fraudulent clicks

[kellyandsummer]

We've advertised with adwords for about a year now. We spend thousands every month, but today one of our new ads is showing over 700 more clicks than our log file shows for one of our new sites. We've never had this problem before - the numbers have always pretty much matched up for all of our sites. Has anyone had experience with fraudulent clicks in adwords before?

I just sent an email to support at adwords. I know we were upgraded sometime ago and they give us phone support now, but I can't find the number b/c we've never had a problem before.

[philipp]

Could it be the ad is related to some "hot topic of the day"? I would think Google AdWords keeps track of IPs and finds out misuse. Why don't you just check out wether or not the site you are advertising for gets much more unique users (IPs)? You might even want to take the keyword with the many clicks outside to a new ad-group which then links to a special page, so you can more easily track the traffic.

[kellyandsummer]

We have two separate tracking programs that have always been dead on for our other 7 sites. This new ad is getting tons of clicks according to Google, but not according to our log files from the same tracking programs that have always been dead on for our other sites.

For being a premium advertiser who has never complained before, we thought we'd get a little courtesy here, but Google says very bluntly that it must be our fault somehow. I'm very disappointed with their response, and am considering pulling the plug on adwords altogether in favor of Overture.

[jeremy goodrich]

In my dealings with Google on Adwords, they have always credited the account for 'fraudelent clicks' or even 'over delivery credits' - if there is a disagreement, perhaps you could send them a copy of your log file which shows the activity on your site?

Seems very strange, imho, that suddenly your site would get such a large spike in traffic that didn't convert.

[kellyandsummer]

I agree - I told them I would be happy to send them my log file, but they did not want it. Is there another person I can contact directly instead of using the standard adwords support email?

[Robert Scott]

I have experienced a similar problem with huge spikes that mainly (but not always) occur on low volume keywords.

When it happens I report it to Google who have always been very helpful. They always ask for the date, campaign and ad group numbers and details, and promise to investigate it.

[harrydom]

Since Friday, I've seen a major shortfall between the clicks reported by Google and what's reported on my log files.

I've experienced problems with the logging before, and assumed that is the problem. However, Webcom (Verio), my host, says that they've heard no other reports of logging problems.