Matthieu, it is unfortunate. We have (had) a deep integration into our systems where we queried the MySql database directly to generate custom reports/insights and automated analytics reporting via email. We have custom dashboards built into our software and everything.
We also received a slew of calls today from clients that were running their own ads with the same issues. We had the analytics deployed to about 200 websites. Luckily, the way our systems are developed, we were able to remove it in just a few minutes with a global update. If Google decides to allow it, we can restore it with a global update as well.
We had about 60 Google Ads accounts that have been disabled that we were managing (not counting the customers managing their own).
We have not yet had our Google Ads accounts re-activated. I will update this forum once I have more information. Waiting to hear back from their support on both the re-activations and whitelisting the piwik.js file.
We have the same problem here, Google block our ads, they say that Matomo.js and Matomo.php were malware!
What can I do now?
That’s what they write us:
Leider wird in meinem Tool noch immer angezeigt, dass die Webseite https://www.werbago.com/ noch immer mit folgenden Links infiziert ist und die Anzeigen somit nicht freigegeben werden können.
matomo.js
matomo.php
Leider können die Anzeigen nicht manuell freigegeben werden, da sie sonst bei der nächsten automatischen Überprüfung direkt wieder abgelehnt werden. Aus diesem Grund muss sichergestellt werden, dass die Webseite bereinigt ist, bevor die Anzeigen wieder freigegeben werden können.
Wenn Sie die Webseite erfolgreich bereinigt haben, stellen Sie bitte sicher, dass Sie noch einmal ein paar kleine Änderungen an den Anzeigentexten vornehmen müssen, damit die Anzeigen automatisch noch einmal überprüft und gegebenenfalls freigegeben werden können.
Sollten Sie noch weitere Fragen haben, freuen wir uns von Ihnen zu hören.
Just to give everyone an update. Our 60 Google Ads accounts were re-instated today. However, they will not allow us to continue using Matomo/Piwik. We had to remove it from all websites, then wait for their support team to do a manual review because their scanners kept saying it was still on the websites. Our ads were shut down for 17 days. Lots of upset customers, but at least we are back up and running.
This is very unfortunate and I feel terrible for the team at Matomo. It appears that anyone using Google Ads will not be able to use Matomo and run Google Ads at the same time.
@matthieu & @Lukas I’d like to thank the entire Matomo team for the nearly 10 years we were able to use the software. Best of luck to you guys.
Google Ads wrongly detects our analytics software as malware causing us to lose many customers.
There is not enough space in this field, please our statement here: https://matomo.org/faq/troubleshooting/antivirus-program-or-malware-checker-or-google-ads-claim-that-matomo-js-or-piwik-js-are-malware-what-can-i-do/#statement
Context: dozens of users/customers of our product have contacted us over the last 2 weeks and reported that Google Ads was forcing them to remove our product from their website, because Google Ads claims that the “piwik.js” (or “matomo.js” file) is malware. This is wrong and causes us to lose many customers. this js file is the official JavaScript tracking client for Matomo Analytics. This file has been deployed on the internet on 1 million websites without any problem, and it does not contain any malware!
See forum reports at Adwords campaign rejected. For Google Matomo javascript is a Malware - #22 by SH-WB
Thank you for your quick action.
We hope they will reply within a few days. If not, we’ll need to take further actions. Let us know if you are also able to contact your Google Ads support team and ask them to escalate this issue to the Google Ads product team.
Thanks Matthieu, same problem here with our local government customers (> 400 tracked websites) unfortunately. Never get a real answer on what’s wrong with the code. Only answers that they are so sorry for us and the only solution is to remove tracking code. Unbelievable and frustrating. Hope you can make more impact at support of Googl!
We have now taken the tracking code out of all website that we use! After many emails with google support they just claim that the Matomo code was Malware!
So take Action dear Matomo Team when it’s not too late. You can’t wait weeks for Google answer.
We are currently in contact with Google Ads by email, and hope they will keep replying and take action soon! I also encourage you all to contact your Google Ads support specialist, and let them know about the issue for example in these words:
Hello, I am reporting an issue affecting us, with our account: the Matomo product we use is 100% safe and not malware! We would really appreciate you to escalate to the Google Ads product team/engineers so that Matomo Analytics is again marked as safe product, as it has been for the last 10 years. We are losing our valuable web analytics data due to this issue. Learn more about Matomo: https://matomo.org/about/. They are 100% legit and safe project with a lot of trust established. Please get back to us as soon as possible.
This is just a suggestion but it would help if you wrote this to your support, gives us more chances to be heard! Thanks all.
Again (4th time) a response without any answers from Google (in Dutch), this time from Jeanine instead of Bram. They say that they won’t dive into technical background of problem because that’s not their expertise! But they just keep claiming that they are right and that it’s for our security and usability, therefore they block Matomo. Can you believe it…any progress on your side?
To bring the case to Google I will need to send them screenshots and any evidence. Would you please be able to send me screenshots showing messages and screens for Google detecting as malware?
Any evidence you have will be very useful. Could you help and send this to me at hello@matomo.org and let me know here? Thank you for your help and stay well!
@Twan_Meijerink I’m in contact with someone at google (not in google ads team…) who is willing to help. But i need evidence and you can help me. Can you please send me
a screenshot of your initial contact where google ads says Matomo is malware
a screenshot of your conversation with google ads where you try to explain it’s not correct and they made a mistake
your google ads account ID
With this info we can start moving things forward.
Looking forward to hearing from you at hello@matomo.org
Also to you @SH-WB and @TonyR and @remco and @cike76 and @MrTux could you please send the 3 infos above? Thanks for your help
I also claimed this fact to the official Dutch ACM ’ an authority of fair market-trading’, and they where highly interested, even the fact they didn’t hear this complaint before. I recommend everybody to file in an abuse complaint to their local official market watchdog, to add some international heavy weight into this fight.
Sent complaint to google, reply:
Dear —,
my name is Boris and I am responding to your email regarding disapproved ads due to malicious or unwanted software (Google Ads account —).
I did investigate your issue and passed it to the Technical Departament for manual review. Now it could take approximately 3 working days to recieve the outcome, which you will be informed about straight after. I believe we will solve this problem and your ads will be able to run again soon.
In case of any futher questions please do not hesitate to reply this email. We will be happy to help you.
Kind regards,
Boris
All my Adwords were also suddenly rejected this month. After several emails trying to establish with Google what the exact issue was they came back with an answer that the analytics must be “inline to the domain”. Now I have installed Matomo as a sub-domain to each domain I want to track, the Adwords adverts are now approved. Just edit slightly and it goes to the “under review” status.
Very inconvenient to not have all websites under one Matomo install but how can you argue with the Google behemoth!