Can I get in trouble for mass clicks

[vanillaice]

Hi everyone, I noticed on my reports today, my index page received an 8% CTR for 80+ clicks on nearly 1k impressions. That sounds normal for some people, but this is clearly junk as the past month i've received no more than 0.4% CTR on that page, plus the 80+ clicks landed me 63 cents, which is actually less than the other normal days I get just 4-6 clicks.

I don't know if a member is clicking an ad for some reason, or whatever the story behind it, but can I get in trouble if someone does that? Will smartpricing start only showing junk ads because of this? Thanks!

[hunderdown]

Sounds like Google already detected a problem and is discounting or discarding the clicks.

If this continues, I suppose it could reduce the EPC of your usual clicks, which is what smart pricing does. Smart pricing does NOT lead to Google serving up junk ads. They serve up the same ads, but you get paid less for clicks on them.

You could email Google and tell them you've noticed it. Offer to take the code off the page for a few days, if you want.

[vanillaice]

Thanks, i'll see if it continues tomorrow or not, or if the CPC is extremely low like today

[21_blue]

Smart pricing does NOT lead to Google serving up junk ads. They serve up the same ads, but you get paid less for clicks on them.

It's not a direct consequence, but imho it could be an indirect consequence. A high smartprice prevents junk ads from getting a look in because their bid is too low. If one's page/site is smartpriced downwards, it could bring the bidding into junk ads' price bracket. That's just mho, though.

[hunderdown]

21_blue, wouldn't smart pricing affect all ads equally? So a $1 bid turns into a 25 cent payout, or whatever, and a 10 cent bid turns into a 2.5 cent payout.

The junk ads would still be relatively lower on the scale, wouldn't they?

[21_blue]

21_blue, wouldn't smart pricing affect all ads equally? So a $1 bid turns into a 25 cent payout, or whatever, and a 10 cent bid turns into a 2.5 cent payout.
The junk ads would still be relatively lower on the scale, wouldn't they?

You may be right, but the way I see it, which I grant has a large element of conjecture, is that junk ad rates aren't lowered if the page or site is smartpriced downwards because the junk ads' CPCs have already been reduced by manipulation of smartpricing. Whilst there can be different reasons for smartpricing downwards (eg: keyword match, conversion rates, perhaps other unknown factors), I suspect Google reduce the price if any one of those factors is present, they don't apply smartprice two or more times.

So, if junk ads have already been smartpriced downwards because of other factors, when the page conversion falls, only the price of normal ads are reduced.

The corollary of this is that if you have pages that perform well (good conversion, indicated by good EPC, and good CTR) and a limited inventory on the page then junk ads will be priced off the page.

But, this is just a theory.