Search engine marketing is a billion dollar business, but click fraud is a problem for both search engine advertising companies and online marketers. Pay-Per-Click ad campaigns are pretty easy to understand. Advertisers bid on popular search keywords and pay the search engine ad companies every time someone clicks on their ad. This works out well for both the advertiser and the company that runs the search engine. The problem comes when click fraud makes the advertisers' numbers and bills look bigger than they really are.
How does click fraud work?
Search Marketing Standard, a magazine that is only about search marketing, has a writer named Boris Mordkovich. He says that click fraud is when someone clicks on an ad without actually wanting to buy something or find information, but rather to use up the advertiser's budget.
Who is Responsible?
Who would gain if you purposely ran up your bill? First of all, so would your competitors. The ads at the top of the page are always in the sights of the ads just below them. And if your competitor clicks on your ad a few times a day or a few times a week, the search engines won't notice. Even though it doesn't sound like much, it can really add up, especially if a lot of competitors are doing the same thing. So they just keep taking money out of your budget until you can't afford to advertise on that search engine anymore.
Search engine affiliates are often a source of click fraud as well. When webmasters get a cut of the money from the ads on their sites, they sometimes play the same games as your competitors. They quietly click on your ad, which raises your bill and gives them more money.
Fighting Back: "It Could Happen to You"
If you think you've found a case of click fraud, you should do the following:
- The place where the clicks came from.
- When they were clicked on,
- The clicks that don't make sense
- Which words people clicked on
You can do this yourself by keeping an eye on your server logs and looking for strange jumps in activity or repeated clicks from the same ISP address. You can also ask someone else to do the research for you. Clickclub.com, AdWatcher.com, and WhosClickingWho.com are all examples of services that will figure out which of your clicks are real and give you an organised report of all the important information. This kind of service could cost you anywhere from $20 to $100 per month.
You can send this information to your search engine in an email and ask them to look into it so you can get a refund. Mordkovich says you should expect some pushback, but it's important to bring the problem to the attention of a manager. If the search engines believe you, they will look into what you say.
The best way to avoid click fraud is to be aware of it. Keep an eye on where you click. Look at the server's logs. Look out for spikes. If you need to, think about hiring an outside watchdog. Click fraud is real, and a lot of people do it. So be careful, and you can save yourself a lot of money in the long run.
