The problem click fake in adwords

[bigtel]

Hello there , I'm using google adwords but my competitors are fake clicking my ads both manual or with use of proxies and robots . Is there anyway to stop this ? Any tools ? Google return so little of my funds as invalid clicks but there is more and I know it . Please help me .

 

[Mike001]

I would be very curious as to how you know it is your competitors that are fake clicking your ads.

I use Google Adwords and Bing Adwords and I have had some bot generated clicks and have had success having those clicks credited back to my account. That is normally not a problem if you have a good reputation with the two companies.

I am a pretty sophisticated developer, and have written some pretty sophisticated tools to track clicks and there source of generation but even with that there are so many ways to mask where information is coming from on the internet. I would be interested how you know it is your competitors? Most internet marketers spend there available time, which is usually limited, to building their brand and promoting their products. I can't imagine taking the time to fake click my competitors. I have way too many other things that I need to be doing.

If you can give me some particulars, as to what is occurring, I may be able to help you track if they are valid or invalid clicks.

 

[elcidofaguy]

As Mike stated - How can you be certain that it is your competitors whom are clicking on the links? Google have sophisticated systems in place to detect fake clicks wheher it be proxies and robots etc.

In my opinion the best you can do is attempt to log the IP, datetime of ad clicks which lead to your landing page - you can pull such reports from analytics or better yet your ad URL should be to call a script which captures the required data before redirection to your landing page.

After that you would need to assess how long they stay on your site and the level of interaction. Again you could use a script to detect/store that.

If you implement the above two measures and assess the report produced you may then be able to prove that some clicks and user behaviour is not what it seems...

With all that said - I would also consider the fact that your landing page is converting poorly and hence why your ads are not working for you. Therefore focus on improving your conversions as well targeting - it could also be your ad targeting is wrong.

Hope that helps...

 

[bigtel]

This is something known . Some of my friends also experienced this . It seems that one of the competitors is trying to deplete all of the others budgets . So there are some questions here . Will google return every fake click or some of them ? should we ask for a refund on those clicks or do they return automatically ? How can I monitor the IPs that click my ads and see how many times an IP clicked ? Is it possible via google analytics? Is there any third party website to identify the IPs that click and keep count of them ?
Thanks ,

 

[Mike001]

This is something known . Some of my friends also experienced this .

I am still very curious as to how you know that these clicks are coming from a competitor. With the ease that we have to mask an IP, a route, an ISP, etc, if someone is going to take the time to run out a competitors budget, they would take the time to mask where those clicks are coming from. It is just common sense.

It seems that one of the competitors is trying to deplete all of the others budgets . So there are some questions here . Will google return every fake click or some of them ? should we ask for a refund on those clicks or do they return automatically ?

If you are that certain that a competitor, because you state it is one competitor that is doing this, then report that to Google or Bing Adwords with the proof you have. If you can prove to them that this is occurring I am certain that they would take action against them. Think about what that does to the conversion ratings for their customers. They want the conversion ratings to improve, it is those ratings and the bid auctions that drive the price of the clicks. So of course they would want to make certain that you are receiving valid clicks.

How can I monitor the IPs that click my ads and see how many times an IP clicked ? Is it possible via google analytics? Is there any third party website to identify the IPs that click and keep count of them ?
Thanks ,

Google analytics will allow you to monitor IP addresses coming into your site, and if properly configured you can view and monitor paid traffic. But again these numbers are very easy to spoof so how accurate they would be remains to be seen. There are some good tools that many developers write to monitor and track their own traffic, but most of the ones that I am aware of are not for sale. I would never sell the tools that I have written because once it gets out there then they can see how I back track the source and develop methods to circumvent the code. I do not want it reverse engineered.

 

[EpicGlobalWeb]

There is data that suggests click fraud is a multi-million dollar industry. That information must come from somewhere?

 

[Mike001]

I would like to read that data. I know that there is a problem with BOT and WebCrawler clicks and how they can be tracked, but I have not seen any competitors clicking on the competitors links. I am sure it may happen in small amounts but I do not see it happening on any significant level.

 

[EpicGlobalWeb]

The NY Times says that click fraud has cost over $6 Billion last year to digital marketers. Here is the article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/10/b...rice-tag-on-digital-ad-click-fraud-.html?_r=0

Google says click fraud comes from:

Manual clicking
Click farms (hiring individuals to manually click ads)
Pay-to-click sites (pyramid schemes created by publishers)
Click bots (software to automate clicking)
Botnets (hijacked computers utilized by click bots)

$6 Billion isn't really a significant amount of the "pie" but it is enough for some firms to build an industry around it, which there are anti-click fraud firms. What would be interesting to find out is if they are the same people causing the problem.

 

[Michael Atwood]

Oh jesus, How do you know the click are coming from your competitors? All you have is research this research that. Are there any proofs? I would suggest you screen cap your evidence if you have one. If you're simply curious about the problem, you're in the same position as me.

 

[SEOPub]

SEOPub

It's pretty common. People spend a bunch of money, get shitty conversions, and then assume it must be competitors clicking on their ads, when really it is they are either writing terrible ads or have a terrible website.

I also would love to see the proof of fraud going on. And just saying "I know it is happening" is not proof.

 

[EpicGlobalWeb]

Everyone has a point here. It's possible to determine that click fraud is happening but much more difficult finding out who did it.

 

[Mike001]

That was my entire point EGW, he may be getting clicks but I would seriously doubt that it is coming from his competitors.

Thanks for the article, I actually had the article and the actual data study, I wish I could share the data study but it is copyrighted and the author will not allow me to copy and distribute it, I wanted to give it to my class.

Bot and Crawler clicks have been around since the beginning of Adwords. That is basically all this is talking about. The reason the study was done it appeared, and I am not going to mention any names, that some of the companies selling Adwords, had developed their bots and crawlers to simulate people for other reasons and they were effecting the clicks their paying customers were receiving on their sites.

Long and boring study, but some of it turned out to be true.

I still stand by my initial comments on this question:

" I am a pretty sophisticated developer, and have written some pretty sophisticated tools to track clicks and there source of generation but even with that there are so many ways to mask where information is coming from on the internet. I would be interested how you know it is your competitors? Most internet marketers spend there available time, which is usually limited, to building their brand and promoting their products. I can't imagine taking the time to fake click my competitors. I have way too many other things that I need to be doing. "

 

[Rob Whisonant]

First you really do need to track the click metrics. Then you can look for signs of fake clicks. Here are a few things to watch for.

1. Timing patterns of clicks. Look for patterns that repeat over a period of time.
2. Clicks coming from hosting companies.
3. Clicks coming through proxies beyond normal.
4. Large number of clicks coming from third world countries unless that was your target market.
5. Large amounts of clicks coming in at strange times for the country they are coming from.

I could go on and on, but the above should get you started.