August 28, 2006
Very Unusual CTR!
On the 26th of August I checked my Adsense data and was suprised by the unusually and sudden high CTR for this website. This happens without any increase in traffic or any design changes done to the website. What caught my attention is the logic behind the high CTR, I can’t think of a reason why.
This actually alarmed me as this may get me into trouble with my Adsense account. At the same time I hoped that this was a one time thing and a fluke and that well, may be some one likes my site so much and is paying a very close attention. Data from the tracking showed that the visitor stayed on my site for close to an hour. I decided to see if the same thing or pattern will happen again the following day before deciding what to do next.
On the 28th of August when I reviewed the data, I found, unfortunately the same thing is happening on the second day, ie the 27th. It’s the same IP address, operating system, browser type and monitor resolution and the unusually high CTR. This is suggesting it is the same visitor and this event can’t be a coincidence. There is someone out there visiting my site in the last 2 days and just clicking the Google ads too frequently. And to me this is a potential invalid activity. I just checked my tracking data while posting this and the same visitor visited my site again today, the 28th.
That’s it, I decided to report this to Google and provided some basic details like the dates, time and the suspicious IP. Just sent off the report before this post. Next I decided to put on hold google ads in this site as a further precaution.
And to the person/s who is/are responsible in just clicking the ads( I hope you get this message )…. STOP IT !..you are getting me into trouble.
[…] Further to my post on the unusual CTR, I received Google’s reply. The reply is standard, in it they thanked me for informing them and that they had taken note of the problem. […]