Lessons Catalogue

Lesson 1b: AdWords Policies

Competitor Behaviour: If a competitor has stopped running his or her ad, your ad may start receiving more clicks.

Google Network: You may see an increase in traffic if your ads have recently been approved to run on search and content sites and products in the Google Network, if you recently opted in to the Google Network, or if new sites for which your ads are relevant join our content network. Also, your ad may receive an unexpected increase in clicks if it appears on a site with a large audience. For example, if you run an ad for a weight loss product, you might see a significant increase in impressions and clicks when the online version of The New York Times runs a feature on weight loss. Please see the Ad Distribution lesson for more information about the search and content networks.

Seasonal Changes: Fluctuation in clicks due to seasonal promotions or special sales are common. Keywords popular at particular times of the year will also experience a higher click volume regardless of whether you have made proactive seasonal changes to your account content. For example, if you sell greeting cards, you may see a significant increase in clicks as a holiday approaches, even if you are not advertising cards for that particular holiday.

Budget Changes: Increasing your daily budget or maximum cost-per-click (CPC) may cause an increase in clicks and impressions. A higher maximum CPC can help to increase the position of your ad, which can lead to more clicks on Google and on the Google Network.

Ad Relevancy: If your keywords are too general, your ad may accrue clicks and impressions but yield very few sales. To make sure your ads are running optimally, please refer to the Beginning Optimisation lesson.

Internet service provider: an Internet provider (such as AOL, Earthlink, or Comcast) may assign identical IP addresses to multiple users by geographic area.

Comparison shopping: individual users may legitimately click on your ad more than one time when comparison shopping or returning to your site for more information.

1. Identify instances of suspicious activity, such as receiving 2 or 3 times the normal number of clicks you would receive on a single day. Keep in mind that you may see a sudden increase in impressions or clicks as a result of legitimate user activity, such as seasonal increases in clicks or the appearance of your ad on the Google Network. Google's proprietary technology works to filter out invalid impressions and clicks before they reach your reports.
2. Look at click patterns over time. Identify changes from week to week that are not explained by any of the legitimate reasons for high click volume. See the Reports lesson to learn more about how to review your account activity.
3. Compare your weblogs to your AdWords account reports. (If you are not sure how to access your web logs, talk with your webmaster or website hosting service.) If your web logs show a higher number of clicks, remember that Google's technology works to filter out invalid clicks before they reach your reports. If your account shows a higher number of clicks, remember that Google relies on its own servers' web logs to supply site traffic data to include in your reports. By creating an AdWords account, advertisers agree to accept the Google AdWords reporting system and reported metrics as provided in the AdWords programme Terms and Conditions.

We have a team that investigates invalid click activity on a case-by-case basis. To expedite their time-intensive investigation, please include the following information in your email to us:

1. The campaign(s), ad group(s) and/or keyword(s) associated with the suspicious clicks.
2. The date(s) and time(s) of the suspicious click activity.
3. Any data in your weblogs or reports that indicate suspicious IP addresses, referrers or requests.
4. A paragraph describing the trends in logs and/or reports that led you to believe that the click activity is invalid.

The verification and research process can be time consuming and we appreciate your patience while our investigation team reviews your account. Please allow 3-5 business days before we respond. If you have any additional information, please be sure to let us know so we can include it in our review.