I spent $220 on Google app ads and 60% of the installs were robots (dayzlegame.com)

Article summary

The author spent $220 on Google app ads and found that 60% of the installs were from bots, with 33 out of 56 installs showing a pattern of fake traffic. The bots installed an old version of the app, opened it once, and never came back, making it difficult to detect the fake installs. The author suspects a bot farm was behind the fake installs and is waiting for Google's response to an invalid-traffic form. The author has since changed the ad campaign's goal to 'won a puzzle' to make it harder for bots to fake interactions.

Main themes

• Google app ads
• bot farms
• fake traffic
• ad campaign optimization
• residential proxies
• ad fraud detection

What commenters say

• Running ads can be challenging and it's easy to waste money on fake traffic, so it's essential to monitor ad performance closely.
• Bot farms can fake ad interactions to get paid by Google, and this can lead to a significant waste of ad spend for advertisers.
• Some commenters believe that Google has no incentive to investigate and fix bot farm issues, as it benefits from the increased ad revenue.
• Displaying ads only on Google search webpages may be a way to avoid bot traffic, as third-party websites are more prone to fake interactions.
• Bot farms can use residential proxies to avoid detection, making it harder for advertisers to identify and block fake traffic.
• Some commenters suggest that there should be an open database of known bot networks to help advertisers exclude them from their ad campaigns.
• Changing the ad campaign's goal to a more specific action, such as completing a puzzle, can make it harder for bots to fake interactions and improve ad performance.