what is this?

illegitimate clicks on adwords to CB

[xor0]

This is a log of clicks from my adwords ads to clickbank vendors (going thru a cookie checker script)

Time Remote IP
Wed Nov 23 02:56:05 2005 Same IP Removed
Wed Nov 23 02:57:34 2005 Same IP Removed
Wed Nov 23 02:58:29 2005 Same IP Removed
Wed Nov 23 02:59:05 2005 Same IP Removed
Wed Nov 23 02:59:33 2005 Same IP Removed
Wed Nov 23 02:59:54 2005 Same IP Removed
Wed Nov 23 03:01:47 2005 Same IP Removed
Wed Nov 23 03:02:14 2005 Same IP Removed
Wed Nov 23 03:02:31 2005 Same IP Removed
Wed Nov 23 03:02:51 2005 Same IP Removed
Wed Nov 23 03:03:12 2005 Same IP Removed
Wed Nov 23 03:03:24 2005 Same IP Removed
Wed Nov 23 03:03:51 2005 Same IP Removed
Wed Nov 23 03:04:02 2005 Same IP Removed
Wed Nov 23 03:04:36 2005 Same IP Removed

There was one click on each of my clickbank vendor's ads in turn. No way they can be legit clicks. All my clickbank vendor's ads were clicked except those from a new campaign just started. The funny thing is that the IP is from the US while none of my adwords clickbank ads are targetted in the US.

Any ideas? I presume I'm paying for those clicks :/

[edited by: eWhisper at 3:49 pm (utc) on Nov. 23, 2005]
[edit reason] See TOS. Don't drop specific IPs. [/edit]

[Tropical Island]

Could be a competitor checking you out.

[xor0]

How would they get to all my adwords ads in sequence, even in different campaigns, one every 30 seconds or so?

Some kind of robot?

[inasisi]

This must be Google's Robot checking if your URLs are working fine. Sometimes I do get this set of clicks but I don't see a corresponding charge for them.

[xor0]

Well someone told me the IP was from an ISP called Level 3 Communications, Inc., but you were right, there doesn't appear to be a charge for the clicks from google. Guess it is some kind of robot link checker. There was another one a few hours later apparently from India...

[inbound]

Clicks from USA and India in sequence, welcome to the manual review (probably).

Let's hope you don't get a nasty surprise as the outsourced reviews are rubbish.