Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Well my question is, how does google know, if youre wife or friend or brother or cousin or whatever clicked your ads, im asking this NOT to find a way to violate the TOS and make extra money, BUT to avoid being suspended, im asking this question so i can make sure no one in my family clicks my Ads, because some times it can happen, i want to know in wich situations i can get suspended, so for that i just wanted to have an idea of how G can track people.
Thanks
But Adsense makes way too much money for me to be messing around like that and get banned! Plus it's totally morally wrong and basically steeling. I don't even click on the ads when I'm searching in google because I don't want to waste peoples money. I simply type the url into the address bar.
You should never bite the hand that feeds you.
As far as how Google knows if your wife, cousin, etc. are clicking your advertisements… I’m sure the truth lay somewhere in the IP addresses of where those clicks are coming from. Logging into admin panel from the same address of where a click or two registered from will almost certainly get you banned.
Don't tell your freinds or family about adsense - they might want to help you by clicking on the ads. Don't click on the ads yourself either - but I guess you have that one figured out by mow ;)
If Google is going to ban me on the basis of what a third party does, then there really isn't much I can do about it be it a friend, family member, or complete stranger.
Now if I had family/friends sharing my network (i.e. using my IP), then I might say something, but otherwise, I don't.
The real mystery here is, why Google cannot figure out what a clickdump is, and just automatically not pay for it instead of banning someone who may have nothing to do with it is beyond me.
Currently, if someone is in a competitive niche, all someone has to do is clickdump all their competitors and possibly eventually increase their own ECPM.
How does Google do it? Some of the lower-level techniques are probably based on simple IP-address schemes.
But they wouldn't dare reveal how they accomplish all of their monitoring tests.
It's important to keep it in perspective, I've clicked on my own ads a few times over the years simply by mistake. I'm still here and still getting paid.
I have too when trying to copy the domain names on the ads with the mouse to add to the competitor filter. Sometimes it will just click through. Still here.
This seems logical, but where I work we have 20000+ people. All their internet connections funnel through 1 ip address. If I log in to the admin panel while at work and someone else 4000 miles away is surfing clicks on an ad they will show from the same ip address.
While I wouldn't likely have that problem I can see a lot of people getting banned if that's how it worked. Many people's site likely have something to do with their area of expertise, ie, their professional work. That makes it more likely for other people in that profession to look at their site. Another example would be a blog. I don't blog but I would think that if I did some other coworkers would read it regularly. If I entered updates during lunch and a coworker read them and click on an ad I could be banned.
I'm sure google has thought this through and takes these things into account. Like more forms of fraud though, its probably easy to do a little bit and not get caught. The problem is that if you can do a little bit, then you think you can do a little more. Then you escalte the behavior and eventually get caught.
I work for a large company with several thousand employees in one city -- and an internet cafe in the cafeteria. Early on, before I knew the ins and outs, I logged into my account from said cafe.
(Learning curve. I've since learned why this is a baaad idea.)
After due reflection, I banned my work IP from my site. Now I can't check on my forums from work ... but that's not necessarily a bad thing. :)
Leva
What do you think Google rather has, that I click on one of their ads that leads to a sale, or that I go around their ads and buy something?
If your site makes $10 a month and $0.20 of that is due to you yourself clicking, I don't think Google cares. If your site makes $1000 a month, and $20 is due to yourself clicking, I don't think Google cares. They are not going to ban you if 98% of your clicks are legit. That would not be a sensible business model.
I'm sure there's always an untold part of the story when someone says "I've been banned because I accidently clicked on my own ad".
All that said, I could be completely wrong. Maybe Google does suspend and have suspended many accounts because of a few illegitimate clicks. But that's not going to stop me from clicking on my own ads when an interesting one pops up. Because ultimately, I'm actually helping Google when it leads to a sale.
I could be completely wrong.
I think it's more of a continuum than a hard-and-fast rule. The more clicks and the more closely connected to your account they appear to be, the greater your chance of getting kicked out. What people are doing in this thread is explaining how to minimize one's chances of getting booted out for life. If that's not a concern for you, then keep on clicking whenever it's justified in your own mind.
I think it's more of a continuum than a hard-and-fast rule. The more clicks and the more closely connected to your account they appear to be, the greater your chance of getting kicked out
Especially if those clicks trigger a manual review and the site fails the "sniff test."
I've clicked on my ads either by curiousity (when starting), because I was actually interested in the ad and once by mistake. All these clicks generated zero revenue. My point is that you don't automatically get banned for clicking on your ads. I also have a few more clicks that got zero cents. Don't know where those come from, co-workers perhaps.
why Google cannot figure out what a clickdump is, and just automatically not pay for it instead of banning someone
They do know what a click dump is and they just don't pay for the clicks. They also have other situations where they don't pay. But they don't ban the publisher either. When AdSense accounts are closed there is something more they see, something that makes them suspect the owner is responsible for the illegal clicking.
zippy, sorry to say it, but you deserve to get kicked out. If you click 20 dollars worth of clicks, you are stealing 20 dollars because even if you convert, that's still against the TOS.
That's nonsense. If my site makes $1000 per month worth of clicks and $20 of those clicks are because I, my family or my friends clicked on links that genuinely sparked our interest, I am not stealing from anyone. Google gets paid for those clicks, and the customer gets turnover from those clicks. And that's exactly what AdSense is about. That people go through Google's ads to a company's site and spend some money.
I have a site that discusses "knick-knacks" (a special kind of widget). I created that site a long time ago because I love knick-knacks myself. Over the years it has grown to be the largest knick-knack site in the world. My site ranks #3 on Google when people search for "knick-knacks" out of a total of 3,690,000 sites. I have put Adsense ads on my main page just recently. Not to make money but as a test case for a few other popular sites I own. Sometimes Google comes up with an ad for a company that I have never heard of but that offers something very interesting related to knick-knacks. Actually, it's something I want to buy and tell my readers about so they might buy one too. You think I'm going to do a copy & paste of the link? Heck no. I will click it. The company I clicked on is happy because he's seeing turnover from his Google ads (so he knows the ad works). Google is happy because the company is happy. I'm happy because I found a new company that sell knick-knack related stuff.
If Google has a problem with that, then they should simply not pay me for that click. If Google wants to kick me for doing exactly what they hope people will do, then that's their loss.
Google's TOS is in place to prevent fraud. A fraudulent click is one that has no chance whatsoever to generate turnover. If people are clicking their own ads just to make a few extra bucks, then they should be kicked. But I am a visitor of my own site and as such a potential customer. Google kicks publishers because they suspect fraud. Not because they clicked on their own links.
People seem to forget what AdSense is about. It's about eventually making the company behind the ad some money. That's the goal of advertising. If a company doesn't get turnover from his ads, he will stop advertising. If everybody stops advertising, Google will stop AdSense. So all an advertiser and Google is interested in, is generating turnover from those clicks.
Google kicks publishers because they suspect fraud. Not because they clicked on their own links.
[edited by: jomaxx at 1:34 am (utc) on Feb. 8, 2006]
I didn't know it was against the TOS if your friends and family click ads..
Yes, immediate blood relatives as far as 3rd cousin from your father's side, and 4th from mother's side.
The TOS clearly states DO NOT CLICK ON YOUR OWN ADS. I have purchased products from ads on my own site however I use the preview tool or right click and copy and paste the urls.
Quit clicking on your ads Zippy1970 you are breaking the rules--period.
Besides, as a webmaster I think I am entitled to a small handful of clicks to see where the ads that I placed on my website are going. I doubt Google is going to crap their pants about it.
It's not just Google. There are actual webmasters and companies paying for those clicks. They are entitled to show ads without getting curious webmasters clicking.
Google's TOS is in place to prevent fraud. A fraudulent click is one that has no chance whatsoever to generate turnover. If people are clicking their own ads just to make a few extra bucks, then they should be kicked. But I am a visitor of my own site and as such a potential customer. Google kicks publishers because they suspect fraud. Not because they clicked on their own links.
Think about what you wrote for a moment. How exactly is google supposed to know if a webmaster clicked his own ads because he is genuinely interested in the services/products advertised or if they are out to make a few extra bucks.
There is no way for them to know the intent of the clicks.
That's why their TOS explicitly states that clicks on your own ads are prohibited.
That way, they don't have to say "mmm...yep, that feels like a legitimate self click or hey...that's a shady self click". They blanket all clicks on your own publisher ads as fraudulent so there is no need to guess.
If you agreed to those terms, you agreed not to click.
Sure, you might get away with it for a while, but it's very possible that the self clicks could catch up to you in some type of account review down the road.
If I was giving an account a "sniff test", I'm sure I would take past actions into account. They may even filter out those clicks that you make, but the fact that you knowingly continue clicking on the paid ads doesn't seem like a good thing.
It's not just Google. There are actual webmasters and companies paying for those clicks. They are entitled to show ads without getting curious webmasters clicking.
If Google was THAT petty about it, they're gonna lose a lot of customers to the upcoming Amazon and MSN programs. Personally, I give Google more credit than that.
