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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

#331

Post by tommek4077 »

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…

Same here. Most of the bots didn't even load anything besides the html, no js execution, no clicks...

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

#333

Post by calmworm »

fragmede wrote: post #219
calmworm wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You won't pay for something because of inflation? How do you survive, since everything's affected by inflation? Ever buy gasoline for a car or a transit pass? rent? food? What else can't you pay for because they price will go up in the future?

Corporate greed ≠ inflation

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

#334

Post by phoghed »

carlosjobim wrote: post #319
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?

How is that in any way equivalent to and ad buy on Reddit?

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

#335

Post by calmworm »

mitxela wrote: post #311
calmworm wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The moment the cost went from free to more-than-free is “when that happened.” I’m not willing to participate.

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

#336

Post by bflesch »

e40 wrote: post #247
ra wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Who benefits from the fraud, though?

Google is fleecing other megacorps.

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

#337

Post by dwedge »

mitxela wrote: post #328
dwedge wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably not. But do you really want the hassle of explaining the proxy to the police when they get a report of CSAM content uploaded from your IP?

Has that ever happened?

It's a possibility. I don't know about CSAM but I know someone who was arrested for death threats sent to a politician after running a tor exit node. Eventually not charged, but he lost all his computing equipment for a couple of months

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

#339

Post by _s_a_m_ »

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.

Shouldnt this be Google's job? They seem to profit from this scam. Fake clicks and traffik.

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

#340

Post by walrus01 »

dwedge wrote: post #337
mitxela wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has that ever happened?

It's a possibility. I don't know about CSAM but I know someone who was arrested for death threats sent to a politician after running a tor exit node. Eventually not charged, but he lost all his computing equipment for a couple of months

From 2009: https://archive.torproject.org/websites/lists.torproject.org...
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