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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

#231

Post by necovek »

xp84 wrote: post #129
ForHackernews wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

ehh, subvert is a stretch. But yes, you too can be a minor accessory to scams run by thieves to rob advertisers, with enriching the world's largest ad company as a side-effect. Not exactly a Robin Hood situation given that tons of the advertisers being robbed are just normal small developers trying to get their apps out there.

The more these small devs realize their ad spend is going to bots, the less they'll spend. Like the OP.

Once the word gets around, even small non-techy businesses will pick up on it.

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

#232

Post by faangguyindia »

carlosjobim wrote: post #19

Digital marketing is a solved problem. You pay a commission on verified real sales to affiliates, and they can do what the hell they please to make those sales. If somebody like Google or Meta cannot promise X amount of sales for Y amount of ad money spent, then you are a fool to give them any money. They have all the algorithms and profiles on everybody, so it's their job to match your product to customers. Why shou…

Sorry, but anyone who worked in affiliate systems knows you gotta vet the quality of leads; affiliates do not send all "real leads."

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

#233

Post by necovek »

MBCook wrote: post #211
rao-v wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Why would you expect the water company to check your water for poison?

Liability when it happens?

Don't all water companies do it?

And while it may point at what we could do with Google and the likes, the risk profile is still a bit different (make many people ill or die vs "unknowingly" stealing some money).

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

#234

Post by ceroxylon »

iamflimflam1 wrote: post #200
duxup wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems about right, in the sense that these advertising companies are just fine dealing with scammers / taking their money … but there are corners of the same company that also have reasons to not allow that behavior and it becomes a circle where Google users and etc are banned for Google encouraged activity. Last week on YouTube I was logged out of YouTube and on my work computer got an ad that appeared to offer acce…

I was getting an advert that was obviously some scam software on YouTube mobile. The image looked like a system alert that storage was low. It was an obvious attempt to trick users. https://bsky.app/profile/atomic14.bsky.social/post/3mnc7ws2h... Perfectly fine according to google.

Yikes, that is especially egregious. As the comment to that post mentions, you see it on adult sites (so I've heard) but that's also the kind of ad you'd see on an old forum where the moderators have lost all respect for their users and are trying to cash out.

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

#235

Post by cookiengineer »

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.

Do you have that bot ASN list somewhere?

I am asking because I maintain botnet ASNs that are spamming/phishing/scamming our customers, and this would be a nice complementary category for it.

Most often I realized that a lot of those "growth" companies have rotating ASNs that they go through after each larger spamming campaign. I'd assume they do the same thing in the admob/adclick world.

[1] https://github.com/cookiengineer/antispam

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

#236

Post by ra »

jfoster wrote: post #224
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.

I keep hearing it too. The bit I don't yet understand is, wouldn't it be in Google's interest to not do this? They ban on both sides of the market for seemingly no reason. Wouldn't maximizing all legitimate participation be much better? Also seems a lot more possible to do now with AI to check all campaigns, landing pages, etc.

I imagine it's a side-effect of another fraud prevention effort. In my experience ad fraud on a google search ad is at least 17% of traffic, and potentially a lot more.

Whilst I don't doubt that Google invest heavily in fraud prevention, they're not actually succeeding.

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

#238

Post by Culonavirus »

autoexec wrote: post #89
rao-v wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

"They get paid anyway" yeah not really. Businesses have margins and marketing budgets. There's only so much you can spend on ads and if those ads don't convert, you go elsewhere, you literally have to. You spends less on Google ads and more or Meta or other channels (influencers, marketplaces, etc. etc.)

Google has to be careful, ads that convert less are less valuable (duh) and what happens is not "well the business will just buy more ads", but "well the business has a 35% gross margin and marketing expenses already account for 20% of gross profit, they can't just buy more ads"

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

#240

Post by jiggawatts »

bluegatty wrote: post #220
awavering wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Toothpaste is a particularly high-margin product so it might not be the best example generally. COGS is generally the largest line item for CPG (or non-CPG products), and distribution isn't free either. Toothpaste manufacturers can probably get away without advertising on FB/Goog, but I'm not sure that would work for other products or brands. It's not make-work to tell people about your product or service, although i…

It's 'make work' because it's a unnecessarily competitive system wherein prices will by definition be driven up to absorb all of the surpluses of any given business. Google and Facebook are in the business of 'economic rent' of people's attention. 25% of sales price going to Google might leave 5% for manufacturer and possibly even more for the Ad channel. Aka 'Google is where most of your profits are absorbed'. You'r…

Real estate?
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