I like Google’s Content Network. We’re pretty good friends. Over the past few years our relationship has grown to one of mutual respect. I set reasonable parameters and CPCs, the Content Network returns the favor with semi-to-mostly relevant traffic. Last week, this relationship turned sour. The dark underbelly of the Content Network showed itself in the form of an AWFUL website from Korea. For the first time in my PPC career, I witnessed true, unadulterated click fraud. Doh! Because of this nightmarish event, I thought it would be a great idea to share my thoughts on what to do when the Content Network goes haywire.
It literally happened overnight. January 31st everything was fine. February 1st, content traffic went through the roof.
Unfortunately, a couple days elapsed before I realized what hit my account. Once I did, here’s what I did to get to the bottom of the situation:
- Scream. Albeit briefly, out of frustration and anger.
- Run a Placement Performance Report. I immediately found the source of the problem: a lone Korean website (which I won’t recognize by name or link) was pumping exorbitant amounts of traffic to my site and inflating my impression, click, spend and even conversion stats.
- Add the Site as a Negative Site. Since I knew the source of the problem, I added that domain (not messing around with URLs, I wanted the entire site banned) as a negative site – at which point I assumed the issue was done. This step happened near the end of 02/04.
- Review Content Stats. The next day, 02/05, I got into my account and to my horror realized that I was still being taken to the cleaners by the Content Network. I went back to step #2 and attempted to run a Placement Performance Report for the previous day – the day I purported to have killed this awful Content site. The report wouldn’t run. As luck would have it, my Googler called while I was panicking and repeatedly trying to run the Placement report. She calmly explained that Placement Performance Reports take up to 24 hours to propagate. Great…
- Pause All Content Network Ads. Because I had no visibility into why I was still getting killed on traffic and spend despite my actions in step #3, I ultimately decided to pause my entire Content campaign (yes, I’ve got Content and Search separated like a good boy). Take that awful Korean Content site!
- Review Lead Quality. Based on the conversation I had with my trusty Googler, I called my client and demanded that he review his leads for the past few days. Sure enough… crap, crap and more crap. Where does that lead us?
- Submit a Click Fraud Investigation Request. All you’ve got to do is go to this site, and submit your information to the Ad Traffic Quality Team. Done and done. Now I wait. I’m confident that this will be a closed case of click fraud, and that I’ll be receiving a refund in full. Results TBA.
I’m still waiting on official word from the Ad Traffic Quality Team, but I’m confident that they will side with me. I still like the Content Network, but this event has put a bit of a wedge in our friendship. My trust has been shaken, and it will take time to heal.
Anyone else had an experience with click fraud on Google’s Content Network? What did you do to correct the situation? Did everything turn out OK in the end?
     | do some of that social network stuff. |
That sucks about the content network. I use the content network a lot and often check to see where the traffic is coming from. I’m sure Google will be able to identify it as click fraud. It is so irritating to get bombarded by someone in another country. Also this is my first comment here, so thanks for the great rss feed I read you often.
[...] John at PPC Hero tells how he was frustrated and upset with Google for a recent click fraud incident related to his Content Network campaigns. [...]
@ Mary,
In this case, I was purposefully advertising to customers across the world. This particular account has been extremely successful both on Search and Content for generating international leads. In the 2+ years that I’ve managed this specific account, this is the first instance where a “bad site” has come around.
Regardless, I’ve got my inquiry with the right people, and I’m confident that all will be well in Content-land!
Thanks for commenting – please feel free to continue doing so (and I just subscribed to PPCMom.com).
I hate it when that happens. The most recent case I heard was orkut going haywire. By default now (for most clients) when I set up anything with the content network I exclude gmail, myspace and youtube.
we got hit a couple years ago. One day we accrued $12,000 in click charges that barely converted. Digging in, we figured out the traffic was coming from one particular US based domain. We turned off the campaign and approached google. Apparently we weren’t the only ones that were affected. The appropriate domain was blocked from our campaign and $12,000 in credit was issued.
@ Elizabeth,
You mean fraudulent activity from Google’s own neighborhood? Now that’s funny! : ) I can’t allow myself to automatically rule out Gmail or YouTube (though MySpace got canned on all of my clients a long time ago). Some sites do well with Gmail, some don’t. It’s a matter of letting the campaign run, then assess and block as necessary.
@ Mike,
12K in one day would SUCK. And I thought my heart rate sky rocketed… you must’ve had a coronary. Thankfully Google was able to get it figured out and get you your money back.
@John,
That happened to me at a smaller scale. However, my experience is that if you pause the campaign, you will lose the momentum in Content Network Impressions. Meaning that, after restarting the campaigns it will take a very long time to reach the impression volume you were prior to this incident, if ever at all. Much longer than the initial start of the campaign.
Has this been the case for you or have you reached the same impression level as before the pause and the Korean site issue?