Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I kind of have pretty good reason to suspect who it might have been, but am kind of hesitating, afraid to make a false accusation about this issue, though I also have good reason to suspect that the party is commiting some kind of fraud on their own account/sites. It's kind of a toss-up between protecting myself (and probably others, including advertisers) by divulging the suspicions and identifying the party, and what could be protecting what might be the perp, not wanting to "snitch" in case it wasn't that party - which is actually unlikely, it's a suspicion based on pretty solid circumstantial evidence.
What would you do? Pass on the information to Adsense, or not?
Why are you trying to protect someone you are nearly positive has tried to ruin you?
Because retaliation often escalates the fight.
It's a tricky call Marcia but personally I think I'd hand on the information. I'd consider it more of an backside covering exercise than anything else.
TJ
What would you do? Pass on the information to Adsense, or not?
Hmmmm... tough one. You could be dammed if you do and dammed if you don't. How is it that you might know who is doing an attack?
I guess it all depends on if Google thinks you are related in ANY way.
If you don't report them, and google thinks you are related and they do something to get themselves banned, you may get banned too.
If you do report them, you may get flagged as related, then if they do something that get themselves banned, you might get banned too.
Bottom line of AS policy is: When in doubt, they Kick you out!
Rulle #1 of Adsense: Never Talk about Adsense.
some thoughts on this ...
1) how would you know unless you have detailed site log files?
All hosting companies do not offer detailed site stats.
2) Also, google does seem to have a system to discount fraudulent clicks, so do we need to inform them for every spike?
2) Also, google does seem to have a system to discount fraudulent clicks, so do we need to inform them for every spike?
When clicks are outnumbering impressions by a large margin and are disproportionately high for the time of day after the reporting day begins, it sure can't hurt to put them on the alert and start up a case # as documentation in case irregularities are found.
[edited by: Marcia at 3:08 pm (utc) on Sep. 29, 2006]
If you're certain it was a deliberate attack, you could say to Google that MAYBE it was a certain individual but that you have no evidence supporting that. That leaves it in Google's court -- if they can put 2+2 together, then they can take appropriate action.
It would have had to have been a drastic delay in reporting impressions, not a delay in reporting click data, which was over the top. That's far less likely than a click delay. And if there had been an impression delay, there would have been a long thread here asking what was going on and if anyone else was experiencing it. It wasn't an impression delay and it wasn't a click dump.
You said you noticed the anomaly first thing in the new reporting day. I was thinking of a delay in reporting some number of clicks from the previous day, causing them to be reported early the next day, thus causing a disproportionate spike in clicks and CTR. Anyway it's just a thought.
I did offer to send logs, but they didn't need or want them. :)
