Click Fraud, or not Fraud?

[donelson]

We publish AdSense ads on our websites, and get adequate revenues, so we are pretty satisfied with their service.

We hear a lot about Click Fraud, but what constitutes "fraudulent clicks" ?

Here's our situation on 2-3 of our sites: Around 1/3 of those visitors appear to be kids at primary and secondary schools...

1) Moral and Ethical discussion -
So, are the clicks that the kids make on our website considered fraud? They certainly are not intended to defraud Google or their advertisers. They are not solicited to skew numbers. But I would be surprised if those kids are buying what the ads are selling.

2) Technical discussion -
Since these schools will typically use a single IP address to access our website, we might have up to 10 - 30 kids at a time visiting our sites, in a short period of time (30 minutes), and clicking on our ads. Are these clicks likely to be viewed by Google algorithms as fraudulent?

Note: For "safety", many schools block all advertising from their in-school systems, or so I am told.


Comments please.

Thanks
William

[donelson]

Hmmm...

No replies, but plenty of viewers.

Are you all

a) Afraid of making comments ?

b) Not knowledgable about this ?

c) Something else I haven't considered ?

Thanks.

[abbottsys]

Not sure what's happening here. It's an interesting situation. Clearly you are making money, and seem to be relatively happy with revenue, so many things must be working right. But are you getting fraudulent clicks? A first place to start would be to look at your Account Perfomance "Invalid Click Rate" Report. What does it show?

[donelson]

Not sure what's happening here. It's an interesting situation. Clearly you are making money, and seem to be relatively happy with revenue, so many things must be working right. But are you getting fraudulent clicks? A first place to start would be to look at your Account Perfomance "Invalid Click Rate" Report. What does it show?I think "Invalid Click Rate" is for AdWords, not AdSense...

No problems per se. But I'm wondering if our "valid" click rate is lower than it might be due to the same-IP issue above.

[AussieWebmaster]

We publish AdSense ads on our websites, and get adequate revenues, so we are pretty satisfied with their service.

We hear a lot about Click Fraud, but what constitutes "fraudulent clicks" ?

Here's our situation on 2-3 of our sites: Around 1/3 of those visitors appear to be kids at primary and secondary schools...

1) Moral and Ethical discussion -
So, are the clicks that the kids make on our website considered fraud? They certainly are not intended to defraud Google or their advertisers. They are not solicited to skew numbers. But I would be surprised if those kids are buying what the ads are selling.

2) Technical discussion -
Since these schools will typically use a single IP address to access our website, we might have up to 10 - 30 kids at a time visiting our sites, in a short period of time (30 minutes), and clicking on our ads. Are these clicks likely to be viewed by Google algorithms as fraudulent?

Note: For "safety", many schools block all advertising from their in-school systems, or so I am told.


Comments please.

Thanks
William

There are slight chances that you could have some problems... click fraud is more looked at it being done to advertisers... you may get a better response for this in the AdSense thread.

[abbottsys]

....Since these schools will typically use a single IP address to access our website, we might have up to 10 - 30 kids at a time visiting our sites, in a short period of time (30 minutes), and clicking on our ads. Are these clicks likely to be viewed by Google algorithms as fraudulent?...
I'm beginning to think the answer is yes. This kind of activity could very well trigger google's fraud detection algorithms. But who knows for sure. As Aussie says, you're probably better off asking on the AdSense forum. We're all AdWords here :)

[donelson]

We're all AdWords here :)Unless I am mistaken, this IS the "Google AdSense" forum.

[beu]

Unless I am mistaken, this IS the "Google AdSense" forum.
For some reason it seems that this thread shows up under both Google AdSense and Google AdWords forums! Perhaps not as mysterious as the "Bermuda Triangle" or "Loch Ness Monster" but, worth noting either way.

[AussieWebmaster]

I moved it with a link from the AdWords thread

[beu]

I moved it with a link from the AdWords thread
Cool, thanks!

[donelson]

Is this something I should discuss directly with Google?

Or would that be doing something unpleasant to the goose?

[AussieWebmaster]

okay he is worried about clicks his visitors make - ie. kids - but if they are legitimate... could be a term the site is in an engine for - and they click you should be paid - it is up to the advertiser to write an ad that stops them clicking not you

[Koro]

okay he is worried about clicks his visitors make - ie. kids - but if they are legitimate... could be a term the site is in an engine for - and they click you should be paid - it is up to the advertiser to write an ad that stops them clicking not you

Why should he take the hit for a set of clicks that while technically legitimate, are invalid?

He's already taken the time to write or have written the ads to promote his products or services. I agree that the way the ads are written could be improved.

In the meantime, he's getting a significant number of clicks on those ads from people that he isn't marketing to, in this case, schoolchildren.