Problems with Ciao - Help Needed Please

[niggle]

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Hi

Shoes.co.uk joined the Ciao network in November 2008. We sent them our Froogle feed and they were able to add all of our products in to their shopping directory. We dilligently paid the first invoice but after Christmas noticed a disparity between the number of clicks that we were being charged for vs the number of clicks coming through our analytics.

For example February's Invoice is for just over 1000 clicks where Google analytics show we had just 94 referrals from their network. (December and January show lesser disparities)

We pay so much per click with Ciao so you can see that we are being billed for around ten times the figure which we think we should be billed for.

According to Ciao they knock out any clicks above 5 from the same IP address in the same minute but this would not explain the disparity. (odd in itself?)

Could anyone please explain how this could happen because Ciao have already threatened legal action if we don't pay their invoice in 7 days!

Help! :cry

[D-Mac]

Big discrepancy!

Possible explantions, in no particular order:

1. Analytics is misreporting clicks from Ciao for some reason. E.g. the javascript code is missing on some of your landing pages.
2. Ciao have a technical error that is causing misreporting of exit clicks.
3. You are mis-reading your Analytics stats.
4. Ciao are trying their luck.
5. You are trying your luck.

What can you do?

1. Dig out you logfiles (if available), and run them through a logfile analyser. This will give you a 'second opinion' on the clicks you have received.
2. Ask Ciao if they can provide more information on the clicks they have sent you. E.g. times/dates of clicks, ip addresses, which products were clicked on, etc. The more data they can provide the easier you can verify their claim.

Good luck.

[D-Mac]

Do all Ciao clicks come from ciao.co.uk or do they have partner sites?

[niggle]

D-Mac, thanks for that I will get the logfiles from Rackspace.

They provided me with an IP report for Jan which for example showed 60 clicks throughs from a single IP address in 15 minutes. The report is littered with multiple clicks from single ips which suggests either:

1. Someone really loves our shoes and is continually clicking through!
2. Click fraud.

Ciao won't admit anything funny is going on but have agreed to cancel clicks above 5 from a single ip. This leaves us with the ones between 2-5 which could also be suspect but still does not explain the huge disparity between the figures.

Since there is no question of us trying it on I need to do more digging.

I wonder how many peple even comtemplate that they would pay for up to 5 clicks from the same IP?

[niggle]

Oh BTW they are all from Ciao - no other networks are showing.

[williamjack38]

Ciao has a big name in the internet market. I dont think so Ciao is wrong in this matter, you have got a click bomb, have you given answer to ciao about legal notice.

[niggle]

Not true, their ip files show multiple clicks from the same ip, also there are no clicks from the 4th Feb to the end as shown on analytics yet they say there were over 1000. Where did they go then?

[niggle]

I split the difference between what they said we owe and what I calculated was correct so trying to meet them half way and explained what I was doing and why. They have simply sent a further 7 day demand without answering my emails.

Quite how you can say "I dont think so Ciao is wrong in this matter" is pretty dumb, do you work for them?

[lizzie01]

I think CIAO is in trouble for a couple of weeks now. They are always in the "under maintenance" state. I'm a member of the site, it used to be good. Their services are great. But now, it's a whole different kind of story.
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