accidental click on own ads

[miracle]

I accidentally clicked on one of my ads yesterday and immediately reported to Google. Does anyone know how serious they take these accidental clicks? I don't want to get in trouble.

[edd1]

I think most people accidentally click their ads once and I think google are fine with that. As to how seriously they take click fraud - extremely so. They are rightly very sensitive about it.

[miracle]

This is my second time in 8 months :(

[baldlygo]

It also happened to me, twice, during the last year. In both cases I emailed google and told them all details I could (time, what ad etc.)
I think you should do that too, just to be on the safe side.

[miracle]

Yeah, I emailed them both times.

[Buzliteyear]

Miracle,

I did the same thing TWICE in one day a few months ago.

I has just purchased a notebook computer and didn't know that two small taps with your finger is the same as left clicking.

When I did the first one, I quickly emailed G.

I didn't even realize what I did to click on it. Anyway, I went right back to what I was doing and did it again.

My second email to G began with something like this.... "You are not going to believe this, but.....

[david_uk]

I've also clicked accidentally on 2 occasions. Emailed them the details of time and ad, and got a very polite email thanking me, and drawing my attention to the TOS re clicking own ads. They *know* that most webmasters will click once or twice, and if we email let them know then they are OK with this. They will deduct the click.

Webmasters making the odd click by accident are not the same scenario as webmasters who systematically click their own ads, and Google is perfectly capable of spotting both and dealing with both appropriately.

[genzoo]

Personally, I don't think you should report Google about those ACCIDENTAL clicks. That takes more time for Google guys to reply such these emails and they probably know how to filter out your clicks. You should not click on your own ads though.

[Chris_R]

>They *know* that most webmasters will click once or twice

I agree. I knew a guy who worked for a blind click program that said almost all his webmasters clicked on their own stuff to test them.

And of course stuff happens by accident.

I am paranoid - and I think many are about Adsense.

Even though I am 99.9% sure you would not get canceled for this - I would still send in the email. It makes you feel better.

[Sorry In Advance]

This is probably covered elsewhere, so feel free to link, but:

what happens if other people are clicking your ads more than once? (either trying to "help" or trying to get your costs up) Does google have a policy for not registering over a certain number of clicks from the one I.P?

[ann]

I believe that policy is called suspension. LOL

[Sorry In Advance]

suspension of the IP address doing the clicking, I take it, not the ad?!

[SEOtop10]

Google understands that a few "self-clicks" may happen by mistake, once in a while. Hopefully they can filter it out and IMHO, there is no need to immediately write to Google explaining everything.

It may be a different story if you made this mistake too many times, too frequently :(

[panos]

Usually they don't ban for accidental clicks like yours, "miracle".

[jol2cool]

how do google find out that it the webmaster that is clicking the ads (if you don;t tell them your self)

[bigjet]

They have spies everywhere :)

No it's simple. If you click on your ads and then you login in your adsense account, you are done :)

[Dantol]

It never happened to me.
I take Google ads extremely seriously.
I have never clicked on my own ad and I will never click it.
And you guys should be more careful, don't get yourself into trouble. Adsense is extremely good money making program and we should all take it extremely seriously.

[vabtz]

I'v done it several times. Emailed them ASAP with details and they wrote me back.

[AdSenseAdvisor]

In the future, if you’d like to view the ads appearing on your site without clicking on your own ads, you might be interested in the Google AdSense preview tool.

I realize that for long-term publishers the preview tool is probably old news, but for any of you who are new to AdSense, this is a great resource.

The preview tool allows you to see what types of ads might appear on your site, and click-through to the destination URL without generating invalid clicks or impressions on your account.

For more information, you should visit [google.com ]

-ASA

[jcmiras]

When i am new with adsense and trying to figure out by myself how it works, I click the advertisement by around 5 times that day until i knew it. That was 6 months ago but i still have my account. I also discover that time that google "filter out your own click" and does not record a revenue.

[ann]

Sorry in Advance,
No, I meant account suspension if it happens that you or friends or family are "helping" you.

[JamesR3]

If google was really concerned about this, they would let you enter your home/work IP address and just not count clicks from it. I don't think it's a big deal if done rarely. I've screwed up at least twice over the past year and done it (each time I sent an email).

[miracle]

It'd be great if they could filter the publisher's IP.

[Sorry In Advance]

If that is the case then the system must be hugely open to abuse, surely, by "maliciously" clicking competitor adsense ads?

Am I being dumb about this? :)

[roycerus]

AdsenseAdvisor,
That gives me an idea! Wouldn't it be great if [just like the preview tool plugin] you guys can build a small tool for publishers that can be installed so that ABSOLUTELY NO clicks from THAT particular computer would count. This will help in a lot of ways.

*Like if someone else using the computer checks out your open window and clicks on the ads
*Webmasters testing the ads increase page impressions. This may cause problems with the CPM ads also.

What say?

Regards,
R

P.S: Eventually it should be added to the adsense desktop monitoring installation ;-)

[asianguy]

If you are making serious money, any accidental click should be reported right away to play safe.

[blairsp]

AdsenseAdvisor,That gives me an idea! Wouldn't it be great if [just like the preview tool plugin] you guys can build a small tool for publishers that can be installed so that ABSOLUTELY NO clicks from THAT particular computer would count. This will help in a lot of ways.

NEVER understood why they can't just ban an I address of your choosing (easily). Adsonar have a system where I go to an ip finding website, find out what my ip is then copy and paste it into a box and hit submit. If they can do it why can't G? YES I know it isn't foolproof but it should stop accidental clicks at least.

[davthp]

You lot are pathetic - You really think that Google has the ability to detect accidentally clicking your own ads one or twice over a long perios? I too have done it and simply forgot about it - they will be using some software that highlights patterns of behaviour and setting it so low would cause them more trouble than its worth. They will look at lots of factors such as how many 'real' clicks you get and what sort of percentage are invalid clicks. Example if you get 100 clicks a day and over a year you accidently click your own ads once or twice then you really think this will be noticable or that Google will be bothered?

When they close or suspend an account they will have detected a pattern of behaviour which is fraudulent i.e clicking repeatedly or setting up bots. If I were Google I would implement a policy of adding all the sites that report accidental clicks to a watch list as these are more likely to be the problem sites.

Stop being paranoid

[fenimor]

if you have 5 clicks a day, and clicked twice on your own ads, may be it's good thing to report.
But if you send google thousands clicks a day, and clicked your own ad once in 8 months ..... stop being paranoid.

[JamesR3]

davthp and fenimor: You are not discriminating between what makes business sense (to you) and what is technically possible. If you want to say "Adding a click here or there if you get a undred clicks a day is irrelevant from a revenue perspective therefor Google doesn't care" ou are entitled to that opinion, and perhaps that is true. However, if you want to say "Google cannot detect one click out of hundreds" you are totally wrong. They have our IP address from you logging into your account. They simply match it with the click, and presto -- you're busted.