How can I prevent invalid clicks on my AdWords campaigns?

Question

I was wondering if there is anyway you can block or exclude people from submitting multiple fake ip's online . For example I have a google pay-per-click campaign set up on adwords. I downloaded a program in minutes which enabled me to hide or give out a fake ip address which also allows you to use a different ip each time. I tried this out on my own link on google which in turn got through adwords and I was charged for the click. My question is how would you be able to counter or block someone who continuosly clicks on your link with a different fake ip each time?

Answer 1

Fortunately Google is aware of this scenario and will automatically detect fraud patterns like this and declare the clicks invalid. As long as you're not part of the click scheme you should be ok. So don't use that tool to click on your ads anymore or else you run the risk of being considered a fraudulent user.

Answer 2

What you can't do:

• Prevent people spoofing their IPs.
• Block IP addresses on sites you don't control (e.g. Google search results).

What you can do:

Google employs automatic filters to combat click fraud and invalid clicks, but has a number of suggestions for things you can do to monitor and detect invalid clicks yourself:

• Track invalid clicks already captured by Google using the Invalid Clicks column.
• Monitor the conversion rate of clicks to look for sudden drops or unexpected behaviour.
• Try the invalid clicks troubleshooter.
• Report suspected invalid clicks (within the U.S. or outside the U.S.)
• Relax. Click fraud would be a huge threat to Google's business if they ignored it, so it's in their interest to actively counter it and investigate your concerns.

Answer 3

Here is a good tutorial on restricting ip addresses to your site. http://www.roscripts.com/How_to_restrict_visitor_access_to_your_web_site-122.html You would have to enter them manually.