Hi We have been considering using adwords, but have it from a good source that one of our competitors is paying somebody to spend all day clicking on google ads to use up their competitors advertising budgets. Obviously we don't want to be paying for the ads ourselves if our budget is going to get swallowed up this way. Does anybody know how this can be reported or even proved to google? regards
It may not be ethical, but you could return the favor and spend some quality time watching TV in the evening while clicking on thier add on your laptop. Seriously, I believe that many traffic trackers like Site Meter log the domain and url of the traffic hitting your site. I would think that if the url is unique to that competitor you should be able to show a history of abuse associated with that address. If you really wanted to get tough, know who your competitor is and have the money you could always threaten legal action. Spending a couple of hundred bucks to have your lawyer send them a demand letter might wise them up to the idea that they might be spending way more of their future getting grilled in depositions than they might care to. Now you may not have a winable case - but the thought of having to spend big $$$ to defend themselves will probably wise most people up and hopefully get you the disire outcome. Just my humble, non lawyer opinion
Thanks WesB, they don't actually use adwords themselves. They don't have to as they sit pretty at the top of Google for most of the relevant keywords in our field. The legal process I'm sure would be drawn out and difficult to prove, and like I said we're not using adwords ourselves yet.
Paulie, You can always try ClickSentinel to help monitor for click fraud. It also allows you to export reports so you can send to Google in a nice format when stating your case. Pretty neat program. Regards,
I've banned a couple of my competitors IP addresses from adwords and from my server. The muppets use an ISP that resolves the IP to their email address.....
Cheers guys, some good advice there. At least now I know it can be monitoted from the off and nipped in the bud quickly if + when it happens. Thanks again
Collect good info and send it to google fraud team if that doesn't work just send a nice legal letter
I was under the [false?] impression that only a click from a unique IP would actually result in a debit. In other words, once someone has visited an Adwords link from a particular computer, subsequent clicks would not count as a billable visit. Am I wrong? If someone can simply lie on their sofa with a laptop, clicking on someone's Adwords link all day -this would have disturbing implications for the integrity of Adwords, the efficacy of an Adwords campaign, and even for free speech itself. I have just started an anti-European union free speech forum. If someone who is pro-European decides they don't like my site, all they have to do is multi-click my Adwords links and bankrupt me?...lol This is all rather disturbing. I can't believe Google wouldn't monitor and put into place some sort of barrier to prevent this sort of abuse. -C.
Google do have systems in place to detect click-fraud. That isn't to say it doesn't ever happen, but it would take something a good deal more sophisticated than someone clicking away on their lap-top. https://adwords.google.com/support/...6114&query=click+fraud&topic=&type=f&onClick=
@Magda. Thank you for the link Magda. It was very helpful and moderately reassuring Best regards, -C.
Google are extremely good in dealing with click fraud and taking the invalid click costs away. However, there is no way you can know 100% if ALL your clicks are genuine.
I'd also add that Google, in my humble opinion, seems to always err on the side of over-involvement. With all their efforts to control SEO rankings, and all the slaps and penalties, they seem to me to be a tad over-controlling. So I highly doubt they'd let something like click fraud go un-penalized. Just my .02
good thing your not using adwords yet, otherwise you might be one of those included in the class suit of $93million against Google..click fraud
Google does try to avoid click fraud, but it is still going to happen to some degree. As was pointed out earlier its going to be hard for someone just to sit on their laptop clicking constantly on your add though. John
I have come to view Google as a predatory thief. I currently have a Google Adwords campaign. Every time I log into my account, all my key words are inactive and I receive a message suggesting I increase my bid. Sorry, I am not going to bid 5.00 USD per click for the word immigration!!! Crooks. C.
Thanks for mentioning it. I am also looking for a tool that help monitors click fraud. Thanks for sharing your thought.
Believe it or not, Google has a good fraud detection system. If they see a few clicks coming from the same ip, then Google will not charge you for those clicks. Lets say someone is comparison shopping. They click on your ad, then another ad, then come back to your ad, and so forth. Google does not consider that a new search. they will creadit you for the clicks. I see credits all the time on my accounts. So unless this person is going to click on your ad from a bunch of different ip's you won't have much to worry about. Not to say they can't get away with it, but Google is pretty smart. Thanks greg
Why on earth would any competitor hire someone to click your ads? 1.) It won't work. 2.) It's nuts. 3.) see number 2. They will give you refunds if they detect it and most people do get some once in awhile, but that is the last thing I would be worried about with adwords.