I stopped using Adwords quite a while ago, but recently have been starting to dabble again, partly to make some money and partly because it is actually quite fun.

I picked a merchant where linking direct to the site was allowed and setup some campaigns. I created a tracking URL of my own to receive the click, insert the details into a database and mail me them to me too, before directing the user to intended destination. I like to have stats in real time as far as possible so this seems a nice way to do it, and also it exposes me to the full referral url data which is great for learning about search terms.

One of the thing that's most annoying is of course repeat clickers. I guess the odd repeat click has to be accepted as part of the user behaviour for some indecisive users, but anything over 4 clicks and I get very suspicious.

So what do you when you're getting repeat clicked?

First thing I do is make sure a warning is displayed. This probably doesn't sit will with Google but it's my money going down the drain, so my tracking link counts the clicks from a single IP source in a time span and will display an warning message alerting them to the fact that the repeat clicks have been detected.

Next thing I do is go into Sherlock Holmes mode, and crack open a command box and enter tracert [IP Address]. At the least this will tell you their ISP, but it can also possibly tell you a lot more sometimes revealing the organisation they're from, if they're on a company network.

When enough details have been logged, I pass them onto Adwords Support for them to investigate.

There are some caveats with these methods: Some ISPs, such as AOL, use proxy servers which means that some or all their users may appear to be from the same few IP addresses, so this is a less than perfect method. But when it's your money, doing nothing doesn't seem like an option. So what do you do to deal with competitor click fraud?

Labels: adwords, click fraud, google