Suspicious Click Activity on Ads

[Dustie]

Hi All! Long time reader, first time poster. I tried posting this in the wee hours of the morning but kept getting database errors. I do hope I've not posted this twice.

I have a number of websites running Google Adsense ads. One of those sites is a local information site, Beautiful Bella Vista Arkansas, which gets about 16,000 page views a month and it's adsense income was pretty predictable. Suddenly, a couple of days ago it shot up to 5 times the daily average without a significient jump in page views.

I began to worry that Google would notice and think I'd done somthing, so I decided to report this suspicious activity to Google first.

Yesterday the adsense income was twice normal and today it's back to normal. Now I'm wondering if I did the right thing in reporting it. It's probably an unecessary worry, like worrying when I accidentally clicked on one of my own ads, like I've done a few times. When I've done that I've always cringed, expecting Google to come knocking on my door to pull my adsense ads! Adsense is an important part of my monthly website income and I'd hate to lose them. I make a very conserted effort to pay by the rules as I understand them.

My question...should I have reported this unusual activity right away, or wait a few days to see if maybe it wasn't just a one day thing, like this seemed to be?

Dustie

[innominds]

Wait for few more days and constantly monitor the traffic and then only you can come to some conclusion.

[Peter (IMC)]

I wouldn't worry about it. You informed Google saying you noticed strange click behaviour in your site and you wanted to make sure you don't know why that happened and that it wasn't you.

Did your CTR go up as well? If not, you simply had a lot more visitors for a couple of days. Maybe you were mentioned in a newsletter. Analize your traffic!

[Andilinks]

I have reported suspicious activity on several occasions. Sometimes I get a simple acknowledgement of my reporting from Google sometimes not. Nothing has ever come of any of it. I will continue to report suspicious activity unless it is an ongoing thing that I have already reported once.

[MarcGrobman]

You never know. Sometimes they just run some more relevant or enticing ads one day and you'll get a blip that is not reflected in the amount of traffic. But I would continue to monitor and report. As I'm sure you've heard, they can be brutal. I had an AdSense account shut down without warning, explanation or recourse. Still have no idea why. And to this day I'm emotionally scarred... well, ok, frustrated at least. I imagine it is paying off for you but you still have to ask yourself if all the monitoring effort is worth the amount of income you get.

[braver55b]

I'm surprised that Google didn't take you to task for mistakenly clicking on your own ad as they constantly trumpet their click monitoring system.




In regards to your concerns, it simply is a case of more visitors than usual that day, which is a good thing as long as you didn't break the rules.

[SemAdvance]

Originally Posted by braver55b

I'm surprised that Google didn't take you to task for mistakenly clicking on your own ad as they constantly trumpet their click monitoring system.

In regards to your concerns, it simply is a case of more visitors than usual that day, which is a good thing as long as you didn't break the rules.

Reading more and posting inaccurate statements less, has great dividends

Google will not take you to task for clicking your own ad once in a while. They do ban for abuse, like someone who has a forum sig link, and who for some mistaken marketing thought that such tactics would work in a webaster forum, decides to make it an h1 tag which leads me to my next comment.

I'm surprised WPW doesn't ban you for the garish signature link, false advertisement, and excessive hype!!!

See we can both be surprised about something ;->

[DrTandem1]

It really has more to do with what the advertiser is paying to run the ad, not the difference in your click rate. You could easily triple income or have it drop by a third without any difference in traffic.

What would be suspicious is to have the click through rate jump up and the traffic remain the same. The money per click is what is more likely to change quickly.

[Dustie]

Thanks Everyone...this does help me feel a bit more at ease.

I forgot to mention that the click thru rate did jump way high that day also, so it wasn't just the advertising costs.

If it was legit though, then I'd love to see it happen more often. It just threw me for a loop since I'd never seen it before!

Marc, I'm sorry about your adsense ads being pulled. That must be frustrating. I would hope that they would at least tell me why if it happened to me, and give me a chance to fix it. I try to follow all the rules, by the book and I belive my sites are good informative sites that offer something to net surfers! They were builit before Google ads ever came along....so they definitely aren't Made For Ad sites.

One you may all find helpful...it's Internet Clipart.Com - Free Professional Graphics for YOUR personal or professional website.. Free clipart for all to use!

Thanks everyone, for your replies!

Dustie

[google_silverts]

Originally Posted by braver55b

I'm surprised that Google didn't take you to task for mistakenly clicking on your own ad as they constantly trumpet their click monitoring system. In regards to your concerns, it simply is a case of more visitors than usual that day, which is a good thing as long as you didn't break the rules.

my apologies, wrong post

[jtracking]

Originally Posted by Andilinks

I have reported suspicious activity on several occasions. Sometimes I get a simple acknowledgement of my reporting from Google sometimes not. Nothing has ever come of any of it. I will continue to report suspicious activity unless it is an ongoing thing that I have already reported once.

it's funny, i have a little forum i created for club penguin, its MAINLY or ONLY for kids but those form spammers have been creating account a lot AND clicking on my ads. I made 5 bucks off the site yesturday...strange...but now what do i do???

buckos

[MarcGrobman]

Originally Posted by Dustie

Marc, I'm sorry about your adsense ads being pulled. That must be frustrating. I would hope that they would at least tell me why if it happened to me, and give me a chance to fix it. I try to follow all the rules, by the book and I belive my sites are good informative sites that offer something to net surfers! They were builit before Google ads ever came along....so they definitely aren't Made For Ad sites.

Yea, I'm over it now after much therapy. . It happened when AdSense was new. My site was pre-existing and was definitely not a Made for Adsense site or nor was I involved in any kind of click fraud. I can only guess that a curious co-worker or family member may have clicked ads which was connected to my IP address (though I had warned people not to!). Or maybe it was because the ads were freakishly successful because I would get some misdirected traffic from a site with a similar name -- not intentional, but I think it could have made them uncomfortable. But I have no idea. I think they may be less secretive now and more organized, but I still can't get any answers or get the account reinstated.

But click fraud and made for AdSense sites are two different things. They are giving Made for AdSense sites time to comply, paying them their earnings and completely coddling them. With alleged click fraud they were, in my case, much more brutal. They clearly find click fraud a much bigger threat than the MFA sites which they are only now gently cracking down on.

So I'd say it is a good idea to be careful!

[qh4dotcom]

Since it doesn't hurt to report the unusual click activity right away, you should do it every time.