The world of online advertising has been growing rapidly, and providing many individuals and businesses with some amazing opportunities for growth and success, both online and off.  While there is no doubt that there is a lot of benefit coming out of the digital marketing industry, there are also quite a few problems that need to be addressed.

Google AdWords has been fighting against these ‘bad apples’ for years, and made some significant progress.  They have just released their most recent, “2014 Year in Review” for Bad Advertising Practices on the Web, which goes over many of the important trends they have seen related to online advertising, and what they have done to combat these problems.

Here are the top areas where Google AdWords has made progress, according to their recent post:

• Counterfeiters – In 2014 Google AdWords has banned 7000 advertisers from promoting counterfeit goods. This is a continuation of a downward trend for this type of problem.  In 2013, they closed down 14,000 accounts, and in 2012 it was 82,000+.  AdWords believes the fact that they have been so effective in quickly shutting the accounts down has helped to discourage fraudsters from attempting to open new accounts.
• Fighting Malware – Using advertisements to attempt to infect people’s computers with malware is a major issue, and one that AdWords takes seriously. In 2014, they reportedly took down 250,000 sites from their network because they were hosting malware, adware, viruses or other malicious types of software.
• Weight Loss Scammers – Dietary supplements and weight loss programs are an incredibly huge industry, so it is no surprise that many of the ‘bad actors’ attempt to get in on this multi-billion dollar per year pie. In the past 18 months, AdWords rejected or removed more than 2.5 million advertisements related to this industry.

To help illustrate just how much they have done to fight against ad fraud and other online advertising issues, they have put together the following infographic.  Take a look and see just how much they have done over the past year, and what they are continuing to do moving forward into 2015.

Of course, this is a fight that will never be fully won.  AdWords, however, is committed to keeping on the offensive against these types of cyber criminals.  The more they can do to take down problem areas, the safer all web users will be.