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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

#411

Post by [deleted] »

lightedman wrote: post #401
tempest_ wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might get your 100 dollars but google will ban you / stop doing any business with you the minute you start that so you better be sure you don't need your account or google services going forward.

Then you sue them again in small claims court for the damages of not having access to your accounts (to which other online services require/are tied to which are not Google-owned properties) and have the judge force your reinstatement with a warning to Google that such punitive actions taken maliciously against the user will result in a prior fine*exponential multiplicative levied for each occurrence, with the base f…

[deleted]

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

#412

Post by whstl »

subscribed wrote: post #314
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…

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.

100% this. Pirating in Germany is probably the stupidest thing one can do, because enforcement is done by individual lawyers via a process called Abmahnung. Courts (and therefore providers) are very friendly to those. Everyone knows someone who got "the letter".

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

#413

Post by qlte »

lightedman wrote: post #401
tempest_ wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might get your 100 dollars but google will ban you / stop doing any business with you the minute you start that so you better be sure you don't need your account or google services going forward.

Then you sue them again in small claims court for the damages of not having access to your accounts (to which other online services require/are tied to which are not Google-owned properties) and have the judge force your reinstatement with a warning to Google that such punitive actions taken maliciously against the user will result in a prior fine*exponential multiplicative levied for each occurrence, with the base f…

How would you force the judge to do that? Has this strategy ever worked for anyone you can cite? Have you tried it yourself?

Otherwise, I'm not sure why just being able to imagine a knock out David vs. Goliath win against Google has any value whatsoever as a viable legal strategy.

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

#414

Post by dwedge »

alt227 wrote: post #409
dwedge wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

> Eventually not charged Theres your answer.

Considering the question was "has that every happened?" regarding the police getting a report and you having to explain the proxy to them, I guess you mean the answer is yes and your attitude is misplaced?

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

#415

Post by qlte »

Grombobulous wrote: post #165
varispeed wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Small claims court!

...which Google then wins on appeal, such as in the follow up from an example someone posted above of a "win" in small claims.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-google-bothered-to-ap_b_2...

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

#416

Post by carlosjobim »

nucleative wrote: post #397
carlosjobim wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Give affiliates 15% commission for any successful sales they make. Then you don't have to think about marketing and you don't have to throw any money into a black hole. Buying ads is always a scam.

How to get affiliates, and more importantly how to get affiliates who don't make the brand look shoddy?

You're asking me to write an entire book. Depends entirely on what you are selling. But the rule of thumb to get good quality partners is that you should contact them instead of the other way around. And if you know your business sector, then you know which are the people and institutions who have a lot of reach.

Some industries have standardized affiliate marketing which you don't have to think about. For example booking.com for hotels or Amazon for retail. They take a percentage of each sale they make for you and that's it. You don't pay them anything except for confirmed sales.

If you chose black hole paid advertising, then at a minimum you should give out different voucher codes on each channel you advertise on, which give customers a 10 or 15% discount. And give voucher codes to friends, family, colleagues and contacts that they can give to anybody they like. That's the only way to find out where the real customers are and where to target your ads.

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

#417

Post by bluGill »

qlte wrote: post #413
lightedman wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then you sue them again in small claims court for the damages of not having access to your accounts (to which other online services require/are tied to which are not Google-owned properties) and have the judge force your reinstatement with a warning to Google that such punitive actions taken maliciously against the user will result in a prior fine*exponential multiplicative levied for each occurrence, with the base f…

How would you force the judge to do that? Has this strategy ever worked for anyone you can cite? Have you tried it yourself? Otherwise, I'm not sure why just being able to imagine a knock out David vs. Goliath win against Google has any value whatsoever as a viable legal strategy.

It's certainly valid and it has been done in other situations, but the details are different. I don't know that of any case where it's been tried against Google. It's certainly reasonable to think it could work against Google, but the details of would it actually work in the real world? I have no idea. Even if there was precedent that someone could cite, that doesn't mean that your case would win.

If you really want to know, you need to consult a lawyer, not ask here.

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

#418

Post by toasty228 »

kimi wrote: post #359
carlosjobim wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's an obvious scam, just like buying ads on Reddit.

I thought reddit would have been a sensible place to advertise our b2b product, that caters to a quite technical audience in a way that is not very friendly to Linkedin targeting.

Reddit is probably 80% bots by now, you thought wrong

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

#419

Post by qingcharles »

piker wrote: post #405
jfil wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've worked in different parts of the online ad industry for years. This is correct: fraud is a systemic and convenient part of the business model. The victims are the advertisers, who's in-house marketers don't know enough to detect/call out fraud. Google itself forces advertisers into fraud-friendly products like PMAX. Then, when you detect the fraud, the hapless account rep says "ummm... maybe try using IP exclusi…

Has anyone ever had any success building a digital products business with pay-per-click ads? We're always tempted and dabble, and every bit of traffic seems accidental, completely disinterested or obviously a spammer clicking around trying to collect the "conversion".

It's literally the quickest way to burn money.

Making PPC ads work is an enormous skill and some small business deciding to throw their keywords into Google Ad Manager is a sure fire way to lose your shirt. It is very, very, very hard to make a profit off PPC.

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

#420

Post by mitxela »

calmworm wrote: post #395
mitxela wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You expect Google to serve thousands of petabytes per month (costing hundreds of thousands of dollars in raw bandwidth) for absolutely nothing in return?

I have zero expectations of any business. If they have an expectation to be paid then they need to offer something of value. Their costs to operate are not my concern.

If they're not offering something of value why are you using the thing that you say doesn't have value?
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