Clicks Up, Sales Down? You Might Be Under Attack

You check your campaign.
Clicks? Sky high.
Sales? Nada.
🤔 Something’s not adding up…

Well, friend, you might be the victim of one of Amazon advertising’s dirtiest little secrets:

👉 Click Theft.

Yep. It’s real. It’s sneaky. And if you're not paying attention, it can quietly eat your ad spend like Pac-Man on caffeine.

Let’s break down what it is, how it works, and what you can actually do about it.

📖 The Case of the Vanishing Budget
Let me tell you about Carlos.

Carlos sells eco-friendly lunch containers—great reviews, solid photos, and solid organic sales. But the minute he launched Sponsored Product ads?

🚨 Boom. Ad budget gone in 48 hours.
💥 Clicks up.
📉 Sales flatlined.

He was convinced his product had tanked. “Maybe people just hate lunchboxes now?” he joked in our coaching session.

But here’s what was really going on...

🔍 What Is Click Theft?

Click theft (aka click fraud) happens when your ads get clicked by bots, competitors, or even shady services—with zero intent to buy.

It’s like someone’s repeatedly ringing your doorbell and sprinting away.

Here’s how it happens:

• 🧑‍💻 A competitor clicks your ad to drain your budget

• 🤖 Bots randomly click ads as part of traffic generation schemes

• 💼 Overseas click farms hired to mess with your data

• 😈 People with nothing better to do (yep, they exist)

Amazon has systems in place to detect “invalid traffic,” but guess what? Stuff still slips through.

📉 How to Spot Click Theft (Before It Kills Your Campaign)

If you’re noticing any of these signs, your account might be under click attack:

1. High Clicks, Low Sales
   CTR looks normal or even strong. But conversions? Ghost town.

2. Sudden Spikes in Spend
   Your budget gets chewed up faster than usual—and not on high-converting keywords.

3. Identical Click Patterns
   Clicks hit the same SKU, same time every day, with no purchase. Suspicious? You bet.

4. Geographic Weirdness
   You’re targeting the US...but your traffic shows signs of activity from odd locations (check reports carefully).

5. “Too Fast” Clicks
   Clicks coming in too quickly after ad impressions? Bots don’t take time to read your headline.

🛠️ What Can You Do About It?

Now here's the good news—you’re not powerless.

Here’s what I told Carlos (and what you can do too):

✅ 1. Watch Your Search Term Report Like a Hawk
Look for terms getting clicks but not converting. If something smells fishy, negative match it immediately.

✅ 2. Use Placement Reports
See where your ads are showing up. Sometimes click farms abuse lower-tier placements like rest-of-search.

✅ 3. Set Daily Budgets with Guardrails
Don’t give Amazon (or anyone else) an open wallet. Cap your daily spend tight when testing.

✅ 4. Leverage Third-Party Monitoring Tools
Tools like Helium 10 and ZonGuru can alert you to strange traffic spikes or bot-like behavior.

✅ 5. Report It
Yep—you can contact Amazon and file a support ticket under “suspicious ad activity.”
They may refund for invalid clicks (Carlos got $126 back!).

🎯 Big Takeaway:
Click theft is real—but if you watch the right signals and stay sharp, you can catch it early and protect your ad dollars.

Don’t just feed the Amazon machine.
📈 Make your budget work for you.

💬 “Don’t just track your clicks—track their intentions.”

🙋‍♂️ Ever caught click fraud on your account?
👇 Drop a comment if this hit home

Or better yet…
💌 Forward this to another Amazon seller who needs to see it (before they lose another dime).

Catch you in the next one,

Andy Splichal
Founder & Managing Partner of True Online Presence & Author of the Make Each Click Count Book Series

P.S. Want to scale your sales without scaling your stress? I manage PPC for sellers who are serious about growth. 🎯 Book a free strategy call here — we’ll map out a winning game plan.

P.S. Want a fast way to increase your Amazon sales? Take a look at my new software, Persona Factor, that uses your product reviews to optimize your product titles and descriptions.

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