Hi all, I've read multiple threads about people that have 'accidently' clicked their own adsense adverts and are worried about having their account banned etc, i've also heard that google has a very strict policy on this. What im wondering is, how exactly does google detect such clicks? The problems im thinking of, are if its based on your IP, when exactly does google log this IP? e.g. what if you log into your site from a public location, what if other family members click your adverts when looking at your sites etc.. None of this would be a problem if they allowed a certain threshold for such occurances, but reading that 1 click can get you banned is kind of worrying if they do indeed track by IP address. Anybody know anything on this? Thoughts? Thanks, Matt.
IP tracking, they also record the IP address that logs into the admin section so they can compare these.
Hmm.. if you're on a network though, there could be any number of computers and individuals all coming from the same IP address.. worrying. Great name by the way
I'm sure you get away with one or two clicks, but multiple clicks will certainly get alarm bells ringing.
They have xray satelites that are pointed at your house so they can tell, and you didn't know this? pfft.
I heard that Google staff are so busy counting their money these days they don't bother tracking IP's anymore, they just randomly throw a small time publisher off the Adsense program once a week to strike the fear of god into the rest of us Cheers, BP
I'll tell you how. From time to time, quite often actually people come on DP and ask how will Google know they clicked their own ads. Google workers read the posts, track the user and ban his account. Now you know!
Google, much like Sirius, has satellites which they use to constantly watch your every move. Their satellites are so powerful that in rare situations, they can actually cause you to click your own ads, thereby giving Google the right to kick you out of AdSense and make more money for themselves.
I apologize mediahustler, I didn't mean to steal your thunder I went straight to the last post and made my post without reading the thread
Google uses more than just the IP address. Don't click your own ads, don't have your friends click them, don't buy paid traffic schemes, read and follow the TOS, and you won't have to worry about your adsense account or how they detect click fraud.
I have always wanted to know this, because it doesn't matter about ip address. Like if you own a site, then your wife visits your sites (without you telling her about it, she finds it in Google) and the clicks on an ad. Are you telling me that you can get banned? Nope, they are using something very slick
hehehe I think it's more like when you logged into an account, whether it's adsense, gmail, yahoo mail, or the like. They will recognize who you are. At least that's what I will do..
I'm certain that tons of publishers have accidentally clicked on their own ad once or twice while tweaking a design or just looking things over. We're victims of our own clever ad placement, hah. In any event, Google just won't give you credit for these types of things. Now if it happens more then once or twice, and every day (or hour..or minute..), then kiss your adsense account goodbye. Google is just like every other 'affiliate' business out there. You make money for them. They don't want to get rid of you just on a whim because you accidentally clicked an ad, that would be foolish on their part. They just want to get rid of those that would exploit (and devalue) their service. So don't exploit what they offer, and you'll be fine.
They use a bunch of different methods to detect click fraud - it isn't just one or two. As an adwords advertiser, there is no reason to educate anyone on how - just don't do it. If you accidently click an ad, notify google. Click fraud hurts honest publishers and advertisers. If there was no click fraud, publishers would get more per click as advertisers factor it in to the ROI. A lot of adwords advertisers don't advertise on the "content network" because of click fraud. This means some of the best paying clicks go to "google search" exclusively as adsense publishers never are served those ads. This of course results in lower payouts to publishers.
Perfect answer, i am one of those advertisers, left it pn accidentalty for a web hosting campagin and lost £300 while i slept, didn't get one sale.