I have been notified that my Google Merchant Center account has been suspended. How to proceed?
This can be a frustrating experience if your ad account has been suspended. It is not always simple and quick to get your ads up and running again but here is some useful tips to get you up and running again as soon as possible.
Firstly, have a close read of the terms of service which you will have agreed to when opening your account. This is definitely worth paying close attention to: https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/6008942?hl=en-GB. Make sure that you are not trying to advertise any products on the prohibited products list.
Sometimes, Google may suspend sites due to false flags (e.g. where a bot picks up something which then requires a human to review and manually reinstate the account).
Some tips to help avoid this:
1. Don't submit your shopping feed to Google with any demo products still on your store.
(You should only be setting up ads once you have your first supplier signed and real products live on your store in week 5).
2. Business information - this must all be input correctly.
3. Shipping & Tax - This MUST mirror the settings you have in Shopify. So if you change this in Shopify but don't update it in Merchant Centre, the Google bots will crawl your site, see this, and flag the account.
4. Must have a privacy policy on your website and this must be linked on every page of your store (e.g. in the footer).
5. You must provide multiple contact information that's easily accessible to customers: Phone number, email address, contact form, physical address (ideally this should be displayed on your home page).
6. Coupon codes or promotions set up inside Google Merchant centre or running in Google ads that no longer work on your store - e.g. an expired coupon code.
If you've followed all of these and you still have the same issue:
Research the specific reason Google has given you online and see what people are saying inside online forums - specifically on the Google support community.
Get on either live-chat or a call with Google support. Tell them the reason you believe it was suspended and what you have done to fix it. To make it clear what changes you have made, you should take screenshots of all changes you made in an effort to lift your suspension. Then put together a document with your annotated screenshots to show Google that you are doing every thing you can to follow their policies.
They should then review this and reinstate it assuming it meets all the criteria listed in their policies linked above.
Merchant Centre Support: https://support.google.com/merchants/gethelp
Sometimes it can take days, sometimes weeks for them to get back - so it may require patience and persistence.
Always be polite, respectful, and friendly with the support rep. And if you don't have any luck with one support rep, try again later and speak with another to try to get to the bottom of it.
Another source of support is the support team behind your Simprosys Google Shopping Feed App. They can help to identify a reason for your account suspension.
Also, you can find lots of very useful Youtube content that explains what you can do in your situation. There are also Google support forums where communities have also discussed how to get your Google account unsuspended if you prefer to take in advice through the written word instead of watching videos.
Make the most of everything that is out there! This has been handled and overcome many times before.
In the meantime while your account is under investigation, remember that there are plenty of other tasks you can be completing to continue growing your business. Imagine a world without Google Ads and this will open a new set of possibilities for you. For example you could focus on:
- Your on-site SEO
- Microsoft (Bing) Ads
- Facebook Ads
- Further customise and add to your email marketing flows
If you are getting nowhere with Google support, members in the past have sought to speak to someone directly on the phone and explain your feelings about the suspension review process. Done in a polite and respectful way, this can help show your urgency so that they review your account suspension with more urgency.
You can also consider speaking with a Google Ad agency and pay them to complete an audit of your website so that they can provide you with advice as to why your account may be suspended.
