Forum Moderators: martinibuster
One, we see posts about accounts being disabled, but I don’t recall any about getting a preliminary warning email. I’d be interested in knowing how many of us have received an email from Google saying, "It has come to our attention that invalid clicks have been generated on the ads on your web pages." Remember, I’m talking about a warning email, not the final email that your account has been disabled.
We have been in the program since June 2003 and have gotten the warning email once.
Two, if you got a warning email, did you take any proactive steps in an attempt to combat the invalid clicks? A good discussion of steps that can be taken should be of value to others who may get a “warning” email in the future.
In our case, we did the following:
1. Immediately contacted Google to ensure that they understood that we had a high level of concern about the issue and would take measured steps to ensure that we strictly adhered to the TOS. Granted, all we got back was a canned response, but the purposed was to have on file with Google a response from us that expressed our deep concern over the issue and that we were on Google’s side, i.e., (a) we abhor invalid clicks; (b) have taken active steps to ensure that we were not contributing to the problem, (c) that we understand and are following the TOS strictly.
2. Immediately removed Adsense from the site on a voluntary basis for two weeks. The premise in doing so is that if you can break the cycle of bad behavior, you go a long way to solving the problem – at least in the short-term. We notified Google that we were taking this proactive step.
3. Again notified all employees, friends, family, etc., about not clicking on any ad on our site.
4. Reexamined how we displayed ad to ensure that we were not doing anything to encourage invalid clicks (we couldn’t readily see that we were doing any thing wrong).
It has been some time now, and so far we have had no new warning emails from Google.
I'm very curious. Say, someone grab your code and put it in their homepage. Then he tells everyone to click on 'your' ads. How does this go then? It's kinda weird that Adsense didn't just limit the domains to the ones that we specify in the account.
I defintely wouldn't want someone to put my code on another domain, and it seems someone could easily go get a free domain, and start putting Google ads in Popup windows, etc.
Someone ,somewhere in the country goes online and is assigned your old IP number, this user is genuine and clicks on a google ad, then what?
Someone ,somewhere in the country goes online and is assigned your old IP number, this user is genuine and clicks on a google ad, then what?
I'm fairly certain google's system is clever enough to detect this type of activity. I wouldn't give it too much worry.
didn't Google check the cookies as well? While they are at it, I think Google checks the browser, OS... i don't know...
I'm fairly certain google's system is clever enough to detect this type of activity. I wouldn't give it too much worry.
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I really do not agree with this. Where has it been shown or documented that this is actually the case. Google will not share any information with us so we have no way of knowing, but I have reason to belive that this is not the case.
Good comments, but as to the original question that started this thread.... Does the lack of response regarding warning emails mean few of you have ever gotten one?
Much later, I had a day in November with $1,200 or $1,300's worth of excess clicks (compared to normal), and I immediately reported the anomaly to Google. They wrote back to thank me; I think they also said they'd noticed the activity themselves.
Are those $1300 worth of clicks legit? I mean they could be a result of your traffic surge. I mean whether or not Google eventually credit you for those clicks and send you the cheque.
So your experience tells us that we should keep a close look at Adsense reports for any abnormalities. Should there be anything wrong, notify Google immediately.
In your reports, there were tons of clicks and revenue also skyrocketed.
May I ask if the reports have eventually been 'corrected'?
Is google going to be more likly to boot someone who does not advertise than someone who spends 10,000 a month on AdWords?
How ethical is it to have to spend money with adwords not to get booted?
Is there any evidence that AdWords advertisers are treated differently from other publishers when it comes to getting booted for invalid clicks? There might be legitimate business reasons for giving the benefit of the doubt to AdSense publishers (for one thing, they generate more revenue for Google), but that doesn't mean it's happening right now.
How ethical is it not to pay the publisher?
We've seen a lot of posts here by booted AdSense publishers who've assumed they wouldn't be paid, but I don't recall seeing any follow-up posts. I'd guess that's because most terminated publishers are being paid. (If most weren't, we'd be seeing complaints here on a regular basis.)
Google probably uses the threat of withholding payment as a deterrent while reserving its application for the most extreme cases (just as Google Search uses the PR0 penalty and outright bans only in blatant cases of "black hat" SEO).
It is just not good business to treat customers this way.
Google and its advertisers are your customers, not the other way around. And customers don't have to explain why they break off business relationships, although it can be helpful if they do.
In the same way that you are Google's customer. If Google is not keeping you happy - EPCs and revenues are tanking -- then it's bye-bye to Google. Replace Adsense with other revenue sources.
We are in a transaction relationship with Google, and both sides of a transaction relationship can be, and often are, one another's customers simultaneously.
