Policy & compliance
Policy violation
A policy violation is any breach of the rules set by a search feed or traffic source, from a misleading creative to non-compliant traffic or a wrongly declared parameter.
Violations in search arbitrage fall into a few families: deceptive creatives (misleading ad, implied functionality), bad landers (thin content, too many ads, deceptive placement of the related-search unit), bad traffic (invalid traffic, unapproved sources) and bad data (an inaccurate referrerAdCreative or manipulated terms parameter).
Consequences escalate. A first problem may bring a warning or a rejected site. Repeated ones bring reduced coverage, a feed cap, withheld revenue or a clawback, and finally feed suspension. Google's page on Restricted Access Features describes a strike system for AFS: any ten policy violations, or a single egregious one, count as a strike, and strikes stay on record for a year after the most recent one. Examples it gives include non-compliant traffic sources, showing more ads than organic results, deceptive placement of units and inaccurate referrerAdCreative values.
Because most arbitrageurs work through a feed provider, one partner's violations can endanger the provider's whole account. That is why providers police their partners closely and act fast.
Think of it like this
It works like points on a driving licence: small offences add up, and one dangerous offence can take the licence away in a single go.
Related terms
Feed suspension (account termination)
A feed suspension is when the search feed owner or feed provider stops serving ads to a publisher, pausing or permanently ending its ability to earn from that feed.
AFS program policies
AFS program policies are Google's rules for anyone showing its search ads on their own site, covering where queries come from, how ads are placed and what traffic is acceptable.
RSOC policies
RSOC policies are Google's rules for the related-search unit on content pages: real standalone content, honest search terms, honest upstream ads and a fully declared ad creative.
Clawback (revenue deduction)
A clawback is revenue a feed removes from a publisher's earnings after the fact, usually because clicks were judged invalid and the advertiser was refunded.
Feed cap (traffic cap)
A feed cap is a limit on how much traffic, how many requests or how much revenue a publisher may run through a search feed in a set period.
Compliance
Compliance in search arbitrage means running ads, landing pages and traffic in a way that satisfies the feed's rules, the traffic source's rules and the law, all at once.
Sources: Google AdSense Help: Policy violations in scope for Restricted Access Features (RAFs), Google AdSense Help: Related search for your content pages, Google AdSense Help: AdSense for Search (AFS) policies