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GDN & Ad fraud
So I am trying to generate some traffic for a new project and I am astounded by the level of ad fraud.
I have a negative list that has removed all of the apps
I have removed irrelevant audiences
I have chosen 2 topics and excluded everything else
and I get to see 100% CTR from sites like these
theweeklyad(dot)com
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I mean I don’t know what anyone can do in order to avoid such irrelevant and expensive clicks.
I understand that there are more bots than humans but still.
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4 Replies
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You have to curate your exclusion list daily for the first few weeks and remove these sites. Sadly, this is the way. Just note, when you do get all of these spam/junk sites filtered out, your CPC will be much higher in order to show on the major sites. Cheap clicks = cheap sites.
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If you have a small ad spend but good size market you should consider only running ads on the Discovery network, which is Google controlled inventory, i.e. no fraud.
Otherwise, as sprfrkr said, you need to stay on top of your placements and exclude any that have super high CTRs and super low CTRs. There are some scripts and tools around for this be at my agency we prefer to do this manually so we can ‘see’ what’s going on.
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It isn’t ad fraud, it’s erroneous clicks, there’s a difference
The value of a banner, despite what Google pushes isn’t the click, it’s the impression.
In app exclusion is good but it isn’t fraud. It’s accidental clicks. The clicks you do get attributed in say, GA look like high bounce low time on site because most of the clicks are accidental.
That’s why you need a platform that attributes view through attribution.
A banner is like a billboard. Intent is low. There is often no click. Valuing it in GA is under valuing campaigns.
Consider Facebook. It’s actually the largest display network but we call it social because they are a country unto themselves now. But it’s the same thing. Their entire framework encourages you to click but bounces are still high most times. That’s because the value is the impression, not the click. That’s why Facebook reports heavily on view through/post view alongside clicks and click
through.Display and open network programmatic without that framework encouraging you to click (faux buttons barely help) are an order of magnitude lower propensity for a legit click to lead to a conversion.
Indeed when you run a lot of display you begin to realize a huge portion of conversions are view through based.
ie, user sees your ad, chooses not to click and instead goto a search engine for your brand, clicks the link and then converts. GA says direct or organic deserves the credit or even paid search.
Using GA as your source of truth is a double edged sword even on Google’s own products.
If isn’t fraud it’s accidental clicks and a misunderstanding of metrics that matter and how to parse them that’s usually the issue.
Example, same spend of $7000-10,000/month
GDN = 40K clicks, 3k arrive on site in GA, no conversion tracking
DSP run display = 7000 clicks, 3500 arrive on site, but retargeting lines account for 95% of conversions when you look at view through.
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Dont run on everything then exclude specific placements, do the opposite – run **only** on specific placements you choose.
Higher CPCs but well worth it.
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