AT A GLANCE
Account Reinstated
After Unauthorized Access Suspension
Hacked Access Removed
From the Account Structure
Ads Serving Again
Account Active on Google
A local HVAC company had its Google Ads account suspended for unauthorized access, even though nothing on its side had gone wrong.
The company worked with an agency, which is standard practice. The agency’s manager account sat above the HVAC company’s account. Then the change history showed odd changes and access from email addresses the client didn’t recognize.
After digging in with our contacts at Google, we found the cause. A root manager account sat one level above the agency’s manager account, and that root account had been hacked. The hackers’ access passed down through the agency’s manager account to the HVAC company’s account.
Google was right that a hack had happened, and it suspended everything under that manager account. The HVAC company was caught in the middle. StubGroup stepped in to get it back online.
Watch the full breakdown here, or keep reading below.
Challenges
The client had no control over the problem. The hacked root manager account sat above them, they had no access to it, and the breach wasn’t their fault. Their ability to advertise was suspended anyway.
Google also has good reasons to move carefully. It doesn’t want an account advertising again if unauthorized access might still exist, and there is a lot of liability and red tape on its side. Support-level answers often aren’t enough. It usually takes someone going back and forth with Google at a higher level.
Approach
We worked directly with our team at Google and made the case that no unauthorized access remained on this account. The manager account above the client’s account needed to come off, and the client had done nothing wrong.
To back that up, we dug into the change history logs and documented what happened and when each manager account had access to the client’s account. Our contacts at Google advocated for the client internally while we kept the back-and-forth going.
Results
Google agreed to everything we laid out. It reinstated the account and removed the other account access that needed to go. The HVAC company is now active again and serving ads on Google.
The Bottom Line
A suspension doesn’t always mean the advertiser did something wrong. Here, a hack higher up the account structure took down a business that had no way to stop it. Unauthorized access suspensions often need someone who can work with Google above the support level, backed by change history.
If you’re suspended for any reason and need help, reach out to StubGroup and we’ll look at why.
