{"id":1121,"date":"2022-10-12T06:47:10","date_gmt":"2022-10-11T22:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/byy3.com\/?p=1121"},"modified":"2022-10-12T06:47:10","modified_gmt":"2022-10-11T22:47:10","slug":"google-ads-clicker-with-python-selenium-and-tor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/byy3.com\/?p=1121","title":{"rendered":"Google Ads Clicker with Python, Selenium, and Tor"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Tor<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
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How to click ads with different IPs.<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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\"Google<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/div>
Photo by\u00a0Pixabay<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Pexels<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Recently, someone from a local freelancing platform asked me to write a program to click ads for a given search query on Google. I sent him a sample but he decided not to buy it, so I decided to publish it here.<\/p>\n

It uses the Tor network to change the IP address and Selenium with Python bindings for browser automation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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How to Setup Environment and Tor<\/h2>\n

You can follow the steps manually from\u00a0this gist<\/a>\u00a0to set up Tor or use the following script to set up both virtual environment and Tor.<\/p>\n

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#!\/bin\/bash\r\n\r\nproject_dir=$(pwd)\r\n\r\n# get password for Tor setup\r\ntor_pwd=\"\"\r\necho \"Enter a password for tor network setup\"\r\nread tor_pwd\r\n\r\necho \"Setting environment variable TOR_PWD...\"\r\necho \"export TOR_PWD=$tor_pwd\" >> ~\/.bashrc\r\nsource ~\/.bashrc\r\ncd $project_dir\r\n\r\necho \"Installing Tor package...\"\r\nsudo apt update\r\nsudo apt install -y tor\r\n\r\necho \"Installing privoxy package...\"\r\nsudo apt install -y privoxy\r\n\r\n# create virtual environment and activate\r\necho \"Creating virtual environment...\"\r\npython -m venv env\r\nsource env\/bin\/activate\r\n\r\n# install requirements\r\necho \"Installing required packages...\"\r\npip install wheel\r\npip install -r requirements.txt\r\n\r\n# run as root\r\nsudo su - <<EOF\r\necho \"Making changes as root...\"\r\n\r\nport_enabled=$(egrep \"^ControlPort 9051\" \/etc\/tor\/torrc)\r\nif [[ -z \"${port_enabled}\" ]]; then\r\n echo \"Enabling control port...\"\r\n echo \"ControlPort 9051\" >> \/etc\/tor\/torrc\r\nfi\r\n\r\necho \"Setting hashed Tor password...\"\r\necho HashedControlPassword $(tor --hash-password \"${tor_pwd}\" | tail -n 1) >> \/etc\/tor\/torrc\r\n\r\necho \"Starting Tor service...\"\r\nservice tor restart\r\n\r\necho \"Setting privoxy config...\"\r\necho \"forward-socks5t \/ 127.0.0.1:9050 .\" >> \/etc\/privoxy\/config\r\nservice privoxy start\r\nEOF\r\n\r\necho \"::::: Setup Completed :::::\"\r\n\r\n# add run command as help\r\necho -e \"\\nRun the following commands to start\"\r\necho \"source env\/bin\/activate\"\r\necho \"python ad_clicker.py -q <search keywords>\"<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
You should see the following output at the end of the run.<\/p>\n
...\r\nEnabling control port...\r\nSetting hashed Tor password...\r\nStarting Tor service...\r\n::::: Setup Completed :::::<\/span>Run the following commands to start\r\nsource env\/bin\/activate\r\npython ad_clicker.py -q <search keywords><\/span><\/pre>\n
Since your environment and Tor setup is ready at this point, we can continue with the implementation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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How to Implement the Ad Clicker Automation<\/h2>\n
After setting up Tor, it is easy to change your IP within Python code using the\u00a0stem<\/code>\u00a0package.<\/p>\n
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from stem import Signal\r\nfrom stem.control import Controller\r\n\r\n\r\ndef change_ip_address(password):\r\n \"\"\"Change IP address over Tor connection\r\n\r\n :type password: str\r\n :param password: Tor authentication password\r\n \"\"\"\r\n\r\n logger.info(\"Changing ip address...\")\r\n with Controller.from_port(port=9051) as controller:\r\n controller.authenticate(password=password)\r\n controller.signal(Signal.NEWNYM)<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
The script requires a query parameter with the\u00a0-q<\/code>\u00a0option. If you used the\u00a0ad_clicker_setup.sh<\/code>\u00a0script, the Tor authentication password will be received from the\u00a0TOR_PWD<\/code>\u00a0environment variable. Otherwise, the user will be asked to type the password determined at the setup phase.<\/p>\n
After IP is changed, a search on Google will be initiated for the given query. If there are ads in the results, they will be clicked in order.<\/p>\n
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def main():\r\n\r\n arg_parser = get_arg_parser()\r\n args = arg_parser.parse_args()\r\n\r\n if not args.query:\r\n logger.error(\"Run with search query!\")\r\n arg_parser.print_help()\r\n raise SystemExit()\r\n\r\n os.environ[\"WDM_LOG_LEVEL\"] = \"0\"\r\n password = os.environ.get(\"TOR_PWD\", None)\r\n\r\n if not password:\r\n password = getpass.getpass(\"Enter tor password: \")\r\n\r\n change_ip_address(password)\r\n\r\n response = requests.get(\"https:\/\/api.myip.com\", proxies={\"https\": \"socks5h:\/\/127.0.0.1:9050\"})\r\n logger.info(f\"Connecting with IP: {response.json()['ip']}\")\r\n\r\n search_controller = SearchController(args.query)\r\n ads = search_controller.search_for_ads()\r\n\r\n if not ads:\r\n logger.info(\"No ads in the search results!\")\r\n else:\r\n logger.info(f\"Found {len(ads)} ads\")\r\n search_controller.click_ads(ads)\r\n search_controller.end_search()\r\n\r\n\r\nif __name__ == \"__main__\":\r\n\r\n main()<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
The\u00a0SearchController<\/code>\u00a0class is the actual module that does the work. It starts the search and performs clicks for ads found.<\/p>\n
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def search_for_ads(self):\r\n \"\"\"Start search for the given query and return ads if any\r\n\r\n :rtype: list\r\n :returns: List of (ad, ad_link) tuples\r\n \"\"\"\r\n\r\n logger.info(f\"Starting search for {self._search_query}\")\r\n\r\n search_input_box = self._driver.find_element(*self.SEARCH_INPUT)\r\n search_input_box.send_keys(self._search_query, Keys.ENTER)\r\n\r\n ad_links = []\r\n\r\n try:\r\n wait = WebDriverWait(self._driver, timeout=10)\r\n results_loaded = wait.until(EC.presence_of_element_located((By.ID, \"result-stats\")))\r\n\r\n if results_loaded:\r\n logger.info(\"Getting ad links...\")\r\n ad_links = self._get_ad_links()\r\n\r\n except TimeoutException:\r\n logger.error(\"Timed out waiting for results!\")\r\n self.end_search()\r\n\r\n return ad_links<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
The\u00a0search_for_ads<\/code>\u00a0method first locates the search box and enters the search query. After results loaded, the\u00a0_get_ad_links<\/code>\u00a0method locates all ads under the element with id\u00a0tads,\u00a0<\/em>and found ads are returned.<\/em><\/p>\n
After ads are found, the\u00a0click_ads<\/code>\u00a0method opens them in a different tab by sending\u00a0Control<\/code>\u00a0and left mouse key to the ad link element.<\/p>\n
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def click_ads(self, ads):\r\n \"\"\"Click ads found\r\n\r\n :type ads: list\r\n :param ads: List of (ad, ad_link) tuples\r\n \"\"\"\r\n\r\n # store the ID of the original window\r\n original_window_handle = self._driver.current_window_handle\r\n\r\n for ad in ads:\r\n ad_link_element = ad[0]\r\n ad_link = ad[1]\r\n logger.info(f\"Clicking {ad_link}...\")\r\n\r\n # open link in a different tab\r\n ad_link_element.send_keys(Keys.CONTROL + Keys.RETURN)\r\n\r\n for window_handle in self._driver.window_handles:\r\n if window_handle != original_window_handle:\r\n self._driver.switch_to.window(window_handle)\r\n sleep(4)\r\n self._driver.close()\r\n break\r\n\r\n # go back to original window\r\n self._driver.switch_to.window(original_window_handle)\r\n sleep(1)\r\n\r\n # scroll the page to avoid elements remain outside of the view\r\n self._driver.execute_script(\"arguments[0].scrollIntoView(true);\", ad_link_element)<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
After clicking all the ads, the\u00a0end_search<\/code>\u00a0method closes the browser.<\/p>\n
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def end_search(self):\r\n \"\"\"Close the browser\"\"\"\r\n\r\n self._driver.quit()<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
You can find the project\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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\"Google<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/div>
Execution of the ad_clicker.py<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Thank you for your time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tor How to click ads with different IPs. Photo by\u00a0Pixab […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,1,21],"tags":[226,744,747,746,745,225],"class_list":["post-1121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-python","category-net-security","category-script","tag-google","tag-google-ads","tag-google-ads-click","tag-google-click","tag-google-search","tag-tor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/byy3.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/byy3.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/byy3.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/byy3.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/byy3.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/byy3.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1121\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/byy3.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/byy3.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/byy3.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}