This situation involves a Google Pay-Per-Click (PPC) user who repeatedly clicks on the same instance of an ad multiple times. Google has specific time limits during which it considers these duplicate clicks as normal behaviour. However, if these clicks occur outside these time limits, Google might charge advertisers multiple times for a single user clicking on the same ad more than once. This behaviour is not always fraudulent or malicious but is rarely beneficial for advertisers. Users who engage in this behaviour can be categorized into two groups: those with harmful intentions and those who intend to return to a website even when an ad is not displayed. Here are some real-world examples to illustrate this:
A person is searching for a new internet service provider (ISP) for their home. They repeatedly click on the same ad to compare different internet plans. In most cases, this user would have eventually returned to the website organically, meaning the multiple charges for the same ad instance would have wasted the advertiser’s budget.
Another user is checking a flight aggregation website for deals. They right-click on an ad 5-10 times to check various destinations. This behavior repeats over the course of a week before they decide to book. This user would likely have returned to the website organically, regardless of the ads being shown, which could cost the advertiser a significant portion of their ad budget.
A plumbing business wants to deplete their competitors’ ad budgets, as the keywords related to their field have a high cost-per-click (CPC). They repeatedly click on their competitor’s ad, go back, and click again, doing this repeatedly. A malicious actor could exhaust their competitor’s daily ad budget in just a few minutes.
In summary, repeated clicks on the same ad instance can lead to unnecessary charges for advertisers and are typically caused by users with either malicious intent or a strong intent to return to the website, making it an inefficient use of ad budgets.