[confirmedClickAdUnitProtection] : double click penalty?

Checked code in firebug

[kkinfy]

Hi, when I checked the code generated in adsense units using firebug, I found this suspicious line:

<meta data-ifc-map="[[&quot;confirmedClickAdUnitProtection&quot;,[[[null,null,99,3]]]],[&quot;defaultAdUnitProtection&quot;,[[[&quot;10,10,10,10&quot;,null,null,2]]]]]">

Does this mean a two click penalty is in action? If so, how to rectify?

[NickMNS]

I believe it does, but I'm not sure. Where was this code snippet taken from?

There is this thread from a year ago:
[webmasterworld.com...]

[kkinfy]

I did an "inspect" (using F12 on chrome) on the adsense ad unit. The code was a part of the rendered unit.

[NickMNS]

I just checked the ad code on my pages and I find the same line. So I seriously doubt that this is an indication of the confirmed click penalty. I think it is standard boiler plate code, but it seems to indicate parameters in place.

[[[null,null,99,3]]]]

Based on pure speculation 99, 3 may be an indication that for every 99 impressions 3 should display the confirmed click message. Again these parameters can mean anything, so I am speculating. It would be interesting to hear from someone (@Janvitos) that is facing this penalty, what the code on their ads show.

[janvitos]

Hi,

I see the same code on my ads, but I want to specify that I don't have the penalty anymore since I disabled First-party cookies.

There used to be a unique piece of code that was showing on every ad when I had the Confirmed Click penalty, but I didn't write it down. I know it was a div that was only present when the penalty was in effect.

Best way to know if you have the penalty is to click on one of your ads. I know this is against the AdSense policy, but this is the only reliable way I found to know for sure.

Cheers.

[kkinfy]

@Janvitos Please can you explain how exactly disabling first party cookies helped to mitigate penalty?

[NickMNS]

To switch off first party cookies in Adsense go to "blocking controls" then "all sites" or the specific site with which you are having issues. Then select "Ad Serving" and you will see the toggle for first party cookies. Why this stops the penalty is unclear it is likely a bug on AdSense's part. But the first party cookies are supposed to be there to prevent spam when third party cookies cannot be used.

Is your traffic mostly coming from Europe?

[kkinfy]

We get about 70% traffic from US and Canada. About 20% comes from Europe.

[NickMNS]

@kkinfy if you have disabled first party cookies please report back here what the impact is over the next few days or so.

[kkinfy]

@NickMNS About 30 hours have passed since I disabled the first-party cookies. It may be too early but so far there seems to be a notable improvement in one metric. The ratio of clicks recorded in analytics to adsense has come down significantly. Based on my assumption that analytics click tracking is correct and some of them are invalid or double clicks (due to possible penalty), the ratio decrease is significant. However, I need to wait for a few more days to arrive at any kind of conclusion.

[CommandDork]

Interesting read.

Is there any sort of revenue reduction that should be expected by disabling first-party cookies?