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In the last few days I have been subject to click fraud on Yahoo PPC by what appears, to me, to be an automated bot / spider. Keywords that were showing few impressions now show huge impressions in a short space of time and ridiculous click-thru rates on a lot of clicks (up to 69%!). To give a guide to the norm: Google admits the average is 2%.
Rightly or wrongly I have a strong hunch who has been doing this in my case as a large Plc betting company is always top ranked for the affected keywords and there are no other common advertisers across the affected keywords.
I cant find much talk of this issue on this or other gambling forums, though I see reference to it with generic search engine seaches but not in relation to gambling keywords.
Have you suffered from click fraud on Yahoo? Have you suspected it? Do you think I am wrong (I am not as I have been doing PPC advertising for years and the signs are not subtle but you may disagree?). Have you had ‘trickle’-type keywords go ballistic over a short period of time and burn money yet supply no conversions? I would be grateful for anyone’s feedback.Hi,
I have noticed the same thing occuring, only in Yahoo, i set up a campaign a while ago and left it as i had set my price per click low, but over the last few days or week i have been getting a load of clicks mainly for one betting keyword. My google analytics doesnt show the same amount as what Yahoo is saying but i have anothr hit tracker and it does show that the page is in fact getting the hits, in regards to accounts i have seen an increased number, it could be down to yahoo or as cheltenham starts my organic and google adwords traffic has also increased. I did not alter anything but then all of a sudden yahoo started sending me loads of clicks. Like 80 plus per day. Do you think it is a competitor clicking your add or a yahoo bot ? Can you see where your clicks are coming from ?
Tom
If I am reading it right my webstats suggest 25% less clicks this month from yahoo than the yahoo account gives (that’s about a 1,200 difference in clicks). I have contacted yahoo and await their reply. It would be worth you voicing your concerns to them too.
Hi,
Yes my google analytics said that i had a lot less clicks than what it said in my yahoo account, but i also have a hit tracker with my website hoster and that shows that i am in fact getting the clicks from yahoo. I might give them a call to check why the sudden change, keep us posted as to what they say.
Thanks
TomI finally got a response from Yahoo. In my view they brushed it under the carpet as I know there was a problem and the activity was abnormal. The whole affair lost me a couple of grand but what can you do. Roll on when the msn software takes over but that wont be for a year at least. Anyway, here is their ‘standard’ reply:
After carefully analysing the click trail for your account, our Loss Prevention Team has determined that there were no unqualified clicks for the period of 11/03/2010 – 15/03/2010.
You may be interested to know that we have a dedicated team of Loss Prevention specialists and a Click Protection System that vigilantly monitor click activity. Comprised of very sophisticated click review software, the Click Protection System prevents unqualified clicks from being charged to our advertisers by using a variety of proprietary techniques to review clicks on a near real-time basis. Indeed you can have access to a report via your interface “Manage my Account” showing you which clicks were not charged and what percentage it represents of the overall clicks. (See attached screenshot). To view this report please follows the below steps:
– Click on “Reports” tab
– Click on “Click Filter”
– Select a date range
– On “Metric 1” select “Invalid click”#
– Update graph
We developed the Click Protection System to assist us in identifying click fraud and creating a better user experience for our advertisers. While the Advertiser Terms and Conditions agreement provides that you will be charged for all clicks on your listings, we realize that our customers are concerned about click fraud and maintaining customer satisfaction is a top priority. Therefore, even though we are not obligated to, we voluntarily designed the Click Protection System and enhance it.Ahh i see, not me we can do hey, my clicks seem to have gone down a lot and i can see my add on the ads part so maybe it was just a few days ?
yahoo has followed up and asked if I was happy how my account was now running. I said yes but that I was unhappy about being palmed off and had lost some trust in their software but I will just have to live with the fact I lost a couple of grand because of the problem. He has now sent the case for “appeal”. Will keep you informed.
@martin b 218897 wrote:
it is very annoying to talk to machines, both on google yahoo no live person to talk to
Absolutely right! They should at least have a live online help considering how huge their revenues are and can’t spend a dime for people involve in internet marketing. We are one of the biggest contributor in the surge of traffic which in turn gives them profit.
I developed tools to monitor traffic in real time early on and found overture (now Yahoo) to be among the worst for suspicious or outright fraudulent clicks – but that was many years ago now.
