HomeGoogle clamps down on bad ads, not bad actors
Google announced on Thursday that it blocked a record 8.3 billion ads globally in 2025, up from 5.1 billion the previous year. However, the company suspended far fewer advertiser accounts than that surge might imply, raising questions about how it enforces policies on its platform.
The search giant attributed the gap to its increased use of AI, especially its Gemini models — Google’s family of AI systems — which it says enables earlier and more precise detection and blocking of policy-violating ads. According to Google, its AI-driven tools caught over 99% of such ads last year before they ever reached users.
Both findings come from Google’s 2025 Ads Safety Report and together highlight a broader shift in enforcement. While more problematic ads are being stopped, fewer advertiser accounts are being suspended — signaling a move away from outright bans on bad actors toward blocking individual ads on a case-by-case basis.
Google also noted that the rise in blocked ads reflects the growing use of generative AI by scammers to produce deceptive content at scale. Its Gemini models help identify patterns across large campaigns and block them earlier.
This shift aligns with Google’s broader effort to embed its Gemini models more deeply into core products and infrastructure, including advertising. The company is increasingly relying on AI to automate campaign creation, detect policy violations, and respond to emerging threats in real time.
Image credit:Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch
Among the blocked ads and suspended accounts, 602 million ads and 4 million advertiser accounts were linked to scams, the company said.
In 2025, Google removed over 1.7 billion ads and suspended 3.3 million advertiser accounts in the U.S., with ad network abuse, misrepresentation, and sexual content being the most common violations. In India, Google’s largest market by users, it blocked 483.7 million ads — nearly double the previous year — even as account suspensions dropped to 1.7 million from 2.9 million. Trademarks, financial services, and copyright issues ranked among the top violations there.
During a virtual briefing, Keerat Sharma, Google’s vice president and general manager of ads privacy and safety, told reporters that the company has moved toward more targeted, AI-driven enforcement “at a much more granular level, on a creative level, as opposed to using a much more blunt instrument, like advertiser suspensions.” He added that this approach has reduced incorrect suspensions by 80% year over year.
Sharma also said that Google’s layered defenses, including advertiser verification — a process requiring businesses to confirm their identity before running ads — are designed to prevent bad actors from creating accounts in the first place, which has contributed to the decline in suspensions.
He noted that the numbers are likely to fluctuate over time as Google rolls out new defenses and bad actors adapt, with the company aiming to stop harmful ads as early in the pipeline as possible.
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Google announced on Thursday that it blocked a record 8.3 billion ads globally in 2025, up from 5.1 billion the previous year. However, the company suspended far fewer advertiser accounts than that surge might imply, raising questions about how it enforces policies on its platform.
The search giant attributed the gap to its increased use of AI, especially its Gemini models — Google’s family of AI systems — which it says enables earlier and more precise detection and blocking of policy-violating ads. According to Google, its AI-driven tools caught over 99% of such ads last year before they ever reached users.
Both findings come from Google’s 2025 Ads Safety Report and together highlight a broader shift in enforcement. While more problematic ads are being stopped, fewer advertiser accounts are being suspended — signaling a move away from outright bans on bad actors toward blocking individual ads on a case-by-case basis.
Google also noted that the rise in blocked ads reflects the growing use of generative AI by scammers to produce deceptive content at scale. Its Gemini models help identify patterns across large campaigns and block them earlier.
This shift aligns with Google’s broader effort to embed its Gemini models more deeply into core products and infrastructure, including advertising. The company is increasingly relying on AI to automate campaign creation, detect policy violations, and respond to emerging threats in real time.
Image credit:Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch
Among the blocked ads and suspended accounts, 602 million ads and 4 million advertiser accounts were linked to scams, the company said.
In 2025, Google removed over 1.7 billion ads and suspended 3.3 million advertiser accounts in the U.S., with ad network abuse, misrepresentation, and sexual content being the most common violations. In India, Google’s largest market by users, it blocked 483.7 million ads — nearly double the previous year — even as account suspensions dropped to 1.7 million from 2.9 million. Trademarks, financial services, and copyright issues ranked among the top violations there.
During a virtual briefing, Keerat Sharma, Google’s vice president and general manager of ads privacy and safety, told reporters that the company has moved toward more targeted, AI-driven enforcement “at a much more granular level, on a creative level, as opposed to using a much more blunt instrument, like advertiser suspensions.” He added that this approach has reduced incorrect suspensions by 80% year over year.
Sharma also said that Google’s layered defenses, including advertiser verification — a process requiring businesses to confirm their identity before running ads — are designed to prevent bad actors from creating accounts in the first place, which has contributed to the decline in suspensions.
He noted that the numbers are likely to fluctuate over time as Google rolls out new defenses and bad actors adapt, with the company aiming to stop harmful ads as early in the pipeline as possible.
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