For an ad we normally get 2% clickthrough and 150 clicks/day for, today we got 1,500 clicks and a 22% CTR. Yet, our logs show that each person's IP address showed 6 or 7 hits on our google landing page today. We have about 50 keywords, and 49 of them look normal. Its just one keyword that got 1300 clicks alone. Doesn't Google automatically filter out this type of thing? We've been running 6 ad groups for over a year and have never had this type of problem.
Kelly
At least that's the case in the UK, i'm not sure about other countries.
On the bright side, I'm sure you got a position boost and/or CPC reduction with that percentage.
Still, I'd try to dispute it. I think its kinda stupid to click on other people's ads as a method of retaliation (i.e. they can end up in a better position because of it), but people still do it. You can still make lemonade out of lemons, though. :-)
I don't know if it's fraud, a bug, or if its Google's new optimization fuction, but our impressions for one of our word phrases unnaturally increased by a factor of more than 6, and the clickthrough rate for that word almost quadrupled, resulting in a huge amount of useless traffic that did not convert.
We stopped the phrase, and turned off the new optimization feature for that add group until we iron this out with or rep.
Seems like something is seriously amiss here.
Why don't you sticky me with the keyword phrase that you seem to have been defrauded on, and we can compare.
A word of advice. Unless you can afford to have your Adwords off for a very long time, DON'T do a chargeback. We did one and Google didn't only switch off the related account, they switched off ALL the accounts from all our related companies. Tread carefully.
As a side note, I've heard from many people lately in conversation that they are not able to find what they are looking for when doing a google search.
Bad searches & fraudulent clickthroughs...not good business. I for one would not invest in a Google IPO.
Hundreds and hundreds of clicks on the exact same two word phrase all from netscape, and all within 24 hours. Interestingly enough, all from different IPs, most inside the US, but some spread out all over.
The keywords were only being generated at search.netscape.com, and not on any of the other search engines on the adwords feed.
It was actually sort of a pain to get a refund. My first entreaties for help via the online "contact us" page of adwords yielded a "I looked at it, but I don't think its fraud" response.
Only upon further pestering and pleading did the rep agree that perhaps it was a little strange that I was getting hundreds and hundreds of hits on an obscure keyword phrase that had registered less than a dozen total hits in the last 30 days. Even stranger that they were coming exclusively from search.netscape.com.
After finally getting them to agree to look into it, Google requested that I not put in a negative keyword phrase to block the hits, so that they could monitor it. I agreed, under the assumption that I wouldn't be charged for these hits while they monitored.
A few days later, I got a courtesy call from someone at Google, claiming that they would refund me for all of the obviously fraudelent clicks I received. (For what its worth, they didn't fulfill that promise, only refunding me for one-third to one-half the clicks - all those received _before_ they specifically requested that I turn the ads back on).
And then, last week, I watched my logs and noticed someone at a specific IP clicking down through every single one of my adwords ads (I have 50 or so). Given that I advertise on a number of different keywords and the speed at which they were gone through, I assumed that this was someone inside Google checking to make sure my adword text matched up with my landing pages and site details. Just as a precaution, I sent a query in via the support page on the adwords site, but never received a response. The IP address of whoever was clicking through those dozens of ads didn't resolve to a google.com address as far as I can tell, which is what concerned me in the first place.
No idea whether I got charged for those or not.
The net is, Google will tell you that they are VERY serious about click fraud, but my experience has been that they are more like semi-serious. The impetus is on you to beg, plead, and cajole them into doing something in a fraud or potential fraud case, and even then there is a fair chance that the experience will end up costing you some number of dollars out of pocket.
Definitely don't rely on Google's anti-fraud mechanisms. Its a royal pain, but watch your logs closely and daily. If you suspect fraud, gather all the evidence you can, including how the traffic pattern is different than the past, and put it together into a nice package. Then send it in, and be prepared to keep sending it until it gets past the default "nope, can't be" filter.
I've been posting about this same thing since mid november. Glad to see others are finally seeing the same thing. Not "glad that you're getting ripped off too" but "glad that I'm not alone."
Google MUST supply fraud analysis in the stats. How hard is it to store the IP address and the source page when someone clicks? They store all the other information, so the fact that they don't store this convinces me that they don't do it for a reason.
I'd go further to suggest in certain cases you should be able to request an automatic refund from the control panel when something falls outside acceptable limits. If Google can automate everything else, why not their refunds too?
The problems is, black hats are getting better with their clicking programs. They have cracked the checks google uses and make you pay for it.
Report it, pull your logs to back it up and you will get your money back, and if you are lucky, google will use your case to add in yet another check.
Reported strange click throughs on my account about a week ago over a 3 day period.
Google was quick to act and has refunded my account today, so less than a week from start to finish.
Must say impressed by their quick action.
I contacted my account manager who actioned it on my behalf.
jothelion.
Something that might still go wrong is click fraud. However, if you monitor your account mid day then you can check on the amount of clicks. If your ads have reached the 150 clicks too early, then you can still detect click fraud without the liability of an unlimited budget.
I think that is a good idea in theory, but in my experience, setting a daily limit equal to what 150 clicks would cost causes me to receive much less than 150 clicks. Anyone else seen the same?
May not be the case here, but what about spiders?
We show espotting results and very occasionally a spider will run through our links and show as click throughs on our account. The spider can trigger 50,000 links within the hour. We always let espotting know because it shows up like a sore thumb and we don't want to be accused of clicking our own links. They then ban that ip and refund the money. Despite what others say, they are very fair and we see that from being a publisher rather than an advertiser.
Maybe some guys have all day to spend going through your logs but I have better things to do. This is really easy stuff and it's shameful it's not already in the control panel.
We need the following:
1) Early warning e-mail (or better message direct to mobile) when there is statistically high click activity
2) Control panel analysis and IP tracking.
3) Automatic refunds in clear cut cases.
4) Statistics about any double clicking which Google filters out automatically so we know what we are up against.
None of this is hard stuff. I could probably get my programmer to knock it out in a week if Google is too busy making money.
I completely agree. Great post. Now if only someone at Google would take note of it. I'm not going to hold my breath though.
Kelly
Hey AWA - you've not replied in other threads about this problem. You're on the hotspot. Is there any good reason why Google doesn't make clickfraud transparrent?
It can only help Google in the long run by making Adwords a reliable fraud-free product. I would pay more per click if I knew it was only real customers out there clicking.
Well, there is a chap from Google who reads this forum regularly..... :)
Hey AWA - you've not replied in other threads about this problem...
I typically remain in the background when there is nothing new that I can add to the discussion. The topic of invalid clicks is such a case.
All of us on this forum and at Google know, with regret, that this is a world in which 'fraudulent clicks' can and do occur. From time to time, I've even seen it brought up in this forum by newer members, wondering aloud if they shouldn't give it a try - in order to hurt their competition. Bottom line: invalid clicks are a known issue which is proactively dealt with.
Here is what I know to be true on the subject, none of which is particularly new:
* Recognizing that the problem exists, Google filters for invalid clicks using an constantly evolving menu of mechanisms. We continually upgrade our detection mechanisms to proactively combat invalid clicks, as implied by hannamyluv in a post above, who writes:
Report it, pull your logs to back it up and you will get your money back, and if you are lucky, google will use your case to add in yet another check.
* Also, as implied by the quote above, if you believe that your account shows clicks that are more extreme than ordinary user behavior or that exhibit strange patterns you may request an investigation. To do so, use the 'Contact Us' link within your account, and AdWords support will reply with the information required to look into the matter.
* Because I'm not technical, I unable to comment on the feasibility of suggestions such as those made above by SlyOldDog, and others. I am, however, quite able to pass those suggestions on to the appropriate teams. As most on this forum know by now, I do pass these suggestions on, every Friday evening. So, I can assure you that your comments have been heard.
AWA
If GoogleGuy's pet peeve is scumware, mine is click fraud.
