PPC Click Fraud A Growing Problem

Pay Per Click (PPC) bids are running sky-high these days and the latest reports say Click Fraud is growing in scope. Estimates from auditing group Click Forensics put the percentage of fraudulent clicks at 15.8% in Q2 of 2007.

What is Click Fraud?

PPC advertisers bid for ranking on a certain keyword. The more advertisers are willing to bid per click on that term, the higher they will rank. Click Fraud is where some one or some software clicks on an ad without any intention of doing business with the advertiser.

Click fraud happens for various reasons with two being the most common:

1. The fraud perpetrator will make a profit from the "click".
2. The perpetrator wants to deplete the advertising budget of a competitor.

Fighting Click Fraud

Sixteen percent of our PPC budget is a hefty number to write off so we do what we can to fight fraud. We call on two tactics to fight click fraud:

1. Turn off your PPC advertising in "content networks". The networks of websites drive their own revenue by running PPC ads along side similarly-termed content. They take a cut of the PPC dollars spent on their sites so they are more likely to call on fraud.
2. Watch your stats for high click through and bounce rates. We recommend a quick look at your PPC stats every day. Look for drastic changes out of the "norm". If your click through rate of a specific campaign jumps out of the normal range, temporarily shut it down and report to the PPC company immediately.

Is PPC Worthwhile?

We find that PPC advertising has a lower ROI versus a successful optimization campaign but that is not to say that PPC should be avoided. PPC has comes with an inherent cost of doing business but a good PPC campaign to a point of purchase website can drive a positive ROI.

Most importantly - PPC starts working immediately.