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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

#201

Post by econ »

mitxela wrote: post #121
econ wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You had huge click farms back in the days. Today the fraud is perhaps more obvious. YT has served me the same 20 min ad 200+ times over the last few weeks. I let the entire thing play 10 times and 50 times didn't press skip for the first minute (or the view doesn't count) It's so annoying Ive reduced video watching by 80-90% The idea they have someone pay for this in the hope I will buy the product? Or do people real…

Those work. You'll remember that brand if you ever need that product.

I could call them, tell them I see their ad, ask questions then call again and again and again and again. I just read one may call a company as often as one wants.

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

#202

Post by econ »

calmworm wrote: post #169
econ wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You had huge click farms back in the days. Today the fraud is perhaps more obvious. YT has served me the same 20 min ad 200+ times over the last few weeks. I let the entire thing play 10 times and 50 times didn't press skip for the first minute (or the view doesn't count) It's so annoying Ive reduced video watching by 80-90% The idea they have someone pay for this in the hope I will buy the product? Or do people real…

Is this a typo? 20 min ad?! I don’t use YouTube.

Sometimes they put one at the start then again 1.5 min into a video and again around 4 minutes. If I don't skip them I may not even remember what the video was about.

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

#204

Post by econ »

xp84 wrote: post #134
sethops1 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These bug me so much. Those 20+ minute ads do nothing but piss me off. I have to grab the remote or switch tabs or whatever to get past them. To the point where I'm on the verge of adding YT to the permanent block list along with Facebook, Instagram, X, etc.

Serious question: Do you watch a lot of YouTube? Why not just cough up the $16 for YouTube Premium? Creators actually do get paid more for Premium users' views than they do from adsense. You get to see none of these ads that piss you off. Look, I run UBlock Origin myself. But that's because there's zero other way to look at any Web content without going insane with videos and other garbage popping all over the place,…

I want to see and feel the product. Nowadays mostly to see how bad it is.

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

#205

Post by sethammons »

DANmode wrote: post #74
Barbing wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Otherwise their competitor gets top billing for their very own brand name. See this on Apple’s App Store too. Feels very unfair.

They’re selling a limited ad-space - again, instead of to their competitor. In that context: suggest a fairer way. Now, it may just be you don’t like advertising in this context - a valid take. But a different one!

The fairer thing is what Google _used_ to do: organic results in the main column, ads in the sidebar. Searchers get to see competitors without confusing them for the real thing.

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

#206

Post by tokioyoyo »

weare138 wrote: post #186
dangero wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same thing happened to us. We were large enough to have an admob rep who reached out to the IVT team for help. After our first appeal was rejected, our rep negotiated a second appeal attempt but he said “This time make sure you take full responsibility for the IVT getting through. Funny part to me was Google was the only network bidding on these bots while others must have detected something and stayed out. We submit…

I keep hearing this same story over and over. It's starting to sound like that's just Google's business model.

But in large, it works. We only hear from people for whom it doesn’t work.

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

#207

Post by crooked-v »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #193
varispeed wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would suspect that entities affected don't have money for a lawsuit.

This is what class actions are literally for. Yes, I know it sucks that the only people who make money are the lawyers, but it can result in some behavioral change. Google is fine attracting bots when it makes money for itself, but it can clearly detect that bot traffic when it has to pay out. There is likely huge amounts of money in total that Google has collected money from in ad buys but that they could also detec…

Unless, of course, the terms of service require mandatory binding arbitration and bar you from the recourse of the legal system entirely.

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

#208

Post by [deleted] »

cube00 wrote: post #106
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.

Add Reddit Ads to that, all the alleged clicks not one comment or conversion. I get my app is probably bad but you'd expect at least one comment out of 100 "clicks" to say something.

[deleted]

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

#210

Post by aorloff »

tokioyoyo wrote: post #206
weare138 wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I keep hearing this same story over and over. It's starting to sound like that's just Google's business model.

But in large, it works. We only hear from people for whom it doesn’t work.

I think Google's business model in large part is having a super complicated ad console that very few, if anyone, actually knows how to most efficiently operate.

So what happens is that the savvy media teams figure out what works through meticulous trial and error, and constantly monitor Googles weird changes to the levers you are given to operate the "console."

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