It’s an email no Google Ads user ever wants to receive: the dreaded “your account has been suspended” alert message.
It’s understandable to, well, freak out a little bit if you have Google Ads account suspended, particularly if the reason for the suspension is a violation you weren’t aware you’d committed. Quite simply, your Google ad campaigns may play a major role in your business’ success. Your own finances may therefore be in jeopardy if your account is suspended.
Fortunately, except in some specific instances, suspension of a Google Ads account isn’t necessarily permanent. There are various ways you can restore your account if it’s been suspended. This guide will explain them, helping you better understand what you can do to get your Google Ads accounts back up and running fast.
Although the primary focus of this guide will be on the steps you can take to remedy the problem if you have a Google Ads account suspended, naturally, your main goal is likely to prevent your account from being suspended in the first place. To minimize the chances that your Google’s Ads accounts will ever be suspended for any reason, carefully review Google’s applicable ad policies and Terms & Conditions. Also, remember that Google routinely updates certain policies, and you may want to regularly check them for any changes that may have been recently made.
Reviewing the relevant policies can also potentially help you determine the root of the issue if your account has been suspended but you’re not entirely certain why. While the email Google sends informing you that your account has been suspended will typically cite the reason, sometimes, it’s still not precisely clear how Google justified suspending your account. The reasons Google’s email may provide when explaining why your account was suspended are based on generic error codes (typically produced by artificial intelligence and machine learning engines) that may not be specific enough for you to thoroughly understand the nature of the issue.
Be aware that it’s possible your account was suspended through no fault of your own. For instance, someone could have hacked your account or site. If after doing so, they engaged in any behavior that violates Google’s ad policies, you may be the one paying the price.
The potential reasons your Google Ads accounts may be suspended are numerous. The following are merely a few noteworthy examples:
Google’s ad policies are designed to protect users. Thus, if you’re running ads that direct users to sites infected with malware or other dangerous software, your account may be suspended to prevent users from clicking on your ads.
Take immediate action if you have reason to believe a hacker added malware or unwanted software to your site. The presence of harmful malware or software won’t merely result in your Google’s Ads account being suspended. It can also threaten your data, any existing content on your site, and more.
Even if you didn’t intend to, you could have accidentally engaged in behavior that qualifies as “counterfeiting” affording to google ads policies, triggering an account’s suspension. For example, if you’re using your Google’s Ads account to market products that are extremely similar to others, you may need to either modify your ads or the products themselves to indicate you’re not violating any trademarks. Sometimes when a user markets products that are virtually indistinguishable from others, Google interprets their products as being counterfeit, when they may not actually be.
Google’s own policies aren’t the only rules you need to keep in mind when running ads! It’s also important to familiarize yourself with the laws of the areas in which you plan to advertise.
Sometimes, the laws regarding what you can and can’t advertise may be surprising. For example, in the UK, it’s illegal to advertise paternity tests. This is an easy law to break if you’re unaware of it. While you may assume you’re not doing anything illegal with your Ads account, the possibility of breaking the law without meaning to is one you should consider. Protect yourself by taking the time to research these issues before planning and launching campaigns.
You’re not always being “punished” when Google suspends your Ads account! There are instances when an account may be suspended in order to protect you in the long run. Specifically, if Google detects an unauthorized user trying to access your account, it may be automatically suspended to prevent a hacker from causing any damage.
The reason your account was suspended will to some degree affect what you need to do about the issue. Google’s policies make a distinction between regular violations and “egregious violations.”
You don’t want your account suspended because a violation was deemed egregious. Generally, while it’s possible to recover an account that was suspended due to a normal violation, if you’re found guilty of an egregious violation, Google usually won’t let you recover your account. Your best bet in these circumstances is to contact Google and (truthfully, of course!) show that the violation you’ve been accused of was the work of a hacker. Even so, you can’t be entirely sure Google’s team will take your side.
In the case of typical violations, though, you can restore your account in the following ways. Keep in mind, this isn’t a problem with a “one-size-fits-all” solution. The proper way to restore an account will depend on the reason it was suspended in the first place.
Your options include:
If the email you receive from Google explaining why your Google Ads account was suspended indicates your site is home to dangerous malware or software, invest in an effective malware-removal tool and clean your site up. If your account remains suspended even after you’re confident you’ve gotten rid of any and all harmful malware or software, you might have to contact Google to explain that you’ve fixed the problem.
Again, even if you didn’t mean to violate Google’s advertising policies or any local advertising laws, you may have done so simply because you weren’t aware of a law or policy. Luckily, after you’ve reviewed Google’s justification for your account suspension, in many instances, restoring your account is as easy as changing your ads or behavior accordingly. For example, if your account was suspended because Google determined one or more of your ads were excessively inflammatory, you can remove or change those ads to better align with Google’s standards.
It can be easy to lose track of your spending from time to time when running marketing campaigns. Depending on the size of your business, you might not even be directly involved in monitoring your spending most of the time.
Google might have suspended your Google Ads account or multiple google ads accounts because you haven’t paid for certain ads or a particular related service yet. Pay what’s due, and Google should restore your account promptly.
That said, you may want to reach out to Google first if you receive an email claiming your account has been suspended and won’t be reactivated until you pay a fee if you confidently feel you’ve remained up-to-date on all payment method. At the very least, check to confirm your account actually is suspended before taking any action. A scammer could have sent you a phishing email pretending to represent Google in order to rip you off.
Google may occasionally flag your account if it suspects that your credit card is being used fraudulently. Additionally, they view it suspicious when the same billing information is used for numerous accounts.
If Google suspended your Google Ads account because an unauthorized user tried to access it, you can fill out and submit a form to secure your account.
Depending on which country you’re in, you have to be a certain age to have a Google Ads account. Google may suspend your account if it’s discovered you don’t meet the age requirement. However, it’s sometimes possible to get around these requirements by creating a Google account with Family Link. This allows parents to exercise more control over which Google services and products their children can and can’t access.
Mistakes can and do happen. This is as true on Google’s end as it is on yours. Perhaps your account was suspended over a misunderstanding or a misinterpretation. Not every supposed violation of Google’s policies is actually a genuine violation.
If you have a suspended account & think your account was suspended improperly, Google offers a form you can submit to appeal the suspension. However, if you do choose to appeal your account suspension, be extremely careful when filling out the firm, and double-check all information before submitting it. If the submitted form contains any false information, the assumption will typically be that you knowingly attempted to deceive Google. The result? Permanent suspension of your Google Ads account.
It’s also worth noting that sometimes a valid and reasonable appeal will be rejected. Submitting the form to appeal your account’s suspension doesn’t immediately guarantee your account will be restored. If your appeal is rejected, but you genuinely don’t think it should have been, you can contact the Google Ads Team directly. Explaining the circumstances with an actual member of the team instead of hoping the person who reviews your appeal sees your side of the story can give you the chance to more clearly explain the situation.
Once more, though, be completely honest in any discussions you may have! Being caught in even a seemingly minor lie can make Google’s team unwilling to consider any of your other points or arguments.
Along with familiarizing yourself with all the relevant policies and laws regarding how you can (and can’t!) use your Google Ads account, you can also avoid account suspension in such ways as:
This may seem like a no-brainer, but if you’ve been running ads via a Google Ads account for a decent period of time, you might get complacent, no longer making a point of carefully reviewing your ads before submitting them for publication.
Don’t fall into this habit. Whether you create your own ads, or employees create them for you, before submitting an ad for publication, always carefully review it with the specific intention of looking for any issues that would qualify as violations of Google’s policies. If you even suspect an ad might cause problems, either modify it before submitting it, or check Google’s policies again to confirm whether you have reason to be hesitant.
You’re not the only person who may feel Google’s advertising policies are sometimes unclear. On Quora, Reddit, and many other platforms, there are numerous communities of users who ask and answer questions about Google’s ad policies and similar topics. If you’re at all confused about an issue, head to one of these communities and ask others for insights.
However, not every single member of such communities will necessarily be an expert, even if they claim to know what they’re talking about. Use your judgment when determining whether you feel you can trust any given member to provide you with accurate information. Obviously, you can also contact Google to ask a question, although you may have to wait a little bit longer to get an answer than you would on a forum or community page.
Installing a security plugin to protect your site from malware is never a bad idea. Additionally, create the strongest password possible for both your site and your Google Ads account, and periodically change your passwords to avoid unauthorized access.
Of course, hopefully you’ll never have to use any of the information here because your Google Ads account will never be suspended. Just remember that if it ever is, unless you’ve committed a major violation, restoring your account likely won’t be too complicated.
That said, it’s also very wise to learn from this experience! If you have a suspended account of Google Ads, make sure you thoroughly understand why, so you can avoid these types of problems in the future.
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This report compares the month over month performance across the date ranges of December 1st - 31st 2025 and January 1st - 31st 2026.
For the month of January, we found the results to be quite impressive and optimistic, with the highlighted results below:
Overall, the results for Nutrition/Health Product Company in January were positive across the board, with each campaign garnering more conversions, lower cost per conversion, and significantly increased month over month ROAS.
Management of this account is going better than anticipated, and we will continue to find opportunities to garner more conversions and drive ROAS up as much as possible through bid modifications and the addition of new, contextually relevant keywords.
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January’s performance demonstrates a meaningful shift from learning to efficient acquisition:
This indicates that every £1 spent returned £7.90 in revenue; 6.5x more than December’s 122% ROAS.
MoM Campaign Comparison
January - Nutrition/Health Product Company - 29.33 conversions, £6.76 CPA, 14.04% conversion rate (1389% ROAS)
December - Nutrition/Health Product Company - 8.28 conversions, £42.84 CPA, 3.30% conversion rate (129% ROAS)
MoM increase of 1260% ROAS
January - REMARKETING - 6.27 conversions, £9.41 CPA, 8.33% conversion rate (627% ROAS)
December - REMARKETING - 3 conversions, £55.88 CPA, 0.44% conversion rate (168% ROAS)
MoM increase of 459% ROAS
January - PMAX - 15.10 conversions, £10.56 CPA, 5.74% conversion rate (422% ROAS)
December - PMAX - 5.22 conversions, £63.11 CPA, 1.29% conversion rate (negative ROAS)
MoM increase of 422%+ ROAS
January - Local Doctor Campaign - 4 conversions, £16.55 CPA, 5.71% conversion rate (264% ROAS)
December - Local Doctor Campaign - 3 conversions, £30.58 CPA, 3.26% conversion rate (160% ROAS)
MoM increase of 104%+ ROAS
This campaign benefits from high intent brand-adjacent queries combined with carefully controlled generic terms, making it one of the most reliable drivers of low-cost, and more volume of conversions. Continued prioritization here will compound returns.
Day-of-Week Performance
Certain regions are showing higher purchase intent, such as the UK and Greater London this month. Geographic bid multipliers can be further refined to capitalize on these micro-markets, all the way down to the zip code, and we’re in the process of doing this.
Keyword Performance
Top keywords show clear brand and authority alignment:
These terms demonstrate exceptional intent density and should remain protected with:
Expansion into close-variant and long-tail branded queries
January’s performance reflects extremely strong numbers month over month and we are more than thrilled with the performance, with main highlights being:
With continued optimization and controlled scaling, we expect further efficiency gains and revenue growth in the coming months, and will be modifying based on the increase in CPCs.
Cybersecurity is arguably one of the toughest industries to compete in when it comes to paid advertising. You’re basically selling to tech-savvy, skeptical buyers like CISOs, IT directors, compliance officers, and security teams. Most cybersecurity companies tend to expect hard proof of all claims and you can’t capture their attention easily. Generic ads and broad PPC marketing tactics won’t cut it in this competitive landscape. Because of this, high CPCs across major search engines, vendor saturation, and long evaluation cycles mean that poorly targeted cybersecurity PPC campaigns can be a huge waste of advertising spend.
To win in this arena, firms need advanced PPC for cybersecurity strategies like targeted intent segmentation, tightly aligned messaging, intelligent audience modeling, AI-powered optimization and bid strategies, technically accurate ad copy, and conversion paths designed for enterprise-level buyers. In this article, we’ll dive into the advanced cybersecurity PPC techniques modern cybersecurity firms must use to generate high-quality leads, reduce wasted ad spend, and stand out in a highly crowded search space.
Cybersecurity search queries represent a wide range of intent that spans from broad research to urgent remediation needs. You don’t want to treat all search terms the same or you’ll waste most of your ad spend. Here’s what you should do:
1. Segment keywords by intent
Start by dividing your PPC ads into cybersecurity PPC campaigns based on the following general categories of user intent:
· Educational. These searches might include terms like, “What is endpoint security?” and “Types of cyber threats.” They support content marketing, awareness-stage paid campaigns, and early-funnel marketing efforts.
· Research. These are phrases like “Buy SIEM software” and “24/7 SOC as a service price.” These keywords align with cybersecurity marketing services, gated assets, and evaluation-stage marketing strategies.
· High urgency. Urgent searches are phrases like, “Ransomware removal help now” and “Breach response service.” These searches demand immediate cybersecurity solutions and direct-response PPC advertising with strong CTAs.
This segmentation ensures you match your ad copy, ad relevance, landing pages, click through rates, and offers to exactly where the buyer is in their journey. This improves the relevance of your ads, reduces wasted ad spend, and increases conversions and overall campaign performance.
2. Prioritize longtail and high-intent keywords
Using long tail keywords and targeted keywords attracts higher-quality website traffic. These terms usually reduce marketing costs, improve conversion rates, and drive more efficient paid advertising.
3. Use negative keywords to filter out irrelevant traffic
Since a wide range of people search for cybersecurity terms, including students, hobbyists, and researchers, every marketing agency should use a negative keyword list to filter out irrelevant searches will protect advertising spend. For example, filter out queries using the terms “free course,” “tutorial,” and “certification exam.” Anyone searching for these phrases is unlikely to be looking for a cybersecurity product or service. This ensures your PPC campaigns reach potential customers, not job seekers or students.
The best compelling ad copy will fall flat if they don’t reach the target audience who make purchase decisions. If you cast your net too wide, you’ll miss those people. Many people searching for keywords related to cybersecurity are just curious or looking for free solutions. AI-driven ad targeting allows cybersecurity marketers to refine their highly targeted audiences and focus on the people who are most likely to convert.
To identify the right targets, you can use AI and upload campaign data from your CRM, like MQLs, SQLs, demos, and closed deals into Google Ads and Google Analytics so the model can learn what a “good lead” looks like. This will help you build a lookalike audience that represent your best customers – the people most likely to buy your cybersecurity offers.
Cybersecurity buyers are usually high-level roles in regulated industries. To reach them you can use filters for specific industries like healthcare, finance, enterprise tech, etc. and also filter for company size, geography, and job titles (like CISO, IT director, compliance, etc.). This is the best way to minimize wasted clicks and build targeted campaigns that improve campaign effectiveness and drive better data driven decisions.
Cybersecurity buyers expect total clarity, accuracy, and trust. They don’t respond to vague or sensationalized copy. To get their attention, use specific terms thar resonate in the cybersecurity world. Terms like: SEIM, MDR/XRD, SOC as a service, IAM/PAM, 247 monitoring, zero trust, end-to-end encryption, and compliance-ready. These phrases signal credibility.
Keep in mind that regulated industries are highly concerned with compliance, so highlight frameworks like HIPAA, PCI-DSS, SOC 2, and ISO 27001 when relevant. These small signals can be powerful triggers. Including compliance language boosts ad quality, improves search engine rankings, and increases ad visibility across search results.
The best cybersecurity ads will create urgency and offer a benefit-led call to action. Ads like “Protect your business from ransomware now – schedule a free security assessment” and “Ensure 24/7 threat detection for your enterprise” work better than vague promises. By speaking the language of your buyers and addressing their real fears and needs, your ads will appear more credible. This approach consistently produces successful PPC campaigns and supports scalable cybersecurity PPC advertising.
Great ads will get clicks, but your landing pages decide whether someone converts. For cybersecurity brands, generic “contact us” landing pages (and homepages) won’t cut it. Successful PPC campaigns rely on intent-matched landing pages to convert potential clients. You need threat-specific, offer-focused landing pages where the copy matches exactly what’s in the ad. For instance, if the ad is for ransomware protection that’s what the landing page needs to promote. Whether it’s a cloud security audit, SOC as a service, or a compliance assessment, make sure your ads and landing pages match. This improves seamless user experience, increases conversion rates, and supports long-term business growth.
Use case studies, certifications, compliance credentials, client logos if they allow for that, audit results, and security whitepapers to build trust with your audience. These elements can help buyers overcome their initial skepticism and compliance concerns.
Using a value-first approach is a great way to get more relevant clicks through cybersecurity lead generation and filters buyers actively seeking solutions. All you need to do is offer value people can access immediately. For example, free vulnerability assessments, security posture quizzes, and compliance readiness evaluations are all valuable on the spot. They also filter high-intent leads that are more likely to book a demo or discovery call with you. This strategy improves campaign performance, increases lead generation, and helps convert leads into pipeline opportunities.
Cybersecurity sales don’t usually happen on the first click. They often involve multiple stakeholders, extended review processes, compliance checks, and internal approvals. It won’t work to use one-click, last-click attribution.
· Use data-driven, multi-touch attribution models. These models credit all meaningful touchpoints (not just the final click) to give you a clear picture of how your PPC ads are contributing to real conversions over time. It helps justify ad spend and reveals which ads, keywords, and campaigns are influencing your decisions.
· Sync PPC leads with CRM and offline conversion data. Track your leads through all stages (MQL, SQL, Demo, Proposal) and feed this data back to your PPC platforms to train the algorithm on what quality conversions actually look like for you. This is how you’ll improve your targeting and bid optimization.
· Combine retargeting and content marketing. Buyers often visit a site multiple times before deciding to buy. Use remarketing gated content (like whitepapers and threat reports, webinars, and email sequences to nurture leads and lead them toward a purchase.
For B2B cybersecurity firms, a multi-touch, multi-step conversion funnel is the most realistic way to measure PPC ad success. Multi-touch attribution allows teams to track key performance indicators, analyze campaign data, and uncover valuable insights.
Using data insights, actionable insights, and data driven insights helps teams refine PPC strategy and justify marketing costs.
Cybersecurity keywords can be pretty expensive. Without intelligent bidding, you’ll overspend and underserve. AI-driven bid strategies, including a smart bidding strategy, optimize bids across search engines in real time. This reduces marketing costs, improves efficiency, and drives sustainable revenue growth.
Automated bidding strategies like Target CPA, Target ROAS, and Max Conversions are ideal when trained with clean, qualified conversion data. These strategies will adjust your bids based on the time, device, location, user behavior, and competitive factors – all elements humans can’t easily track at scale.
While it’s nice to get leads who visit your site and even fill out your form, keep your priority on conversion quality, not just volume. Don’t just optimize for clicks or form fills. Feed your bidding models real conversion events like qualified leads, demos booked, and deals closed. Empty form submissions aren’t helpful – your goal should be to build a real pipeline.
Most importantly, test and refine your ads continuously by split testing your ad copy and landing pages to see what works best. In cybersecurity PPC, even small tweaks can yield big results because you’re targeting a narrow, high-intent audience. With a well-trained AI bidding system, your campaigns will do well even in a competitive market.
Since cybersecurity buyers don’t convert on hype, value is essential. Long-form assets like whitepapers, threat reports, case studies, and compliance guides strengthen content marketing, improve online visibility, and support paid advertising across social media platforms, LinkedIn Ads, Twitter Ads, and Bing Ads.
Use your PPC ads to drive traffic to content offers like “2025 Ransomware Trend Report,” “Enterprise Security Readiness Checklist,” or “Cloud Compliance Guide.” These types of content will draw in decision makers who are researching solutions.
Make sure you gate the content you provide to people who click on your ads. Use progressive profiling forms that adapt to the user’s role or company size (if possible) to capture qualified leads. Then feed those leads directly into your lead nurturing workflows and retargeting sequences.
After a lead has downloaded your information or has made the first engagement, retarget them with ads offering free audits, demos, case studies, or consultations. This approach increases immediate visibility while building trust in the cybersecurity space and is highly effective for the long B2B sales cycles that exist in cybersecurity.
Since cybersecurity buyers usually need time to make a purchase, retargeting has to be precise. General remarketing will just burn through your ad budget and will be ignored by serious buyers.
To create specific segments for remarketing, start with intent and behavior. For example, if a user visited a ransomware page, don’t show them ads with general security content. Serve them ransomware-specific ads.
For the best results, segment your remarketing audiences based on:
· Pages visited (threat type, service)
· Actions taken (whitepaper downloaded, demo requested, form filled)
· Role/company size (if available)
Then tailor your messaging by funnel stage. Start with the awareness stage and offer more educational content like guides and webinars. For those in the consideration stage, push case studies, vendor comparisons, and ROI calculators. Finally, for those making the decision to buy, offer demo scheduling, free audits, and compliance checklists.
Be sure to always exclude low-intent and irrelevant audiences. There will always be researchers, students, job seekers, and random curious tire kickers searching for cybersecurity keywords. As discussed earlier, use negative keywords and exclusion lists to avoid wasting your ad spend.
Segmented remarketing improves ad relevance, strengthens marketing messages, and boosts click through rates. This approach supports successful campaigns while reducing wasted advertising spend.
Since many cybersecurity buyers are evaluating multiple vendors at the same time, competitor conquest campaigns can be highly effective if done correctly.
The right way to do this is to target your competitors’ weaknesses while maintaining compliant messaging. Avoid naming your competitors directly to stay within ad policies but highlight how your offering solves common complaints about your competitors. For instance, you might note that you have “Faster setup,” “Better support,” “Flexible pricing,” or “Stronger compliance reporting.”
Build out landing pages that compare your features to your competitors’ features without naming names. Show real differentiators like detection speed, compliance, and support, and highlight testimonials or case studies from clients who “switched from Vendor A.”
Never expect single clicks to convert. Treat competitor conquest campaigns like the first touchpoint in a series. Pair it with remarketing, content nurture, and follow-ups to maximize conversions from buyers who are currently in evaluation mode.
PPC ads can generate plenty of leads for your cybersecurity business, but closing deals will require a strong sales strategy. That’s why aligning your PPC campaigns with your sales workflows can help.
Sync your ad data with your CRM for full visibility. Capture data on keywords, ad groups, landing pages, and funnel stages for every lead. This will help your sales team know exactly what triggered their interest so they can tailor their follow-up conversations accordingly.
Provide your sales teams with assets to help your messaging stay consistent. For example, give them your case studies, compliance docs, whitepapers, audit reports, and technical comparisons. Doing so will help them maintain credibility when engaging with potential clients.
When PPC efforts align with sales workflows, marketing teams help cybersecurity businesses close deals faster. This improves campaign effectiveness, reduces friction, and lowers customer acquisition cost.
The cybersecurity industry is a battlefield. A basic PPC campaign won’t work when you’re competing for attention in the cybersecurity industry. The firms that invest in cybersecurity marketing, cybersecurity PPC, and data-backed marketing strategies know that precision and trust win conversions across digital channels. To win leads, you need to reach targeted audiences with intent-driven keywords and technically correct messaging, and it all needs to align with your sales process.
If your competitors are using these strategies and you’re not, you’re invisible. This is the time to sharpen your strategy and strengthen your funnel by implementing a stronger PPC strategy.
If you want to generate qualified enterprise leads, reduce wasted ad spend, and build a scalable, data-driven PPC engine that speaks directly to cybersecurity decision makers – an experienced cybersecurity marketing agency like us can help.
At PPC.co, we specialize in building paid ad strategies that convert clicks into real clients. Contact us today and we’ll position your firm as the credible, trusted authority cybersecurity buyers want.
