Click forensics recently reported that pay per click fraud was 12.7% in the 4th quarter of 2009. That’s an alarming statistic if you are an advertiser on google adwords or yahoo PPC. Google claim they have software that detects continuous clicking on an advert from the same IP address (in other words the same PC). However, click fraud is still growing.
Pay per click advocates suggest you should ignore click fraud and focus instead on your ROI (Return On Investment) as a sign of success. That you must accept click fraud as part of advertising on pay per click search engines. There is an element of truth here. To focus your attention on profitable campaigns is more important than anything else, but every good webmaster should reduce their costs too. But, can anything be done?
Michael Block from taming the beast thinks you can reduce click fraud with the right anti-fraud strategies and tools. He reckons complex robots can generate 1000′s of clicks to your advert and remain undetected by spoofing IP addresses. His article has some tips and strategies you can use to counter the fraudsters.
And in today’s video the guys at ppc secure talk about the different ways pay per click fraud is perpetrated. ppc secure is a web-based service which monitors your advertising and detects click fraud. The service costs between $15 and $160 a month depending upon the number of clicks you get. I think it all depends on how worried you are about pay per click fraud as to whether you are prepared to pay for a service to detect it.
At least you know ppc fraud exists and could be affecting you.
