Question on bad clicks

Set up display time

[bwnbwn]

I set up a time schedule in my campaign account to not display between 11:59 PM to 8:30 AM. Been about a month now and every day I see paid clicks coming in way past the cut off time. 3am 4am 5am etc. Not many about 10 a day. Well 10 a day adds up to about 250 a month in worthless clicks. All of the clicks come in sit on the page about 2 minutes (makes it legit) then leave. ALL of them.

I called Google Ad rep about this and was asked to prove it from the rep so I allowed him to view my screen were I showed him the invalid clicks. He said yea you have 6 invalid clicks, but this has continued. I use statcounter as my 2nd counter and it shows paid clicks time and IP. I can download the file from statcounter the only issue it the time stamp is not added to the file.

What would you do to get the invalid clicks removed and refunded to the account?

[not2easy]

Is it possible for you to find those IPs in your access log and document them with the server timestamp shown in the log? That would also show you the UA in case it could help.

[bwnbwn]

I don't have server access now but that is a good thought I can see if the host will do this. If ya think about my little 200 a month loss then think about it on a global scale well it is in the very high millions Google is getting away with.

[RhinoFish]

"I allowed him to view my screen were I showed him the invalid clicks."
How exactly, are you seeing the clicks?

[bwnbwn]

RhinoFish I use statcounter as well as google to track traffic. In statcounter you can see the below I copied two paid clicks this AM that should not be coming in. You can clearly see the times of these clicks are bad based on my desire to stop showing ads after 11:59PM Central time.

1-Columbus, Georgia, United States, Verizon Wireless 174.223.1.102 (0 returning visits)

iOS, iPhone, 414x736

https:/ /www .google.com/ Paid
28 Sep
02:25:10--- Time based on my time zone central
https:// m. mydomin. com ?gclid=EAIVkY2zCh2LFAs_EAQYASABEgJF5_D_BwE---- Landing URL

Cramerton, North Carolina, United States, Spectrum 98.24.58.108 (0 returning visits)

Android, Chrome for Android, 412x732

https:// www. google.com/ Paid
28 Sep
00:04:11
https:// m.mydomain. com ?gclid=C_ltcLab7VWXNFDh5L7ua3SM_n323wrZIaAkrEEALw_wcB

[RhinoFish]

People sometimes bookmark URLs with gclids in them.

Your Google Ads account time zone is central too?

And if StatCounter has a time base, is it also Central? (I do see you said "Time based on my time zone central", but I don't know exactly what you mean.)

"I set up a time schedule in my campaign account to not display between 11:59 PM to 8:30 AM."
Generally, people set up a time bracket on one day, or a set of days, but the settings aren't normally spanning the midnight moment.
So when I see "11:59 PM to 8:30 AM.", I wonder how you could even do that?
Screenshot of just the time settings you setup?

[bwnbwn]

Yes I have statcounter set at central as well. . So when I see "11:59 PM to 8:30 AM.", I wonder how you could even do that? I set this time display in Google Ads as the time to display my ads. I know give or take a few minutes but what I think now the ads are displayed on websites and I (guess) a lag in DNS might be the cause.

[RhinoFish]

On time settings, you missed my point.

It's an intraday setting, see "Keep In Mind" here:
[support.google.com...]

I think you might have entered your time incorrectly, since they span across two days.

[bwnbwn]

Not really sure Rhino I thought I had it correctly. I have the time set for each day of the week. I can be wrong so I scheduled another appointment with a ads rep at Google to get to the bottom of it. I have screen shots of the bad clicks so will see and post back. Thanks Joe

[RhinoFish]

When you said... "11:59 PM to 8:30 AM."

When you post a time period, it will be within the same day, like "8:00 AM to 2:30 PM."
It's not possible to make an entry like this, "11:59 PM to 8:30 AM."

:-)

[bwnbwn]

I had a meeting with a Google Rep he confirmed it was set up correctly. My ads time to display set at 8:30 AM to 11:59 PM central time was correct. I also showed him several screenshots I had taken of the invalid time clicks (allowed him to view my screen) and he gave me a number to call about this and get invalid clicks refunded to my account.

Sorry Rhino I see what your saying now I put the time schedule in backwards. it is 8:30 AM to 11:59PM

[RhinoFish]

Makes sense now. :-)

[bwnbwn]

Since I have started to complain and have proof of the bad clicks are getting less and less. It was in the beginning about 6-8 everyday. I brought this to an adwords rep and asked to be refunded for all clicks after the designated time to display. Today 1. I am ecommerce very few if any sales have occurred during this time period just a pile or worthless junk from the paid clicks during this time period. I am sure so are probably legit but from my observation not enough to warrant the spend.

[ogletree]

Google is so huge and secretive they are able to make an absolute fortune doing little tricks like this.

[justpassing]

Can one tell if bad clicks are from Google SERP's ads, or for ads being displayed at external publishers (adsense)