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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

#311

Post by mitxela »

calmworm wrote: post #170
xp84 wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 don’t use YouTube at all but I can still answer - Because $16 will become $20, $30, $50 … and then they will begin to show ads again anyway.

I don't get this commonplace logic. Why make the decision on the possible distant future? You can always just cancel when that happens.

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

#312

Post by mitxela »

zicohacks wrote: post #248

Did you dispute the charge with your card issuer? If you can document that 60% of installs were not human, you may have a decent chargeback case

Maybe. This is probably the sort of thing the card issuer can't adjudicate, and needs an actual lawsuit.

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

#313

Post by Razengan »

yunusabd wrote: post #87

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...

Meanwhile, there's rampant ads for scams all over YouTube going on for years

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

#314

Post by subscribed »

jonasdegendt wrote: post #190
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?

Anyone can buy traffic on the proxy, not just click fraud, but cc fraud et al as well. Caveat emptor, it’s really not worth it compared to setting up a 3 USD per month Hetzner proxy box yourself, if you’re looking to pirate movies. For some more context: We run a business based on data scraping and metered residential proxies have never been cheaper. Countries that used to be 10 USD/GB just ten years ago are down to…

Hetzner?! No, I would never use them if I wanted to host a pirate proxy myself. Very crude, trigger happy, operating in a country very cosy with all the police organisations.

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

#315

Post by itintheory »

latexr wrote: post #287
jonasdegendt wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone can buy traffic on the proxy, not just click fraud, but cc fraud et al as well. Caveat emptor, it’s really not worth it compared to setting up a 3 USD per month Hetzner proxy box yourself, if you’re looking to pirate movies. For some more context: We run a business based on data scraping and metered residential proxies have never been cheaper. Countries that used to be 10 USD/GB just ten years ago are down to…

> Caveat emptor, it’s really not worth it compared to setting up a 3 USD per month Hetzner proxy box yourself, if you’re looking to pirate movies. How does that work? Wouldn’t Hetzner know who you are (because you pay them), meaning that if you’re caught pirating on it they could just know it was you and hand you over? And don’t think Herzner wouldn’t hand you over. My only experience with them was during a job, when…

This is the bread and butter for commercial VPN services. The VPN knows who you are (maybe, unless you pay crypto/cash), and the rights-holders know your VPN address (from joining/logging a BitTorrent swarm, for instance), but the better providers keep no logs, and I'm guessing there's too many individuals to target effectively.

I've received a nasty letter from the ISP over BitTorrent (someone's phone joined my wifi, torrenting without my knowledge), but using a VPN seems sufficient. I think the Hetzener suggestion is a VPS for running the software stack. You could alternatively self host on hardware in your home.

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

#317

Post by carlosjobim »

faangguyindia wrote: post #232
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."

I'm taking about verified real sales, not leads.

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

#318

Post by bluehatbrit »

neom wrote: post #277

I've been in go to market for the better part of 20 years now (anyone remember the DigitalOcean youtube ads of the 2012-2014 era?), paid online advertising has basically gone to shit, it started about 6 years ago, but over the past 3-4 years outside of linkedin it's effectively pointless, over 55% of Americans run ad blockers now and around 40% globally - on top of that, what you do get it mostly just... bots. In Jan…

So beyond LinkedIn, what sort of channels are you using now? Is it basically all about paying influencers?

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

#319

Post by carlosjobim »

kimi wrote: post #228

We had a similar issue with Reddit, spent $500 and got a lot of clicks - none of them ever did anything else, not even by mistake. When we reported this behavior to Reddit, the rep who helped us set up the campaign just vanished. No answer. After a while, another rep came out and asked if we were interested in advertising on Reddit. Explained the situation and... poof! this other rep disappeared too. My feeling is th…

Did you also give $100 to the guy at the bus station asking for fare to get home?

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

#320

Post by bluGill »

mitxela wrote: post #245
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It doesn't have to be a class action. In fact it's worse for the defending company if they get 500 separate lawsuits than one class action.

Problem is the guy here spent $100 on ads that went to bots, and thus can get his $100 back after spending a million on lawyers.
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