Don't click on your own Admob ads. (horror story within)

edited March 2013 in General Discussion
For most of you, this is just plain common sense.  I want to throw this out there just as a precaution.

Word of advice to all fellow Admob users. Never ever
click on your own ads to test or even try an advertised product/game. 
They keep track and can tell if you are inflating click numbers either on
purpose or accidentally.  They won't hesitate to disable your account and
from what I've seen personally/read, it's not easy to get a response if
you "Dispute" their claims.  I've been waiting 2 weeks so far to get
admob ads going again on an app that was paying $15/day and climbing
quickly toward 20+.  They confiscated my $400 payout and gave it back to
advertisers.  Yeah...ouch.  The worst story I read online was a guy who
was making 9k a month on average (i know. wow!) and got sacked like me.  Sometimes they will reverse the decision.  Other times they will turn ads back on, only to disable them again for suspicion.

I made apps for my immediate family and I think that's where I ran into trouble.  Three of the smartphone users in my household would sometimes click on a game ad with intent to install and try it out.  Seems harmless and legit, but...
 
Be careful.  :)  

Comments

  • Hi and thanks for sharing the info!

    When I released my first app, and there were no users yet, I've clicked my own ads for 2 or 3 times (just to see if this stuff works), but that's it, because luckily, I was aware that they monitor these things. However, to all newbies, don't ever click on your ads - don't "test" them. If you see them, it works! :)

    By the way, your app, made with Andromo was making $15/day? That's super cool! What kind of app is this?

    I only have one custom build memory training game (makes about $5/day with 10.000 active installs), and several other Andromo build apps, but those aren't making any real money yet (about $1/day).
  • edited July 2013
    Yeah it's up to roughly 55/day with all advertising revenue considered.  It's a super sexy top secret app that has been cloned by multiple ANDROMO users already.  Sorry but I prefer to smash the competition rather than give out too too much info. :P  I know you'll understand.

    I didn't plan on Andromo users copying my work all they way down to the taglines and copy/app descriptions.   Frustrating.  Some of them complied with take down notices and I thank them for being reasonable. I wish them the best of luck.  :)

  • I'm sure your numbers have improved since your last post too. With pingjam and mobpartner, yeah it's going real well.  I'm happy until I get those pesky 1 star reviews on Google Play. lol  weirdos.
  • Hey, turbomike.

    Don't worry, I understand. :)

    Yeah, my numbers are up, too (but not that much), and now I'm going to try sell some apps on Amazon. These are exciting times. :)
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