Google Blocked 5.1 Billion Ads in 2024

 Blocked 5.1 Billion Ads           

Google Uses AI to Suspend 39 Million Suspicious Ad Accounts

Google unveiled an unprecedented campaign to combat ad fraud, announcing the suspension of 39.2 million ad accounts through 2024, a number that is three times the number recorded in the previous year.

The tech giant confirmed that it used advanced AI technologies, primarily large language models (LLMs), to detect suspicious behavior such as impersonation of companies or the use of fake payment information, allowing it to suspend the vast majority of accounts before any malicious ads were broadcast.

In a virtual media meeting, Alex Rodriguez, Google's general manager of ad safety, said that a team of more than 100 experts from various departments at the company, including DeepMind and the Trust and Safety Unit, worked to develop strict measures to combat fraudulent campaigns using techniques such as deepfakes and impersonation of public figures.

Over the past year, Google introduced more than 50 improvements to its intelligent models and over 30 changes to its advertising and publisher policies, resulting in the suspension of more than 700,000 additional accounts and a 90% reduction in fake ad reports. In the US alone, 39.2 million accounts were suspended and 1.8 billion ads removed for violations including trademark abuse, false health claims, and misleading advertising.

In India, the world's second-largest digital market, 2.9 million accounts were suspended and over 247 million ads removed. Google explained that 5 million of the suspended accounts were directly linked to fraudulent activity, bringing the total number of ads removed for suspicious activity to nearly half a billion.

The company also intensified its monitoring of political ads, verifying more than 8,900 election advertisers and removing 10.7 million ads during a year when half the world's population went to the polls. In total, Google blocked 5.1 billion ads in 2024 and removed 1.3 billion pages for policy violations, indicating, according to the company, a significant improvement in its ability to detect threats before they occur.

However, Google acknowledged challenges related to transparency in communicating with affected advertisers and confirmed that it has updated its policies and explainer messages to provide greater clarity on the reasons for suspensions and appeals mechanisms, which include human review to ensure fairness and equity.