impression fraud - can you help?

[sarah999]

More of our keywords are under attack this afternoon (see my earlier post 'adwords acting strangely')

A competitor (presumably) is generating multiple searches without clicking so that our CTR plummets

One keyword has had a 78,000% increase in impressions today. I am pausing them (affected keywords) as they become affected, but do not want to shut down all our campaigns unless I have to.

I cannot find any way to contact google directly, though I have posted on their forum. Would really appreciate any advice from anyone that has experienced, or dealt with this

Thanks
Pippa

[SteveGibson]

Is it the same IP address?

If so, just block it.

Steve

[sarah999]

Hi steve

Thanks for your reply. Not sure if I have understood, but whoever it is, is not visiting our website, so I don't have access to their IP address.

They are simply generating hundreds of identical searches on the same keywords in a short space of time, which will drive down our CTR and adversely affect our adwords position and cost.

Pippa

For anyone unfamiliar with the term 'impression fraud' as I was until today (learning fast!) here is an explanation http://www.sem-faq.com/impression-fraud.php

[SteveGibson]

Hi steve

Thanks for your reply. Not sure if I have understood, but whoever it is, is not visiting our website, so I don't have access to their IP address.

Good point.

If you think it's a competitor pausing their ads and then relentlessly searching on that term, then you might want to block that exact search term for a short while.

The alternative is to hope that google is smart enough to identify this behaviour and just ignores it for quality scores.

Steve