How to trick viewers into clicking your PPC ads

[headspin]

Wouldn't you easily get banned from doing this?

The main way they would find out is if the CTR was way above average. I added a randomizer variable to the script so that it only displays the fake cursor to a percentage of the page viewers. So far I've set it on 100% so I can test the method, but now that I've seen the CTR is around 30% I'm gonna turn it down.

Edit: If you keep under the radar (i.e. don't send 1,000,000 clicks per day), they won't tell because for all practical purposes the user is the one clicking on the link. To find out, an affiliate manager or someone would have to load the page and try to click on the video. Even if they loaded the page just to look at it, all they would see is a seemingly-normal video player and ads to the side because the fake cursor only loads when you mouseover the player. Nothing to get banned about.

 

[dbrown]

sorry, but this is not a crap idea. Its freakin genious.

I agree.. Must fine tune the process and repeat on a mass scale...

 

[Dotcomer]

Imagine using this on a forums. You put the adsense image somewhere near the reply button. Now you offset the mouse such that when they hit the reply button with the "fake" mouse icon, its actually hitting the adsense ad.

Now you filter out bad referers on your forums, and only display the javascript when the conditions are safe, Then you add in some randomization say 1 in 100. Its almost completely undetectable.

now that is smart...I like and thanks for the code, was looking for it on the forum.

 

[dbrown]

Now you filter out bad referers on your forums, and only display the javascript when the conditions are safe, Then you add in some randomization say 1 in 100. Its almost completely undetectable.

Stop tapping into my brain..I got a decent forum and I am coding this right now, but I am doing something more compliant than SL>

 

[Nick Flame]

This gave me some freaking good ideas, thanks for sharing.
If you target your video audience so that they would be interested in the adsense ads, you can even go away with cheating the big G

Example:

the fake video display a naked pictures of britney spears, and the play video button.
the adsense ads are targeted around britney spears keywords, therefore you ll have britney spears ads in them.
Users click the britney spears video with the hopes to see her naked, they are sent to an adwords publisher focusing on britney spears stuff---semitargetting, they may even browse that site, for a while, making it look like a legit visitor.

 

[openfire]

This gave me some freaking good ideas, thanks for sharing.
If you target your video audience so that they would be interested in the adsense ads, you can even go away with cheating the big G

Example:

the fake video display a naked pictures of britney spears, and the play video button.
the adsense ads are targeted around britney spears keywords, therefore you ll have britney spears ads in them.
Users click the britney spears video with the hopes to see her naked, they are sent to an adwords publisher focusing on britney spears stuff---semitargetting, they may even browse that site, for a while, making it look like a legit visitor.

Now that is smart.

 

[marttali]

interesting, gives me manu ideas ....

 

[headspin]

Javascript version is up! I took a while because I wanted to make some adjustments to the idea, but I'd appreciate it if you all had a look and let me know if you find any other problems with the page as my CTR has been steadily dropping from 20% when I first put the javascript up to barely 4% now, and that's without any randomizing at all.

I think it may be due to the page loading slowly, but there's not much I can do about that. I've compressed and reduced all pictures, the page is only about 60K in total, so I think the server on which I'm hosting this might be slow.

If you want the script, save the source code of the page. It's messy but it's there, so get it now before I move to a new host.

 

[irancrude]

It would be better to have a real video there and once it is done then await the viewer to do the obvious.. click in the ads, this can be easily suggested by simply modifying the shape of the ad boxes from squared, etc to some nicer geometric figures

Maurice

 

[west2nd]

Has anyone considered that ppc companies would check the source code on the page and ban based on that?

 

[headspin]

It would be better to have a real video there and once it is done then await the viewer to do the obvious.. click in the ads, this can be easily suggested by simply modifying the shape of the ad boxes from squared, etc to some nicer geometric figures

Maurice

Hadn't thought about that, but it does sound like a good idea. I'll try it on another page and see which works better.

 

[headspin]

Has anyone considered that ppc companies would check the source code on the page and ban based on that?

Bidvertiser isn't google. I wouldn't risk doing this with adsense.

 

[bhjohn]

Visited your page and both Firefox and Internet Explorer do not work for me with this page. Here are the problems I see on my computer:

Firefox - "video" never loads. I just get the message, "Please wait while the video player loads..." and it never does.

Internet Explorer - the "video" loads, but the cursor switching doesn't work and/or line up properly for me. When I move the real cursor into the video box, the fake cursor does start to move, but my original cursor never disappears.

Obviously if my original cursor is there, that extra cursor that is copying my real cursor's movements just looks strange. Definitely wouldn't make me use that weird looking cursor over my real one.

I'm assuming this is why your CTR is so dismal when it should be very high.

Let everyone know if you get this sorted out, or if anyone else is having these troubles.

 

[brewt]

That is an awesome idea. I am working on a variation of the same idea.

 

[headspin]

Visited your page and both Firefox and Internet Explorer do not work for me with this page. Here are the problems I see on my computer:

Firefox - "video" never loads. I just get the message, "Please wait while the video player loads..." and it never does.

Internet Explorer - the "video" loads, but the cursor switching doesn't work and/or line up properly for me. When I move the real cursor into the video box, the fake cursor does start to move, but my original cursor never disappears.

Obviously if my original cursor is there, that extra cursor that is copying my real cursor's movements just looks strange. Definitely wouldn't make me use that weird looking cursor over my real one.

I'm assuming this is why your CTR is so dismal when it should be very high.

Let everyone know if you get this sorted out, or if anyone else is having these troubles.

Thanks for your feedback which confirms what I thought was the cause of the low CTR. In both cases, I've managed to replicate the problems you brought up and in both cases they're due to the page taking too long to load (because the empty cursor file loads after everything else, so IE reverts to the default cursor in the meantime). In Firefox, the video player does eventually load, but it takes forever (and the whole thing is only 60K, so shouldn't have any trouble loading!).


I'm switching to a new host today, I hope that will solve the problem. If not I'll have to find a way to load the cursor before the rest of the page.

EDIT: Or maybe I'll put a progress bar in to keep the user on the page while everything loads.

 

[headspin]

I have just switched to a new host. I hope this will clear up the problems you may have had with the page. I did some speed tests on the page and it seems to be loading much faster now, but do let me know if you run into any more trouble.


The new page is available at:

hxxp://www.extreme-updates.com/Videos.htm

 

[padaman420]

I'm seeing 2 cursors and they both stay for a while, and as mentionned above i would use the normal one over the one generated by the webpage.

But I see so much potential with this, to bad I don't know nothing about javascript

 

[ghost65]

Just tried your new page...

Im using IE 7.0 and the mouse moves much better but when I get to the center of the video, I see the "finger" hover over the ad on the left side (first ad in the list - it shows just outside on the edge of the video box).

Hope this helps.

 

[headspin]

Just tried your new page...

Im using IE 7.0 and the mouse moves much better but when I get to the center of the video, I see the "finger" hover over the ad on the left side (first ad in the list - it shows just outside on the edge of the video box).

Hope this helps.

I'm aware of this too, and it's the only downside of this method that is (to my knowledge) permanent. There's nothing I can do about that because the code for the ads "belongs" to a different page so I can't change the cursor on that page.

The idea is that the video player lighting up will distract you enough so that you won't see the hand. Obviously it's not a 100% foolproof method.

 

[dashndash]

I'm aware of this too, and it's the only downside of this method that is (to my knowledge) permanent. There's nothing I can do about that because the code for the ads "belongs" to a different page so I can't change the cursor on that page.

The idea is that the video player lighting up will distract you enough so that you won't see the hand. Obviously it's not a 100% foolproof method.

Yeah I agree!! I was reading this whole thread but there wasn't a single post that guarantee me that I won't get banned from Ad networks like Google And Bidvertiser... If you don't get caught today you will get banned in a week for SURE! I've tried similar Ideas before... And they were better I say... But they won't work. Of course you will get clicks, but it won't take much time to get banned, after all those Ad Networks are not mad to let you pull their legs...

They have more professionals than you think ever, they know each and every loop hole, and also they know to tackle it properly... And also they know to remove and throw these kind of publishers away from their COFFEE!

My suggestion "Don't ever try this!" If you wanna go ahead with this, just think of day when you will get banned before getting a single new red CENT with all money you have earned with truth...!!

You people won't imagine how far I went with this, but it's of no use... They caught you everytime...