Let me explain what’s going on.  I have an AdWords campaign running in a very competitive niche and that makes keywords costly.  It’s bad enough that I have to fight off competitors clicking on my ads to jack up my advertising costs, but I also have to do battle with Google as to what defines duplicate or multiple clicks from the same IP address.

Some visitors double-click on the ads because that’s just what some visitors do.  We’ve been taught we need to double-click on an icon to execute it.  Some people do that with hyperlinks, too.  AdWords ads are no exception.  I have proof in my server logs that Google does not charge for the second click.

However, and here’s where my argument is, Google DOES charge for a second click if it’s not immediately following the first click, but it IS within a few minutes of the first click.  This morning I had yet another such incident.  I was in the middle of documenting it and by the time I was finished, it was 3.

In summary, here’s what happened and then I’ll get into the details.  As I write this, I have been charged for 9 clicks on my ad.  I am an affiliate selling “widgets”.  When I go to my affiliate back office at the widget company to check my visitor stats, it only reports 6 visits.  It shows me their IP addresses.  Why only 6 when Google is charging me for 9?  Because my widget stats are for unique visits.  That means some of my visitors clicked my ad more than once.

Hmmm, let’s have a look.  I am running AdWatcher click fraud software on my web server.  When I go to the fraud report, lookie, lookie what I see…

3 of the IP address click twice.  Notice the First Click and Last Click columns.  The numbers I wrote in red are how many minutes difference between the first and last click.

So, let’s do some math.  6 unique visits + 3 visitors clicking 2x = 9 clicks that I got charged for.

This goes on almost every damn day.  You can’t imagine how many HOURS I spend pouring over my web server logs, AdWatcher fraud reports, Google AdWords charges, and anything else that I can get my hands on to prove that I’m being charged for multiple clicks from the same IP.

Today was the 3rd time I wrote Google about this and I better not get the same damn canned paragraphs pasted into their reply.  Here’s how it always goes down…

Take note how nebulous Google’s answers are. 

Google:  – Return visits: Individual users may legitimately click on your ad more than one time when comparison shopping or returning to your site for more information. 

What I think:  What G fails to define is the time between clicks.  Hours later in the day or the next day is a “return visit”.  Clicking within minutes of the first click is NOT a return visit.  Unless it’s a competitor clicking up my bill (which is hard to prove on it’s own merit), OF COURSE THEY ARE COMPARISON SHOPPING.  You’re a search engine for crying out loud!  They’re looking for shit.  I can tell they are shopping because I can see the keywords they are searching for in my server logs.

But here’s the thing of it, I already went through my ad testing, all the SEO on my both my landing page and ads, and have tested a ton of keywords.  I have kept the best of the best.  I have one landing page, one highly tuned ad, and only a handful of very profitable keywords.  When those visitors click more than once on my ad, THEY KEEP CLICKING THE SAME DAMN AD BECAUSE I’M ONLY RUNNING ONE DAMN AD!

I could be flexible on that stance IF I was rotating ads or displaying different ads for different keywords, but I’m not.  I’m running one damn ad for the whole shebang.  That’s it.

Or, OR, here’s another explanation.  Maybe they ARE my competitors and they KNOW that I’m going to be charged again for a click becuase they know that they only have to wait 3 minutes as they’ve gone through the same damn thing themselves! 

Google:  – Shared IPs: Multiple clicks from a single source may be due to an Internet Service Provider (ISP) assigning identical IP addresses to multiple users. Certain ISPs, such as AOL, distribute a relatively small number of shared, rotating IP addresses to a large number of users. As a result, multiple visitors may access your site from identical IP addresses, giving the impression of repeated clicks from a single visitor. 

What I think:  BULLSHIT!  Bull f@*&$%* shit.  Google cannot look me in the eye and tell me that AOL or any other ISP is turning out IP addresses within 3 minutes of the first click to another computer, again going to Google, again running the same operating system, again using the same browser, again searching for widgets, and again clicking on my ONE ad.  What I just described is NOT going to happen.  The odds are astronomical, especially since my miniscule amount of traffic doesn’t even warrant it.  What a crock of shit!

Google:  – Web server logs: Your site’s web server logs include data for all visitors to your site, not just those who arrived after clicking on an AdWords ad. You may also see ‘Google.com’ referrers from users who reached your site via the Google search results. Please be assured that your account would only be charged for clicks your ads received.

What I think:  I KNOW all of my traffic goes into my server logs.  I KNOW how to read my damn logs.  I know how to tell a Google.com search visitor vs. a Goggle AdWords visitor.  I’m looking at the raw data logs I can get from cPanel.  You see, while the server logs do contain all visitors, it does it in a nice and neat chronogical order complete with timestamps.  My visitors can’t fart on my site without me knowing about it.

You see, when my ad is clicked, Google tags the hit with a unique ID string in a variable called “gclid”.  If a person refreshes the page and reloads it, I see duplicate gclid’s.  I KNOW about that.  I see them from time to time.  The same thing can also happen when a person bookmarks the page when coming from an ad.  If they access the bookmark later on, I’ll see the same gclid.  But what I’m describing here is NOT a refresh to reload the page.  I am seeing another unique gclid on the 2nd clicks in question.  These are NOT page refreshes. 

Oh, well here’s an interesting turn of events.  I started writing this article with 9 clicks on the ad.  I have now had 18 clicks and 0 sales.  5 of those clicks are duplicates.  I average 1 sale out of every 3-4 clicks.  My bill for that ad is now $32.09.

Here is the updated AdWatcher click fraud report.  I am being charged for these 5 extra multiple clicks.

How am I supposed to convince Google that they are WRONG in charging me for these extra clicks?  I’m not talking about sales conversions here.  I’m not talking about the quality of the ad or landing page.  The problem I want resolved is what in the hell do I have to do to convice Google that I should NOT be paying for those multiple clicks that are within minutes of each other?

The answers they gave me the first 2 times I contacted them were to passify me.  The casual user isn’t experienced enough to know that Google is giving them a snow job.  More often than not they prolly don’t even get a 2nd peep out of people when they hear that shit.  They’re trying to blow us off with their bogus “well here’s maybe why this could happen”.  BULLSHIT 

I want answers.  I want Google to LOOK at the data.  They can see the IP addresses on there end.  They’re hoping I’ll go away.

Day after day, month after month this happens.  I can’t sit here and monitor these damn server logs all damn day.  What the hell am I suppose to do?  Conduct month ends and send pages of data to Google showing proof and demanding that I get my money back?

What’s it going to take?  A class action lawsuit?  There are others out there in this very same boat. I KNOW you know what I’m talking about.  If you have had the same problem as myself, post a comment.  Let everyone know what it took for you to get your money back.  If you’re using click fraud tracking software, tell us what kind and if it’s helped you out.

I say get the shovel.  The Big G is going under.  Google WILL refund millions of dollars when the shit hits the fan.

UPDATE – February 23, 2009

I received a reply from the AdWords team yesterday.  Here’s what they said:

Please allow me to inform you that I’ve decided to escalate your issue
concerning getting duplicate clicks on your Google AdWords ads from
certain IP) addresses to specialist team, which will perform a thorough
investigation into this issue.

However, these investigations can take some time, but please be assured
that we will contact you to let you know about the conclusions of our
investigation.

I sincerely appreciate your patience while we investigate for you.

I hope that this information is helpful for you. Additionally, you can
please visit our Help Center at https://adwords.google.com/support, where
you’ll find answers to many frequently asked questions. We look forward to
providing you with the most effective advertising available. 

Now I wait.  Perhaps supplying hard evidence like IP addresses and timestamps is the way to handle this.  Maybe that’s why this time I got a rise out of them.  One thing I would like to add, when I went to bed that evening the double-clicks had increased from 4 to 6.

SUB ROSA:  I’m going to start doing “month ends” on my logs.  I shouldn’t have to do that!  It’s like turning on a hidden video camera in the livingroom when you leave the house to make sure the babysitter isn’t abusing your kid.  It’s like sneaking hair strands from your kid’s hairbrush to have them drug tested.  It’s like hiring a detective to follow your wife around to take pictures of her kissing another man at their secret meeting place in the local park.  IT’S LIKE CATCHING GOOGLE CHARGING ME FOR CLICKS THAT I SHOULD HAVE TO PAY FOR.

This would all be resolved if Google would allow its advertisers to turn on an option like “unique visitors only” and then specify how many days you’d like to do that before those same visitors are allowed to see your ad again.  Like this:  ClickThru.com has that feature so your points don’t get gobbled up a handful of point happy collecting scum. I can set my account to block out duplicates for, say, a week.  That way visitors won’t see my ad in rotation for a week after they see it the first time and I keep my hard earned points longer without waisting them on the same perps day after day. 

Can you imagine how much money that would save advertisers in AdWords expenses?  It’s mindnumbing.  Can you imagine how much money G would lose, yet rightfully so?  Those double-clicks do NOTHING for me but drain my bank account and fill G’s.  It’s sooooo evil.

Oh, OH!  Something else that Google tightens the screws on to make sure you keep feeding their cash cow - they allow you to block individual IP addresses on a campaign, but they limit it to just 30 IPs!  I just want to spit blood on these bastards.

I’ll let you know what G says after their investigation.