Back In The PPC Saddle and Promptly Bucked Off

Recently I decided to try my hand at PPC again using Kyle's training to promote Wealthy Affiliate:
https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/classes/series/making-vegas-in-2024-the-ppc-path-to-a-scalable-and-thriving-business

I've been going through the videos the past few weeks and getting a new website set dedidated specifically for use with PPC. I copied over my review from my Bootcamp site because I think it's gotten me a few referrals over the years and figured it would be a good place to start.

I decided to start with Microsoft Ads because I was banned from Google Adwords back in 2009 and 2010. I was told back then it was a lifetime ban, so I haven't really wanted to try Google Ads out only to find out that my ban is still in place. Kind of like being rejected twice by the same person.

I finally pulled the trigger last night with Microsoft Ads and woke up this morning to an email saying my ads and access to my accounts were suspended due to a "Violation of Egregious Policy". Here's the email I received:

Hello from Microsoft Advertising,

During a routine investigation our reviewers determined content in your Manager account <account-number> is in violation of the Microsoft Advertising Egregious Policy.

Egregious violations include:

- Obfuscation of advertiser or payer identity, to include providing inaccurate identity information or documentation
- Use of the service to facilitate illegal practices or content.
- This includes promoting illegal products or services.
- Malicious software codes (e.g., malware, phishing, scareware, ransomware, pirated software).
- Any landing page or downloadable content which removes user control.
- Ad content which obfuscates the intention or functionality of any downloaded product or provided service.
- Circumventing or evading system service safeguards or monitoring.
- Any content or action designed to facilitate gaining unauthorized access to any user, advertiser, or data, or manipulate the Microsoft Advertising service.
- Deceptive or obfuscated content, cloaking, or spoofing.
- Impersonation, manipulation or deceptive media, or deceptive use of name or brand to imply endorsement.
- Excessive collection of personal information unnecessary to fulfill ad promise.
- Emotionally manipulative or coercive content.
- Attempting to circumvent our account suspension or other measures intended to enforce our policies or terms by creating a new advertiser account or Manager Account.

Additional Details:

Policy violation:

The landing page must not:
• Generate any disruptive pop-ups or pop-unders. Please note that functionalities that are part of the site’s expected experience or otherwise non-intrusive or user initiated, such as an age verification or log-in for example, would be acceptable.
• Spawn multiple pop-ups or any pop-up that prevents visitors from leaving the site.
• Illustration showing multiple pop-up windows preventing users from leaving a site.
• Open any additional windows.
• Mislead the user with "fake" dialog boxes or browser windows.
• Be designed to look broken or simulate a non-working webpage in any way.
• Use "fake" close behavior
Policy: https://about.ads.microsoft.com/en-us/policies/relevance-and-quality

Per Microsoft Advertising Terms of Use and Policies that you agreed to when using our product and service, we have suspended all ads, and access to all Accounts for all users within your Manager Account.

If you feel that the determination of violation was in error, please submit an appeal within 6 months of determination of violation.

Microsoft Advertising Trust and Safety

I'm hoping this is some automated process and I was inadvertently caught up in "the algorithm". My website doesn't violate any of those policies.

The only ones I could se remotely possible are:

• Impersonation, manipulation or deceptive media, or deceptive use of name or brand to imply endorsement.
• Emotionally manipulative or coercive content.

The first one is possible is if a human reviewer for some reason believed I'm not the user "ThomasPaul" on Wealthy Affiliate. I included a screenshot of my profile page to show I've been a member since 2009. It would be weird for them to make that determination, since there's no reason to believe I'm not "ThomasPaul". However, I've stopped trying to think that these large companies operate with any sort of logical policy.

The second one is possible if for some reason they thought my review of Wealthy Affiliate was "emotionally manipulative" which it wasn't. I just said why I liked and didn't like about Wealthy Affiliate and why I've stayed around for such a long time.

I submitted an appeal and should receive a response in 10 days. Hopefully, I'll get my account back.

Pro Tip: If this happens to you, open the appeal link a private browser page and log into your account. If you don't, then you'll just get a message saying:

"Your access to <account-number> is currently blocked

We have detected unusual activity in your Microsoft Advertising account. As a security precaution, we have suspended your account and blocked your access.

To resolve this issue, please contact Support.

To view a different manager account, go to the manage customers page."

I had to spend about 20 - 30 minutes chatting with Microsoft Ads support in order to get that information.