Recently, an article appeared on CNET stating that Google has filed a lawsuit against a Florida-based company alleging they fraudulently abused the Google PPC system to profit from the advertisers' ad spending.
This is quite interesting, as it proves that click fraud is
becoming more of a problem than ever and search engines are
finally taking action. As well, there was a case earlier this
year where a California man tried to blackmail Google by threatening to release a software
program that could cost them millions of dollars in fraudulent
clicks unless they paid him $150,000. Fortunately, Google fought
back, and the man was indicted. Other than that, this is really
the first time that a search engine has taken legal means in
order to fight scammers.
Depending on how much you spend on PPC advertising, you may or
may not feel the results of such fraud. In some competitive
industries, clicks reach a cost of $5 and more. Those particular
ads represent the biggest payoff for the perpetrators, so top
advertisers definitely feel it when as much as 5% to 15% of their
spending goes to waste.
One of the main problems is that Google and other search engines
offer revenue-sharing programs, such as AdSense, for publishers
who are willing to put Google content ads on their websites.
Monitoring thousands and thousands of publishers can be a
daunting task, and you can bet that, human nature being what it
is, some website owners click on their ads every now and then to
boost their revenue. While individually that may not be much
money lost, collectively it becomes a huge issue.
Click fraud can also occur in several other ways. Whether it's an
automated bot that is programmed to click on your ads, a company
employing low-wage workers in India or China to click on ads from
home, an organized setup in Omaha, Nebraska complete with
rotating IP addresses on all 300 computers in the warehouse, or
your own competitor himself trying to deplete your budget, it's
getting pretty hard to track and monitor.
I've also observed that most search engines are very secretive
about their fraud monitoring systems. While the reasoning behind
that is clear, it doesn't really tell us exactly how they are
battling the problem. This leaves advertisers on their own to try
and figure out what's going on. Luckily, there are tools
available, such as Who's Clicking Who and Clicklab that track your advertising
activity for you and report any suspicion of fraud.
My personal recommendation would be to carefully monitor your own
traffic using a third party service. It's an added cost, but if
you spend several hundreds per month on PPC advertising,
it'll be worth it. If you notice any unusual activity, don't hesitate to
contact the search engine, investigate the issue, and request a
refund for those clicks. Most of the time, they will be more than
happy to comply with your request.
Unfortunately, I expect click fraud to grow and diversify, so
it's important that you have the knowledge and tools to protect
yourself against it.
About the Author:
Boris Mordkovich is the editor for a Pay
Per Click advertising resource site, PayPerClickUniverse.com.
PPCU offers articles, reviews, weekly blog, and more to help small businesses
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