Adwords Hijacked!!

[Zandbom]

Okay, maybe hijacked is not quite right. I can give you the long sordid story, but to cut a long story short, i started advertising on adwords, and my business picked up. My main opposition saw this and now he has started doing the same....... pity, but thats business i guess!

however...

i am still number 1 and i have not increased my cost per click

since he came on, i have consistently run out of daily funds

Have now increased it 3 times in 3 days

I think, he is clicking on my adds on purpouse so they do not display (once funds are gone)?

3 questions

1.Is this possible?
2.how can i prove it?
3.and how can i stop it?

Tearing my hair out!

[adrianh]

Ok, and if you find out that it is him - what then? What about if his wife is doing it at work or his son is doing it a varsity? I think that there is nothing you can do, it's simply a risk you take when you use the technology.

I knew a restauranteur that had a new restaurant open close by. He got all his buddies to reserve tables all the time and of course never pitch up. Another crowd sold fax machines. They used to call up the oppositions clients at night and have their machine send a pitch black fax, taped in a loop through the machine. This fax would run for an hour causing the oppositions client machine to run out of ink & fax roll. Of course the client would think that the machine is crap because it keeps having this strange problem.

In a dog eat dog world the most cunning dog wins!

[Dave A]

Google does try to screen out invalid clicks. If lots of clicks are coming onto the same ad from the same computer, I expect the charges will be reversed.

[Zandbom]

Google does try to screen out invalid clicks. If lots of clicks are coming onto the same ad from the same computer, I expect the charges will be reversed.

He is off sick today and guess what...my adds are still showing..in the last few days my funds have been finished by 9am...even on Sunday(thats what perked my interest!)

So OK, hopefully i will get my money back...BUT in the meantime(when he does this) my adds are not showing????

[Zandbom]

Ok, and if you find out that it is him - what then? What about if his wife is doing it at work or his son is doing it a varsity? I think that there is nothing you can do, it's simply a risk you take when you use the technology.

I knew a restauranteur that had a new restaurant open close by. He got all his buddies to reserve tables all the time and of course never pitch up. Another crowd sold fax machines. They used to call up the oppositions clients at night and have their machine send a pitch black fax, taped in a loop through the machine. This fax would run for an hour causing the oppositions client machine to run out of ink & fax roll. Of course the client would think that the machine is crap because it keeps having this strange problem.

In a dog eat dog world the most cunning dog wins!

I hear you, i just never expected someone to stoop this low? So i guess i'll also have to become a little more cunning...any suggestions

[Dave A]

There must be a method to query questionable click patterns with Adwords.

I wouldn't try to horse around to "get back" somehow - Google plays for keeps. If they ban you from the program, it's really difficult to get back on.

[Zandbom]

Okay, here is a "cunning" suggestion... may cost me but am prepared to take a leap.

what if i registered 2 new domains for a couple of hundred rand, and then create 2 smaller web-sites, and do 2 seperate adwords campaigns? Taking up first 3 slots?

Will google have a problem with that?

[IanF]

Have you asked google to see if there are multiple clicks from a single IP address?
I would email the adwords people and lay it out like you have here. I sometimes click on competitor just to see what they are advertising.
Also experiment with times your ads run.
I would also experiment with bringing your cpc down sometimes counter intuitive works!

[Dave A]

what if i registered 2 new domains for a couple of hundred rand, and then create 2 smaller web-sites, and do 2 seperate adwords campaigns? Taking up first 3 slots?

Will google have a problem with that?

If you want to bid against yourself, I can't see why Google would have a problem