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Guide to Spotting and Preventing Click Fraud
Without an effective strategy, your revenue model may fall short
By Chris Maxcer
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Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising on the Web has proven to be tremendously popular among small business and is one of the advertising industry's fastest growing sectors. But "click fraud" remains a concern among many businesses. Click fraud occurs when a person or computer program imitates a Web browsing person by clicking on an ad with the intent to trigger a pay-per-click charge. Opinions vary about the extent of the problem, but it depends on the industry and search engine or other side involved. Major search engines are most vulnerable, while the lesser known "vertical" sites that stick to a specific search topic have had less of a problem. Key things you should know about click fraud: - In general, if you advertise in a highly-competitive area, or advertise using moderate to expensive keywords, you could be prone to click fraud.
- Other factors that you might spot are low conversion rates on your PPC ads, or a sudden increase in the number of clicks that occur on your ads.
Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done
 Use a third-party fraud detection service
Third-party fraud detection software and services look at everything from repeat clicks from the same origin to odd click behaviors, and can even warn fraudsters that they are being watched. In addition, some solutions can also help you track your return on investment and organize your campaigns.
I recommend: Check out product and service reviews at Click Fraud Services, as well as these products and solutions: ClickProtector, ClickTracks, AdWatcher, Authenticlick Click Fraud Audit and Recovery Service, ClickDefense.com, Click Forensics's free CFAnalytics and the open source AdLogger for Google AdSense.
Learn more about the problem
Click fraud is an evolving issue — as fraudsters get smarter, so does the industry trying to prevent it. If you can't get ahead of the problem, at least you can keep up with it.
I recommend: Read ClickFraudReport.com, ClickFraudBLOG, No Click Fraud and Google's Google Blog.
Consider a pay-per-click alternative
Ingenio is one company that has developed an alternative to the pay-per-click model by providing performance-based ads on multiple platforms, including radio, phone and print. You pay only when your ad generates a validated phone call.
I recommend: See how it works at Ingenio.
Tips & Tactics
Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide
- By monitoring the number of clicks on your PPC ads and who is clicking on your PPC ads, a click fraud service can detect when fraudulent clicks occur and help you put a stop to them.
- You can usually get a refund from search pay-per-click advertising companies if you can provide strong third-party evidence for fraudulent clicks.
- Some click fraud comes from businesses who click on a competitor's ads so that the competitor's advertising budget drops without gaining advertising value.
The official source of Spotting and Preventing Click Fraud is
the Click Fraud Defense Software page at Business.com
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 Recommended Solution Providers | Back to top |
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This pay-per-click auditing service is designed to deter, detect, track, and report click fraud.
Protect the value of your pay-per-click advertising campaign by using this service that can identify click-throughs by source, detect and deter click abuse, and recognise and respond to click-through events.
This solution monitors the activity on your pay-per-click accounts and provides your small business with detailed reports on all suspicious activity. When this software catches any fraud activity, your business will be notified by email. You will be able to download detailed logs to provide to the pay-per-click engines as part of your campaign to stop the click fraud.
Provides free, extensible click fraud tracking and click reconciliation software.
This software shows you pay-per-click campaigns with statistically significant variances from other campaigns, whether they're the result of actual click fraud, or just poorly-performing ads that are eating up your budget. The software is designed to go back in time to show where refunds may already be due, and doesn't require any additional setup or configuration.
Use this provider to receive click fraud detection solutions for your small business' pay-per-click advertising campaign.
This software is designed to help publishers and advertisers detect and prevent click fraud and define a true ROI.
Ingenio provide performance-based advertising available on multiple platforms, including radio, phone, and print. Advertisers only pay when their ad generates a validated phone call, thus avoiding click fraud concerns.
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 Best Sites to Learn More | Back to top |
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This page covers pay-per-click marketing fraud and what can be done to solve it. Includes links to articles, tools and resources.
Offers ongoing coverage of the paid search space, including the latest developments in the battle against click fraud.
Read here to get an overview of click fraud and what you can do to prevent it.
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 Best Blogs and Forums | Back to top |
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A blog fully dedicated to click fraud including sections about preventing and spotting click fraud.
Read this blog to get the latest news on click fraud.
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