Google Ad Account Paused - Advertiser Verification failed

[JeffClevelandTN]

We manage several dozen Ad Accounts, but have not encountered this issue before. Recently we took on a new client, along with their Ads Account. After about a week, we received an email from Google that the client's account was going to be suspended in 7 days because they had failed to complete the Business Operations Verification. Unfortunately the previous agency (actually just a single person operation) opted to ignore the Google verification request, which resulted in our agency having only a week to respond.

We've done this a number of times before without any issues. However, this verification process was different than others. It had over 30 questions and requested significantly more information. After submitting the required information, the verification failed and we received another 7 day warning. The only information provided was: "Info is inconsistent or doesn’t match your Google Ads account."

Went thru the process again, providing even more information, and a few days later we received another email stating verification failed, due to the same reason, and had 7 days to respond. We contacted our Google Ads rep and other resources to no avail. Our Google Rep said the verification team was a whole separate team and she didn't have a way to contact them. There is little to no information in the failed email verifications: no way to speak to someone or email them, only unhelpful support page links. We tried one more time, providing verbose explanations where possible and high quality scans or original PDFs of documents requested. Regrettably, today we received notification that the Ad Account was paused for failure to complete the program within the stipulated 30 day period.

We are uncertain, but we believe the primary reason may be due to a mismatch on the business name. The client is operating under a legal alternate name (DBA), registered with their Secretary of State. Their website, including all of their signage, contracts, invoices, etc, match the DBA being used on the Google Ad Account. Obviously, we furnished copies of legal documents, contracts and invoices during the verification process that show the association of the two business names. The last attempt, we also used an email address with the same domain as the website. Lastly, this is not a sketchy business: it is an upscale Event and Wedding venue which has been in operation for a number of years.

We have opened a Google Support ticket after the notice of the account being paused but I'm not too optimistic.

Any suggestions? Should we just create a new Ads Account? Our client really can't afford to wait 7 to 10 days for a response, they are in a highly competitive market and the last company to manage their Ad Account failed to deliver adequate leads and they are behind in bookings this year.

Thanks!

 

[Chris Barnard]

Hi Jeff,

Super frustrating for you both, I'm sure. I definitely would not create another Ads account, it'll likely just get suspended. In my experience, the support ticket is the way to go, you have a case ID to reference. As long as they're getting what's being asked for - not more, but exactly what they're requiring - then it should get verified.

This sounds more like a business/advertiser organization issue. Also, make sure the payee info and payment settings jibe.

 

[JeffClevelandTN]

This sounds more like a business/advertiser organization issue. Also, make sure the payee info and payment settings jibe.

Hey Chris, I think you are probably right about the payee info. It was incorrectly setup as an individual versus an organization by the last vendor. If we make any progress with Google, I'll post an update. Thanks!

 

[JeffClevelandTN]

Just an update to our client's Google Ads account being paused. We went ahead and decided to create a new Ads Account using our Google MCC. For those of you that aren't familiar with an MCC, it is short for "My Client Center", which in other words is a Google Ads "manager account", a special Google Ads account type for advertisers and agencies. We were optimistic, if the new account was also paused for failing verification, we'd have more options.

Within one day of creating the new account, it was also paused/suspended with an email notification along the lines of "paused for attempting to circumvent policy". However, long story short, there was a very different and much more simplified method for requesting an appeal. We were able to upload a single PDF with all our documentation along with a detailed narrative. In less than 24 hours we received a pleasant and somewhat apologetic email, here is a snippet:

Our team has reviewed your account based on your detailed appeal and we’re happy to let you know that it has been reactivated. You can now use it to advertise again. Thank you for waiting while we reviewed your appeal and we're sorry if this caused you any disruption.

So, I'm not necessarily recommending this approach, but it did work for us and was a lot more timely as we are still waiting to hear back from Google regarding the original Ad account that failed business verification created by the client's former agency.

 

[Tony Wang]

Just curious, wasn't their original account added to your MCC so that you could manage it in the first place?

 

[JeffClevelandTN]

Hey Tony, yes it was, however Google's business verification was requested prior to the account being added to our MCC. The verification process, forced us to answer the questions as the client/owner. As mentioned earlier it was a much lengthier questionnaire than we've previously encountered. Additionally, due to the limited time constraint (7 days), we didn't feel we had enough time to change the payer info to be more accurate, from individual to organization to aid in the verification. Also, we didn't know if it would further complicate matters or make it look suspicious to do so.