Google has revealed that it removed 5.1 billion bad adverts in 2024.
According to a new report about ad safety released by the tech giant, Google suspended 39.2 million advertiser accounts in the US last year, over triple the number recorded in 2023.
Google said that it has deployed a team of around 100 experts to fight scams, including AI-generated public figure impersonation ads. It has also updated its misrepresentation policy to suspend advertisers that promote these scams.
As a result, Google said it was able to permanently suspend more than 700,000 advertiser accounts, leading to a 90 per cent drop in reports of this kind of scam advert in 2024.
The company has also launched over 50 enhancements to its large language models (LLMs), enabling the company to target bad actors more precisely and at scale.
“For years, we’ve deployed our most advanced technologies to safeguard our ads platforms from bad actors,” the company said. “These updates sped up complex investigations, helping us identify bad actors and fraud signals — like illegitimate payment information — during account setup.
“This kept billions of policy-violating ads from ever showing to a consumer, while ensuring legitimate businesses can show ads to customers faster.”
In February the Advertising standards agency (ASA) received 1,691 reports of potential scams last year through its quick reporting system, with celebrity and deepfake scams accounting for the majority.
The advertising watchdog said it had noticed a rise in scam ads featuring celebrities, with public interest in prominent personalities meaning that scammers continue to turn to them to promote services including cryptocurrency, investment and keto slimming gummies.
