Long story short, three banner ads, exhibited extremely high click through rates. It turned out they were clicking through without anyone clicking on them. What all three files have in common is extra getURLs
The AS for a getURL in a banner ad is
on (release) {
if (_root.clickTAG.substr(0,5) == “http:”) {
getURL(_root.clickTAG, “_blank”);
}
}
These files had a single button with correct clickTag AS, but they also had one or two extra getURLs not associated with any button or movieclip.
getURL(_root.clickTAG, “false”);
These extra getURLs appear to be capable of hearing mouse clicks outside of the Flash file, for instance clicking on a link on the same page. I also have a feeling that these extra getURLs would cause one legitimate click to count as 2 or 3 clicks.
Because of the the “false” parameter, I do not believe this is an honest mistake. The getURL(_root.clickTAG, “false”); appears on scene1, frame 1 and references no on (release) button or movieclip, but appears to be able to use the legitimate clickTag button, as I did change it to getURL(“http://yahoo.com”, “false”); and it clicked through to yahoo.
