I'm not talking about click fraud here. Click fraud disputes do not involve a disagreement about the volume of traffic Google has relayed to your site. Click-fraud involves a disagreement about the validity of that traffic. Both sides agree on the numbers; they just disagree on whether all of it should be paid for.
The situations I'm concerned with are where Google AdWords claim to have sent more visitors to my site than I can verify for myself.
[imediaconnection.com...]
Then check your stats for clicks in Adwords and pageviews in Adsense.
You will be surprised how many dollars are vanished in the cyberspace.
Why?
1. Whatever number clicks Google says you received in the final number. You can send them all the logs you want (trust me I have numerous times) and they will always go by their numbers. Always.
2. It will just upset you and make you suspicious of everything about Google.
3. Also they will not give you any details about the discrepancy in numbers. For example: I had a keyword that Google said received 10 clicks on a specific day and when I looked at my clients weblogs I saw 9. I asked them if they could tell me if this extra click they reported was from one of the IP addresses I provided or a different IP address. Their answer? No comment. It just made me so mad because telling me would not be telling me anything about their system, algirithm, answering it comprised nothing.
Seriously don't try and match up clicks, you can't win with Google in this regard.
This is not a problem with my stats because the numbers for unique visitors match up perfectly with the clicks I pay Yahoo, MSN, and 2 other PPC engines for.
I too try to ignore this, because I want the traffic and don't want to lose my mind, but considering my clicks from Google are the most expensive, it's not easy to swallow up to 10% of clicks that aren't unique.
I can't understand why Google can continue on like this, when it's so obvious to many of us. What is so hard about ensuring clicks are from unique visitors?
Bah.
Google needs to make-up the loss from their war on arbitrage.
It wouldn't make sense for them to take responsibility for their own initial greed and blindeye of corruption,
that's the advertisers debt.
We need to pay for the corrupt actions of other advertisers.
So the next time you meet an arbitrage webmaster,
take a strip of skin off of his back and make yourself a wallet.
All that money he earned is now coming out of your pocket.
[edited by: Hipsoul at 8:45 pm (utc) on Aug. 31, 2006]
I can't understand why Google can continue on like this, when it's so obvious to many of us. What is so hard about ensuring clicks are from unique visitors?
Because of the way the Internet protocols are designed and architected, it isn't always clear that a unique combination of IP address, cookie, user agent, etc. corresponds to an individual. Moreover, fraudsters can easily take advantage of this aspect of Internet technology and manipulate counts.
Ironic/odd/suspicious that in the online world, where it is so much easier to be transparent and provide real stats/auditability that the Googles and Yahoos don't seem very interested. Maybe the truth would be a lot less impressive than the perceived value of Adwords....
When the truth becomes widely known, people will do as you have, and reduce their spending.
