Google’s Fight Against Bad Ads
Google is fighting bad ads. In a report ” How we fought bad ads, sites and scammers in 2016,” Google takes credit in a proof-of-performance white paper for keeping the internet open and safe. 
“Ads play a key role in ensuring you have access to accurate, quality information online, but bad ads can ruin the online experience for everyone,” the report stated.
Here are the highlights:
- Took down 1.7 billion ads that violated Google’s ad policies
- Outlawed and disabled 5 million payday loan ads
- Disabled 68 million ad for healthcare violations
- Took down 80 million bad ads for deceiving, misleading and shocking users
- Detected and disabled 23,000 self-clicking ads
- Suspended 6,000 sites and 6,000 accounts for attempting to advertise counterfeit goods
Trying to keep the web free and open is not easy. The large numbers of ads provides plenty of proof that it requires sophisticated technology to defeat the scammers. But I’d bet on Google—it has everything to gain and a lot to lose with widespread infiltration of fake advertising.
Mark Mathis
Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle. After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant. He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.” Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.” One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College. Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board. Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.
