Invalid clicks - it may actually be your fault

Perhaps they pay attention to more than your site..

[Sootah]

I was thinking as I drove home the other night. Perhaps the people that get disabled for 'invalid clicks' that claim to never have clicked on their own ads are really to blame.

Let's assume that they haven't ever clicked on their own ads with the exeption of the once or twice that inevitibaly happens by accident.

Google's tracking ablilties are surely stellar, and I imagine they have quite the profile on all of we adsense publishers.

My theory is this: perhaps you get disabled for attempting to sabotage another publisher? Google will know in a hurry if you click your own ads. If the IP that logs into adsense is clicking ads then it's obviously an invalid click. Well, what if that publisher IP goes to somebody elses site and clicks a bunch of ads to make it appear as if the other publisher is doing the fraud? If I were Google I'd ban the offenders account too...

Anyway, just a thought. Have you been clicking others ads more than you should....?

[ann]

Good catch.

I NEVER click Google ads on any site...T'aint safe.

[Sootah]

I'll ever so infrequently click on an ad. I usually don't pay much attention to them, but every so often one will catch my eye.

I don't think that will be an issue, because it'd be insane for it to be. However, if you're clicking on a ton of ads from someone elses site I imagine it sets off a red flag.

[sunzfan]

...that seems a bit of a long shot. So all the adsense publishers are auto-matically converted into non-clickers? If they browse and are interested in a product they can't click in fear of losing their account? Maybe excessive...but not a few here and there...

[wanderingmind]

Oh a lot of Adsense publishers are no angels as we know.

So if some Adsense Publisher IPs overclick on somebody else's site's ads, Google can know it easily I suppose.

Technically this is quite a possibility.

(Normal ad clicking and click patterns would be easily to recognise and ignore for Google)

[wanderingmind]

(sorry/ post repeated)

[edited by: wanderingmind at 3:18 am (utc) on July 19, 2005]

[robotsdobetter]

Although it's a good idea, I can't see Google looking to hard into this because web site owners are customers too. However I could see if a web site owner was excessively clicking on ads at a competitor's web sites could be seen as them trying to knock the competitor out of AdSense. Google could track some down, but many users IPs change each time they login on to the Internet, so this would be fairly hard.

[indias next no1]

i will type the the URL of the google ad in a new window and browse the site. ,)

[burntan]

I am that kind of person who like to click on text ads, last time I didn't even know that they are ads, I only know it when I start using Adwords then Adsense.

Even now, I like to click ads... they seem like lot more attractive and targetted than the search results. Sometime when I visit a site and see all the related ads, I will even keep coming back to click ads (not with the intention to sabotage nor create invalid clicks) to find what I wanted.

So, I don't think a few more click from the same user or same IP will do any harm.

[bumpski]

The Reverse Scenario

I work mostly in the morning on the East Coast USA, so it's very early Google time.
No matter how hard I try, every once in a while, I accidentally click on one of my own Adsense ads (Sorry Google and advertisers, I'm one too).
I usually go and immediately check my stats (early in the mornin). Invariably there is a click with no payment, so I don't feel too bad. Adsense reporting says; same IP in reporting as used to click through, no money for him! (Of course this is a different topic, lack of payment for same IP, many use the same IP! This could be a place where a static IP at home could be a good idea).
So Adsense is definitely detecting clicking of ads by the individual monitoring Adsense statistics. (You might not want to check so often!)

I, like many here, am assigned many IP addesses by my ISP. I know this is unlikely, but what happens if I inherit a new IP that coincidentally someone used to click heavily on one of my website's ads, then go check my adsense stats? Do all those clicks get dumped? Could I be penalized, or booted? I know internationally this can be a big issue where entire towns use one IP address!

Google probably allows for one occurence and doesn't penalize, because they understand how the Internet Protocol and IP address assignment works, I would hope?

[jchampliaud]

I, like many here, am assigned many IP addesses by my ISP. I know this is unlikely, but what happens if I inherit a new IP that coincidentally someone used to click heavily on one of my website's ads, then go check my adsense stats? Do all those clicks get dumped? Could I be penalized, or booted? I know internationally this can be a big issue where entire towns use one IP address!

That's a good point I've wondered about that myself. Maybe the ASA could comment?