How Can I Track Invalid Clicks?

(More specific information about a tracking system to use was given to the person that asked this question)

Go online and do some searching for free tracking sites that only involve you copying and pasting some code to put on your site. Pick a stats tracker that will let you know where your visitors are coming from so that you can view that information.

I have such a code on my sites/blogs and when I get "invalid" clicks I check the logs and send the information to adsense.

The last time I did this I was able to get the date and time and location of the "invalid" clicks and I forwarded that information to adsense.

How Come I Get Clicks But No Earnings?

If you are checking your adsense earnings and you see that you have gotten a number of clicks but you haven't earned any money from those clicks it could either one of two reasons:

• the ads that are appearing on your site are public service ads and therefore you don't get any earnings if people click on them
  

• the clicks (for whatever reason) are being counted as invalid clicks

Comments Received

mjhns2839 said...

I would appeciate someone checking http://xxxxxx.blogspot.com to see if I am setup correctly. I am certain someone has visited the blog, but there is no payment 0.00 for the Ads.

My email is j~@yahoo.com

As I have noted on this blog before - I do not review websites for free! If you are interested in hiring me to take a look at your blog then please go to the very first and top-most post on this blog as it explains what I do and what my services are as an Adsense Consultant. My basic packages start at $100.

Can I Click On My Own Adsense Ads?

The answer is "No" - of course. Now it is understandable if you click on your own ad by accident - even adsense acknowledges that they can understand the occassional click by mistake HOWEVER if you continully click on your own ads not only will they be counted as invalid clicks you also risk having your entire Adsense account cancelled!

Here is an excerpt from Adsense's own site:

Invalid Clicks and Impressions


Clicks on Google ads must result from genuine user interest. Any method that artificially generates clicks or impressions on your Google ads is strictly prohibited. These prohibited methods include but are not limited to repeated manual clicks or impressions, using robots, automated click and impression generating tools, third-party services that generate clicks or impressions such as paid-to-click, paid-to-surf, autosurf, and click-exchange programs, or any deceptive software. Please note that clicking on your own ads for any reason is prohibited. Failure to comply with this policy may lead to your account being disabled.

Do You Have A Click Bomber?

It may be too soon to tell but I think Adsense has gotten wise to one of the click bombers! I checked my adsense stats a few minutes ago and saw that I was visited by a certain click-bomber. Although this person visited a number of my pages none of his clicks were counted as valid and I am hoping this is because of the log information that I sent to adsense.

Just in case you don't know what "click-bombing" is it is when someone bombards your adsense site with clicks - a whole lot of clicks! It looks as suspicious activity to adsense and it may be grounds to cancel your adsense account. Why would someone do this? It could be someone who is just being malicious, someone who has had their adsense account cancelled and they want to take it out on the people that still do have an adsense account or it could be a comptetitor that is trying to get your adsense account cancelled.

When my site is clickbombed I report all the suspicious activity to adsense and I have now started to include a copy of the click-bomber's information that I got from one of my log reports.

So when you check your adsense statistics and you see some suspicious activity such as a very large number of clicks report it to adsense right away!

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*Added 9/22/07

Here is a list of sites that have been discussing clickbombing and who they think the clickbomber might be:

• Google Group Discussion About The Click Bomber
  

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added 6/18/08 - Adsense FAQ - Invalid Clicks

What Should I Do If I (Accidently) Click On My Own Ads?

Adsense's own page says that "they understand the occasionally click
by the publisher" - those won't be counted as valid clicks but like
their site says they understand the occassional "ooops".

But going to their site and sending them an email telling them that
you accidently clicked on your own ads will be in your best interestes
- and will make you look good by reporting it.

Just click here to find out what adsense has to say about "invalid" clicks. Here is a link to their blog post Accidents Happen which also talks about what you should do if you accidently click on your own adsense ads.

Just make sure that you don't do it again