In 2024, Google blocked over 39 million advertising accounts, which is three times more than in 2023. This was a result of intensified efforts to combat advertising fraud. The company actively utilized artificial intelligence, including large language models (LLM), to detect suspicious activities, such as fake payment information or impersonation of businesses. Most accounts were successfully blocked before any ads were shown, according to TechCrunch.

Google implemented more than 50 LLM-based improvements to enhance security on its platforms. At the same time, they involved over 100 experts from various departments, including Ads Safety, Trust and Safety, and DeepMind, in the verification process. Their focus included combating deepfake advertising that uses images of public figures. This resulted in blocking over 700,000 accounts involved in creating such ads and a 90% decrease in complaints.

The majority of blocked accounts were located in the USA — 39.2 million. The main violations included fraud in the ad network, trademark abuse, false medical claims, personalized advertising, and gambling. In the USA, Google also removed 1.8 billion ads.

The company paid special attention to election advertising — in 2024, it verified over 8,900 new advertisers and removed 10.7 million election ads. Overall, Google blocked 5.1 billion ads, removed 1.3 billion pages, and limited the display of an additional 9.1 billion ads.

Google acknowledges that the large volume of blocks raises questions about the fairness of its decisions, which is why it implemented more transparent communication with advertisers and an appeals mechanism that includes human review. Google believes that the reduction in harmful ads indicates the effectiveness of its new approaches to detecting and blocking violations.