Google Adsense

I have been a Google Adsense publisher for 2 years and this is the first time that I received an email for violating their Terms of Service (TOS). It’s because I put Google ads on a website that had a “Google Brand” in the content and the URL - the brand is Youtube in my case.

I didn’t know that there was such a policy and if I had, I’d have probably overlook the fact that Google acquired Youtube last year. As a result of the TOS violation, Google had stopped serving ads on that website. Still, I’m thankful that Google didn’t ban my publisher account - perhaps because I’d been serving millions of impressions on quality content sites and had never violated their TOS before.

Anyway, this is how their email looked like:

Hello,

While reviewing your account, we noticed that you are currently displaying Google ads in a manner that is not compliant with our policies. For instance, we found violations of AdSense policies on pages such as xxxxyoutube.com.

Publishers are not permitted to make prominent use of “Google Brand Features” on sites showing Google ads. Google Brand Features include Google logos, product screenshots, or other distinctive features  Additionally, publishers may not place Google ads on sites incorporating Google trademarks in the site URL or on sites that frame Google pages, including search results pages.

As a result, we have disabled ad serving to the site.

Your AdSense account remains active. However, we strongly suggest that you take the time to review our program policies (https://www.google.com/adsense/policies) to ensure that all of your remaining pages are in compliance.

Please note that we may disable your account if further violations are found in the future.

Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team