Pay Per Click fraud represents a serious cost to both publishers and advertising network providers. No only can thousands of advertising dollars be effected but corporate goodwill and public perception can also be damaged due to PPC Click Fraud. Therefore it is essential for any party engaging in PPC advertising methodologies to employ proper techniques and services to detect, reduce and if necessary eliminate PPC Click Fraud. While all click fraud is impossible to control, there are measures that can be taken to reduce the exposure to PPC Click Fraud or at least reduce the consequences of click fraud.
What Is Click Fraud?
Click fraud is the intentional clicking on PPC ads with no actual interest in the product or services being advertised. According to various internet advertising services, the percentage of fraudulent clicks on PPC advertising is in the 17% to 29% range. Admittedly, some of these are consigned to accidental clicks but the majority are purpose driven, either to enhance revenue from the advertisement, reduce competition, revenge actions or for other fraudulent purposes. The result of which is to negatively impact the advertiser and to destroy confidence in the advertising network provider.
Click Fraud Detection
Plainly, reducing click fraud is important to all parties. Advertising network providers, such as Google’s AdWords, employ detective algorithms that attempt to identify fraudulent clicks and thereby reduce their impact. Additionally, Google uses a secondary system to analyze any remaining clicks to see if any fraudulent clicks passed through the first system. However, the onus is not only on the advertising network provider to reduce click fraud, as proper PPC procedures can also have an effect on PPC click fraud and thus publishers and advertisers also have to be involved in the prevention of click fraud.
Overall, this is a relatively simplistic explanation of PPC Click Fraud, but it has covered the basics. What is important for those who engage in and work with PPC advertisements is to employ the services of a PPC Management service. The reasons are also simple. PPC Management takes the overhead of developing and controlling click fraud from the company and uses the correct methodology to prevent or reduce click fraud. Because of the nature of PPC click fraud and the results, it is cost effective and more efficient to utilize a PPC Management concern than to attempt to monitor the PPC situation and detecting regime yourself, or on a company wide basis. The effect of click fraud can be mitigated to the point of making PPC advertising an effective means of increasing consumer awareness and sales. A PPC Management service is the best way to accomplish this, without exposing your company to excessive fraud in the PPC marketplace.
