Google's Ad Enforcement Falls Short, Leaving Brands Vulnerable

The Video Advertising Bureau (VAB) has released an analysis of Google's 2025 advertising enforcement data, revealing that Google suspended 38 times more US ad accounts than TV had advertisers. The VAB's report, titled 'Bad Actors: Examining How Much Objectionable Advertising Google Takes Action Against,' found that Google blocked or removed over 8 billion ads and shut down approximately 25 million advertiser accounts in 2025.

The analysis drew on two Google documents released in April 2026: the 2025 Global Ads Safety Report and the 2025 Ads Safety Report for the United States. The VAB's report highlights that scam enforcement leans more heavily on account-level action than the overall enforcement program, with scams accounting for a defined slice of blocked or removed ads.

According to the VAB's analysis, Google's ad systems attract a lot of bad actors, and the group argues that Google does not tell anyone how long the bad ads that slipped through were live, how many people saw them, or where they ran. This matters to brands and publishers because it raises concerns about brand safety.