Can I Protect My Clicks?

[rampzoid]

hi,

i'm about to go adwords (for the 1st time) with a new commercial site in a very compeditive field.

can anyone tell me what safeguards exist within adwords wrt consecutive clicks from a singular source.

that is - the same person say, making blocks of 20 clicks etc on a random basis.

grateful for any advice on the matter.

many thanks.

[jtara]

There is no precise information available on this. Google says they have some protection against click fraud in place, and I believe them. (I know I've gotten clicks that could only have come from a Google ad, where Google reported zero clicks.)

However, they explicitly do not guard against "normal user activity". Normal user activity can include some multiple clicking - click on one ad, look around at that advertiser's site, hit back button, click on another ad, look around on that advertiser's site. Hit back again, click on the first advertiser again.

This, to Google, is "normal user activity". Well, OK, it is. But not something I want to pay for.

I assume they use a multitude of techiques. Timing analysis. (How long between clicks - was there time to look around?) Banning specific sources. Etc.