YouTube Question "Invalid Click Activity" Adsense warning

[Beanie Draws]

So I remember years ago I got a warning from Adsense about invalid click activity. This was somewhere around 2016 when anyone could get it, and it lead me to start wondering.

In Adsense terms of service it warns that it can terminate your account for fraudulently clicking on ads, which is fair enough.

It did however make me wonder if watching your own videos (in a self analysis format as not everyone keeps their videos on hard drives and sometimes use their channel as their only form of video storage) counts towards that.

I do know that you should NEVER click on an ad on your own videos, I must have accidently done that once to warrant the warningbemail (it didn't ask me to login or click any links but just warned me not to do it again to be familiar with the terms of service)

So now whenever I watch my own videos (to make sure captions are displaying correctly) I'm terrified of accidently clicking an ad.

Some will say that's why YouTube Premium is great, and sure, if you're not already paying for monthly adobe, spotify, Netflix, Disney plus, phone bills, monthly memberships to creators, it all ads up after a while, so YouTube premium isn't the top of my priority so I live with the ads. I just get worried about accidently clicking my own ads or that somehow letting them play will get me in trouble with adsense one day.

This is also an issue when leaving pinned comments on old videos, again you have to open the video in YouTube to place a comment to pin...

Do you ever think about this or worry about it? Or do you not even know about that rule?

Interested to hear thoughts.

 

[cok sunbro]

So I remember years ago I got a warning from Adsense about invalid click activity. This was somewhere around 2016 when anyone could get it, and it lead me to start wondering.

In Adsense terms of service it warns that it can terminate your account for fraudulently clicking on ads, which is fair enough.

It did however make me wonder if watching your own videos (in a self analysis format as not everyone keeps their videos on hard drives and sometimes use their channel as their only form of video storage) counts towards that.

I do know that you should NEVER click on an ad on your own videos, I must have accidently done that once to warrant the warningbemail (it didn't ask me to login or click any links but just warned me not to do it again to be familiar with the terms of service)

So now whenever I watch my own videos (to make sure captions are displaying correctly) I'm terrified of accidently clicking an ad.

Some will say that's why YouTube Premium is great, and sure, if you're not already paying for monthly adobe, spotify, Netflix, Disney plus, phone bills, monthly memberships to creators, it all ads up after a while, so YouTube premium isn't the top of my priority so I live with the ads. I just get worried about accidently clicking my own ads or that somehow letting them play will get me in trouble with adsense one day.

This is also an issue when leaving pinned comments on old videos, again you have to open the video in YouTube to place a comment to pin...

Do you ever think about this or worry about it? Or do you not even know about that rule?

Interested to hear thoughts.

Hahah, I didnt know thats a thing, It does make sense to not pay youtubers for watching their own ads, but i think youtube should have their system ready for that. Sometimes clicking accidently should be fine but if they see a pattern that you are clicking it on daily basis, then it could be a problem.

 

[Damon]

Had no idea. I rarely click on my own ads. Sometimes an ad is right up my ally. Chevy may have a new truck, Panasonic may be launching a new camera, then I'll click. Man, though, getting hit with a fraudulent click because you honestly or mistakenly clicked an ad seems beyond sketchy.

 

[Blessing]

I do watch my video on my channel and if an ad is showing I let it run like I expect other viewers to especially if it is the yellow ads. Now I not gotten any message. I have to open my video often as I refer to them on my news website and I link them for all my daily news. Uhmmmm, this will mean I will get into trouble then but then I dont click on the ads. I dont think there is anything wrong with watching my own video. I share my laptop with my husband, he catch up on my video on the same laptop on my account and during the holiday I had family friends come around and we watched and reviewed my videos. We leave the ads alone though no clicking.

 

[zanderlex]

Clicking on your own add seems like too small a thing for them to do anything, and I'm pretty sure YouTube has ways of simply cutting off those views from revenue if they know it's you. There's dozens of reasons a channel could be hit by Invalid Click Activity.