False Keywords

[B-Double-U]

I have been noting a strange trend lately.

If you look into the Keyword details of the campaigns and view the terms that launched the ads. There are an alarmingly high number of keyword phrases that have been appended with the word "False" at the end of them. I don't see any rhyme or reason to them.

Also something to note is that Google admitted to having an issue with the negative keywords. They populated the negative keywords areas of adgroups with keywords form arbitrarily campaigns. While they show in the negatives, they have stated that they do not affect the display of keywords phrases that contain those words.

I am unsure if the two are related, but they seemed to appear at about the same time.

I checked in several accounts and it is in a large percentage of them.

[bhartzer]

Do you have a negative keyword set up for the word "fake"?

If you have suspicious activity on your account, and you're being charged for those clicks, then I would definitely tell Google about it. They should give you a credit for those clicks.

[Discovery]

BDU - I wish I had a clear reply, but my advice for now is this:

Try to investigate a bit further.
Check you adwords billing, are you receiving "click quality" credits?
Does the amount of the credits negate the level of false clicks you're receiving?

Some google traffic is false, but tough to clearly identify so Google takes these suspicious clicks and refunds your money. The downside is G doesnt tell you wish clicks they think are suspicious or why!

So keep an eye on your quality credits, notify your adwords rep to get it on record And keep running those keyword reports.