Facebook Click Fraud on a huge scale13983
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 WGAN FanClub Member Queensland, Australia |
Wingman private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Facebook did it to me again. I stopped advertising at the end of 2020 on facebook due to huge increase in real vs fake click ratio. Back then it was about 40 fake and 30 real. However due to situation with a recent lockdown in Brisbane for 4 days and all public inspections banned I thought I needed to get my service visible fast to all property sales. So I started an ad with much bigger budget than usual. I was tracking and enjoying results with 144 clicks until I checked my Google Analytics. Apparently only 31 users came to my website from that campaign so the ratio of fake with real increased a lot. It seemed I was getting involved in some kind of click fraud where for every real click i was getting 4 fake ones. Of all 144 only 31 users came to my website and facebook was charging me in full for all 144 clicks. In fact the number of people who came from the campaign may be even 0. I only compare facebook results with GA showing all users who came from social without digging whether they actually came from my ads or from my posts. I have people visiting me from Facebook every day and 31 users from social quite a right amount of users I can get to my website without any paid ads in 3-4 days. However just to make things easier to complain to Facebook I count the number of users coming from the Facebook ad as 31 and that the number I only agree to pay for. Facebook after asking a lot of details including providing Google Analytics screenshots decided to play damp. They refuse to use GA data as a reference, they refuse to give me their data(I ask for Ip Addresses of all 144 users clicked) and deny any refund. It is going for a few days already with facebook trying to close my ticket every time I reply with my demand to see a list. So guys be very careful with these jerks. I often see their claims how they help small business to survive during covid-19. That's how they help... they simply rob them wanting money for the service that has not been delivered. I have very little ways to change their decision. I can call my bank and get all my money returned back to my card I used to pay for my advertisement. Not sure if facebook does not ban my pages but I do not feel like letting it go is the right way to do it. At this point I am just trying to let others know what can happen to them if they try to run Facebook ads. BTW, I often wonder why with these results(if you forget about fake clicks) I am not getting any customer contacting me on these ads. I only run narrowed to very little aspect campaigns. I only advertise to people in my city area and with interest or profession in Real estate. Kind of hard to believe that out of 144 clicks nobody even wants to ask a question. Now with the last campaign I may have an explanation that my results are super inflated with fake clicks and you cannot expect too much customers from just few dozen clicks. |
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 WGAN ForumFounder & WGAN-TV Podcast Host Atlanta, Georgia |
DanSmigrod private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @Wingman While we do not use Facebook advertising - and based on your experience - we should not, I have your post insightful on this topic and appreciate you sharing this level of detail. I am surprised that Facebook did not at least give you an update on how many unique IP addresses - or other indication that their results are valid. Seems like Google Analytics should be a 3rd party tool for verification of usage. I do (too) suggest moving on to focus your energy on activities that can help you succeed faster rather that trying to collect the monies spent with Facebook. Enjoy your weekend, Dan |
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Belfast, United Kingdom |
3dshowcaseuk private msg quote post Address this user | |
| how do you know that they are fake clicks? | ||
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WGAN Fan Club Member Queensland, Australia |
Wingman private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by 3dshowcaseuk A click that does not reach my goal(website visit) and not registered by Google Analytics is considered by me as a fake click. The objective of that campaign was to get website traffic and it failed. It is all in numbers. If I had been missing just 5-10 I would not have been worried... they could be just accidental clicks or people can cancel them going back in history or closing facebook page straight away.. it is hard to do it that fast but it may be possible. However we are talking about 113 missing users from all that came from social during my campaign and that's super unbelievable that it is a technical issue. BTW, I have even considered that some clicks from the ad have not been registered as coming from social. However even if I count all users, not just social I am still missing about 90-100 of them. |
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WGAN Fan Club Member Queensland, Australia |
Wingman private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by DanSmigrod Thanks Dan. That was out of principle and the fact that I had nothing to do. Now I'm just tired of repeating the same as they just put support persons on a frontline and all managers are hiding from a chat with me. I asked to be hooked up with a team supervisor but they just ignored my request. Waste of time doing it this way. I told them to close ticket yesterday and warned them that a few of posts on social media with my story about their behaviour will push some businesses away from running their ads. It could be a case after my first campaign in May and if not the situation with the lockdown they would never see my $150 for the second trap I fall in. Now they are defenatelly of the list for my advertisement. And I hope other people after reading my story would think twice before running ads on facebook. |
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 WGANStandard Member Chicago |
rzphotoman private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Add that to facebooks new censorship program and you have to start wondering...are we being played? | ||
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WGAN Forum Founder & WGAN-TV Podcast Host Atlanta, Georgia |
DanSmigrod private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @Wingman I could imagine that any WGAN Members reading your posts would think otherwise about using Facebook advertising. Too bad Facebook has not been responsive to you. Best, Dan |
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Belfast, United Kingdom |
3dshowcaseuk private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I completely disagree Jan I placed a targeted ad on Facebook in November, targeted at Schools, head teachers etc and to date I have generated almost 5 figures in business So just because you have had a few bad experiences that doesn’t mean you should discourage people from trying it. Compared to conventional radio, tv advertising facebook is relatively inexpensive and much of the time it is die to the users fault that the ads are ineffecectivw |
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homefinders3d private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I have had limited success with FB ads when used for several different businesses. I do know several real estate agents that make 6 figures per year using only fB and instagram ads. Is it possible you have your campaign set to CPM and not CPC? FB offers both. With CPM if a hundred users viewed your ad and you achieved the market average of a 2-3% conversion rate, you would see 2 or 3 clicks but be charged for the full 100 impressions. FB's 3rd quarter 2020 ad revenue was 21.22 billion U.S. dollars ($21,220,000,000. Their customer service is almost completely automated, extremely poor and it's probably safe to say, they don't care about losing a few thousand dollars worth of advertising. I for one, think it would be good for the consumer if some of these big tech companies were broken up and forced to compete more. They may not have a literal monopoly, but might as well be. I was in the U.S. when Ma Bell was broken up = lower prices and more services and I saw similar benefits in the UK when nationalized companies (monopolies) were privatized and opened up to competition. |
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