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Ask HN: Have you ever been a victim of Google AdWords scam?

5 points by lalwanivikas ↗ HN
For past few months we have got an unusual amount of traffic and conversions from countries like Algeria, Yemen, Iraq etc., but not even a single product purchase.

We separated our campaigns geographically and all these countries were in a separate group. Since no one was actively digging deep into every campaign(a big fault I know), we probably might have lost thousands of dollars in above said countries.

I am sure it is some kind of scam. Have you ever faced such a situation? If yes, what did you do?

10 comments

[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 37.2 ms ] thread
dangrossman
That's not really evidence of a scam. Someone in Iraq may not be able to read your website, may not be able to afford your prices, may have different needs than potential customers from other countries, may not have access to a credit card, may not have access to a credit card that will pass AVS and other fraud screening systems designed for North American customers, and a myriad of other reasons they're less likely to buy your product despite clicking your ad without any malicious intent.

Meanwhile, you were probably outbidding all the advertisers in those countries where the average CPC is lower, ensuring prominent positioning for your ads. This is why you geo-target ads, and Google isn't engaging in some kind of scam to sell you clicks from countries you don't want. When you create a new campaign, your location targeting is part of the very first form you see, and defaults to your own region.

http://i.imgur.com/gcFynQk.png

lalwanivikas
Buying from our website is not the only option. We have different forms and there are many ways to get in touch if anyone wants to buy. In fact we have customers from 120 countries and have been operational for more than 12 years now. So if you want to buy, you will easily find a way. Also, I have numbers to prove what I am saying.
dangrossman
When someone in Algeria clicks your ad, is the website and product they find written in Arabic, their official language? Does the pricing reflect the potential customer's average salary of, at most, several hundred dollars per month? If not, why would you expect them to buy from you, even if you do happen to have other customers from Algeria?

I have customers in many countries as well, but that's because they happen to be English speaking businesses with international client bases, which means their budget allows my type of service. If I were to advertise to those same countries, though, 99.999% of the people my ad reached would neither be able to read nor purchase the product.

lalwanivikas
No. We have website only in English. You can only use our product if you know English because complete documentation is in English.

This is a mistake on our side because we didn't have someone consistently checking AdWords numbers. And now when we find this, we have already lost good amount.

[dead] templeos2
God's World is perfectly just.
erroneousfunk
How is this a "scam"? How is the person clicking on the ad benefiting from this in any way? It sounds like an unfortunate case of bad campaign configuring.
lalwanivikas
Person on the ad is not only clicking it but downloading the trial version of the product. This has been going on for months where we have seen thousands of downloads but not even a single contact form fill or purchase. No contact at all. You will be shocked to see the numbers and how they compare against other regions. It's no way possible if everything is working fine.

Yes, I agree that it's a mistake from our side and we should have caught it earlier. But I am posting this because many people out there will not be aware of this.

erroneousfunk
This is a scam to get the trial version of your product? If everyone's clicking and downloading the trial version, it's obviously not coordinated (why on earth would one entity to download the same copy of your trial product over and over again?), but your website just doesn't appeal to people in certain countries from some reason. It sounds like you're blaming other people "scamming" you for your own failures to analyze the market in many countries you're advertising to.

This is more worthy of a "we messed up in our marketing and here's what happened" blog post than an HN post saying "We're the victims of a Google adwords scam!"

lalwanivikas
You are assuming too much here. The ads I am talking about are on display network and not the search page ads. People actually make money through it. And I am not saying that Google scammed us, it's just that if you look at the data you are bound to get a feeling that something wrong is going on here.

And I clearly stated that we made a mistake. So please consider reading something properly before hitting reply.

superflit
It does not seems as AdWords scam as you let your ads gone to these regions. But I have another theory:

1. If you hired a company/person to help you conversion (growth hacker, marketing,etc)... ---> well that worked...but not the way you wanted..

There is a implicit theory here. already seen that in real life. (conversions, facebook likes, etc)