While pay-per-click advertising has many advantages, it has its pitfalls as well, one of which is click fraud. Click fraud comes in many forms, but two of the most common are: (1) when ad publishers seek to artificially inflate their revenue from your ad listing by clicking through to your site themselves, and (2) when companies either hire individuals or create web bots to click on the ads of their competitors. Whatever form it takes, the results can be devastating, driving up your advertising costs and damaging your business. Although there is no way to eliminate fraudulent clicks entirely, there are several things you can do to protect your online business. Read on to find out what they are.
Overture to Success
The first important step to minimizing click fraud is selecting a pay per click search engine which offers the most protection. While all PPC engines are susceptible to some extent, Overture provides the best defense against fraudulent clicks. Overture's approach to this problem has proven much more effective than that of other PPC engines, and while it is certainly possible to abuse Overture, it is substantially more difficult than with other systems. Overture is proactive in their tactics, with a click fraud detection team that vigilantly watches for click fraud activity and acts on reports of the same. Overture also occasionally gives refunds to advertisers who can prove they have been victimized by fraudulent clicks.
Data Analysis
The second line of defense is to take defensive action yourself. To analyze your own website traffic, go to your web hosting control panel, where you will be able to access your raw data stats. Most web hosting services will provide raw data logs with paid web hosting packages. If you have difficulty in accessing your stats, or if you don't know how, contact the support staff of your web hosting service. Fraud detection experts recommend that you look for the following things in your raw data logs:
- IP addresses that appear repeatedly
- An unusual or large number of clicks coming from the same geographic region or country
- IP addresses that belong to cloaking software companies
- Keywords that do not usually get much traffic, which are now getting an abnormally high number of clicks
- Doubling or tripling of your click throughs, without any accompanying bid changes or rank changes.
Source: Pierre Zarokian
Fraud Reporting
When you discover misbehavior through scrutiny of your raw stats logs, you will be in a good position to provide proof, and perhaps even get a refund for the fraudulent clicks. Be aware that PPC engines cannot refund money to everyone who files a complaint about click fraud. However, they are more likely to do so when an advertiser can back up his claim with convincing documentation and proof of the fraud.
Vigilance
If you are a pay per click advertiser, click fraud is a virtual inevitability. To protect your business, it is important to be consistent in monitoring your click through activity and keeping good records. Watch for new technologies for analysis of site stats and tracking PPC usage. Ultimately, you are the best and most motivated defender of your assets. Make a stand against pay per click abuse, and never stoop to fraudulent use of the PPC system yourself.
Learn other avoidance tactics from ClickLab.
