notification a few weeks later.

Alternative solutions to the issue with a blocked account

Along with resolving the issue of the blocked account, we offered the client a few alternatives, taking into account that he was having hard times. The high season was about to start, and advertising was on pause with no clear understanding of the unblocking timeframe. Some of the solutions we offered included creating a new Google Ads account or transferring ad campaigns to another active account the client had already used for advertising in Ukraine. However, this option was rejected due to the high risk of repeated blocking. Eventually, we decided to jointly migrate our ad campaigns to Meta platform (Facebook and Instagram) while working on unblocking Google Ads account.

Stages of unblocking Google Ads account

Following the successful verification of commercial activity, we believed that account would soon be unblocked. However, the response was not as we expected - the support team informed us that the account continued to violate system policies and would remain suspended.

Response from the support team:

We followed up with the support team, seeking clarification on the violation of rules and expressing our readiness to submit any documents needed. The response was expected: we were once again asked to complete the commercial activity verification. Even after submitting the screenshots proving we had passed the verification process, we were informed that a system rules violation was still in effect. The previous responses from the support team were generic and lacked any specific explanations or recommendations. Therefore, we decided to contact specialists we had previously worked with on other issues, providing them with all the required information. Shortly after the next appeal, our team received an automatic response saying that the account had been unblocked. However, the blocked status was still displayed in the account, and the ad campaigns were not active.

Automatic response following the submitted appeal:

Following that, our specialists reached out to the support team multiple times, clarifying the situation and submitting screenshots that confirmed the account's reactivation. Despite our efforts, the campaigns were still inactive. In the end, the Google Ads account was fully restored in 3.5 months Summarizing this complex process, it is important to highlight the following:

• given that the account unblocking process can be long, it is wise to seek alternative solutions right away;
• there is no 100% guarantee that your Google Ads account will be unblocked, even if you have not violated any rules;
• additionally, Google support may provide conflicting information - unfortunately, that's a common practice.

Initial period after unblocking Google Ads account

Comparing key indicators of the AC before and after account blocking:

Once the account was restored, we boosted the number of clicks by 32.5% while cutting their average cost by 30.4%, thanks to ad campaign optimizations and an increase in search queries in key categories Based on the results obtained, it can be stated that the account suspension had no impact on the key metrics of the ad campaigns After reviewing the key performance indicators of the campaigns on Google Ads and Meta from June 6 to July 5, we decided to run campaigns on both platforms simultaneously to achieve the best performance.

Conclusions

• Despite the lack of technical capability for detailed conversion tracking, ad campaigns focused on website traffic can still successfully drive potential clients and boost brand recognition.
• Unblocking a Google Ads account can become a long journey, taking anywhere from one day to several months, and it may not always end successfully. Therefore, it's best to seek alternative options right away to keep your ad campaigns running.
• When creating ad campaigns for the Polish market, it’s vital to understand that the offers appealing to Polish consumers can be quite different from those that attract Ukrainians. Therefore, conducting research is essential: analyzing competitors’ websites and ads, as well as reviewing Polish customer feedback across various platforms. This will provide valuable insights into the priorities of your target audience.

Project participants

• Project participants: Hanna Vysotska
• PPC specialist: Vadym Sirman
• Head of contextual advertising department: Galyna Lyman