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I spent $220 on Google app ads and 60% of the installs were robots

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Re: I spent $220 on Google app ads and 60% of the installs were robots

#81

Post by dist-epoch »

ForHackernews wrote: post #76
nekusar wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. And the pay for these things is "access to 500+ TB Jellyfin-like movie services for free" Of course, it's all pirated out of country. And the pay is being a residential proxy. And piracy being the only way to actually own, I'm not imaging this will stop anytime soon.

Wait, so I can have free movies and subvert the adtech business model at the same time? What's the catch?

These residential proxies are also used by scrapers. From scraping stores to scalp merchandise, to scrapers of data for AI training.

Re: I spent $220 on Google app ads and 60% of the installs were robots

#82

Post by pbhjpbhj »

G3nD wrote: post #39
dave_sid wrote: post #28

Google ads are a con. Meta ads are a con. If someone tells you you’re just not doing it right yet, they’re probably trying to sell you something.

Are pretty much all ecommerce brands wasting their money on Meta ads? Seems hard to believe.

Meta ads are mostly obvious fraud afaict - unregistered lotteries, jet washes that don't need power, flashlights so powerful they'll fry an egg by shining at them, household goods developed by NASA, air-conditioning/heating that doesn't need outside air and plugs direct into a socket, ...

I've reported a few to Advertising Standards in the UK, but they're not really interested in combatting Facebook/Amazon fraud.

What's hilarious is having reported an ad to Facebook, they show you that ad more because you didn't longer looking at it. Mad.

Re: I spent $220 on Google app ads and 60% of the installs were robots

#83

Post by brudgers »

n0us wrote: post #45
harry8 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why can’t Google do this? Surely their data is better than yours. They get paid for adverts to bots don’t they? Unrelated?

Taking a blind guess here because I have never worked at Google, but I would assume there is one organization that has the data, and another organization that can block IPs from clicking on the ads and consuming the spend. There is a byzantine process preventing that second org from getting the data along with a lack of motivation because it would decrease ad-spend, which is one of their key metrics. Org2 which deals…

Alphabet has claimed to be fighting ad fraud for many many years.

That is not how an organization fighting ad fraud would structure itself.

Alphabet does not have an abundance of technical incompetence. But it does have the strongest of incentives to ensure ad budgets get spent quickly and no meaningful disincentives.

I mean what’s the OP going to do, go to Google’s competition?

Re: I spent $220 on Google app ads and 60% of the installs were robots

#84

Post by 20k »

harry8 wrote: post #36
phenomen wrote: post #8

If you have their IP addresses in your dashboard, go to Google Ads > Admin > Account Settings > IP Exclusions. Then, add the entire network/data center range there (i.e. 123.4.5.*). In 99% of cases, these bot networks are not run from residential providers. You can confirm IPs at https://ipgeolocation.io/ After running Google Ads for a couple of years, our current exclusion list has over 4000 networks just in the US.

Why can’t Google do this? Surely their data is better than yours. They get paid for adverts to bots don’t they? Unrelated?

Nobody wants to admit just how bad the bot problem is, because it starts to dig into the fact that advertising isn't nearly as effective as advertisers let on

Re: I spent $220 on Google app ads and 60% of the installs were robots

#85

Post by Grimblewald »

walrus01 wrote: post #24
phenomen wrote: post #8

If you have their IP addresses in your dashboard, go to Google Ads > Admin > Account Settings > IP Exclusions. Then, add the entire network/data center range there (i.e. 123.4.5.*). In 99% of cases, these bot networks are not run from residential providers. You can confirm IPs at https://ipgeolocation.io/ After running Google Ads for a couple of years, our current exclusion list has over 4000 networks just in the US.

This is one of the primary reasons why fraud actors purchase residential proxies in bulk now. Google "residential proxies for sale" for the tip of a huge grey/black market iceberg. You know all those trojan infected smart TVs and home routers and such? That's one of the things they're doing.

also why hyperscalers are paying folks to host gpu clusters in their homes. its to get at tgeir IP, it has nothing to do with space, cooling, etc.

Re: I spent $220 on Google app ads and 60% of the installs were robots

#86

Post by ricardonunez »

rao-v wrote: post #52
phenomen wrote: post #8

If you have their IP addresses in your dashboard, go to Google Ads > Admin > Account Settings > IP Exclusions. Then, add the entire network/data center range there (i.e. 123.4.5.*). In 99% of cases, these bot networks are not run from residential providers. You can confirm IPs at https://ipgeolocation.io/ After running Google Ads for a couple of years, our current exclusion list has over 4000 networks just in the US.

Isn't this the sort of thing Google is supposed to be doing for us?

I agree but that will eliminate a big cash cow for them.

Re: I spent $220 on Google app ads and 60% of the installs were robots

#87

Post by yunusabd »

My favorite story:

1. Dev publishes app with Google Admob integration to the Play Store.

2. Buys Google Ads to drive traffic to the app.

3. Google Admob bans his account for invalid traffic.

https://www.reddit.com/r/admob/comments/1vzg3fu/i_paid_googl...

Re: I spent $220 on Google app ads and 60% of the installs were robots

#88

Post by gruez »

Grimblewald wrote: post #85
walrus01 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one of the primary reasons why fraud actors purchase residential proxies in bulk now. Google "residential proxies for sale" for the tip of a huge grey/black market iceberg. You know all those trojan infected smart TVs and home routers and such? That's one of the things they're doing.

also why hyperscalers are paying folks to host gpu clusters in their homes. its to get at tgeir IP, it has nothing to do with space, cooling, etc.

>also why hyperscalers are paying folks to host gpu clusters in their homes

Source? There's definitely shady people paying people to host proxies, but hyperscalers doing it would be surprising.

Re: I spent $220 on Google app ads and 60% of the installs were robots

#89

Post by autoexec »

rao-v wrote: post #52
phenomen wrote: post #8

If you have their IP addresses in your dashboard, go to Google Ads > Admin > Account Settings > IP Exclusions. Then, add the entire network/data center range there (i.e. 123.4.5.*). In 99% of cases, these bot networks are not run from residential providers. You can confirm IPs at https://ipgeolocation.io/ After running Google Ads for a couple of years, our current exclusion list has over 4000 networks just in the US.

Isn't this the sort of thing Google is supposed to be doing for us?

What incentive do they have to do that kind of work? They get paid anyway and they've basically got no competition
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