Are you an advertiser? Do you have your own cost per click campaign? Is there something wrong with your paid search costs? Does your performance data comprise of inexplicable variances? If all these issues are revolving around you, then you should acquire more information about the term ‘click fraud’.
So, what exactly is a click fraud?
It is a situation when bots are used as an inflating agent to shoot up the CTR (click-through rate) of ads artificially. The outcome of which is to decrease or even eliminate the number of clicks you get from genuine prospects. In many cases, the bot is fixated on using up the daily ad impression for a website by redirecting the clicks to another site. Bots are also being used by non-ethical competitors to hack the search terms typed by you. This is done to tap the ad traffic to your site and divert your targeted customers to their own sites.
In pay per click, they charge the advertisers with an overhead every time someone clicks on the ad. When a visitor clicks on an ad, naturally both the advertising network and the publisher are paid a definite amount. Click fraud occurs when the PPC model is oppressed or exploited with forged clicks, boosting advertising network and publisher incomes. Fraud can also occur with the CPM model. CPM, or cost per million normally costs less than PPC, but can also be exploited and affected by click fraud.
At Google, the majority of all invalid clicks on AdWords ads are jammed by their own online filters. These filters are continuously being updated and respond to a wide range of traffic patterns and warnings of click fraud threats. Invalid clicks on an average are less than 10% of all clicks on AdWords ads. Google’s current revenue run rate, the aggregate value of the clicks that they have recognized as doubtful or unacceptable are omitted from what they have charged advertisers is in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
So how to prevent yourself from this deadly menace?
Targeting high-value sites for ads is a good decision
There are many low-quality sites which act as hotbeds for click fraud. A bot or an individual may be clicking your ad on these low- quality sites to boost the owner’s cost per click revenues. We at Vertoz allow you to set up ad campaigns that only run ads on genuine sites, thereby dodging those low-grade sites where unethical revenue rise may occur.
Constantly track down your advertising campaigns
As an individual, you cannot manage what you don’t monitor. To remove this dilemma of monitoring your campaign, we have joined hands with Forensiq to prevent you from the claws of fraud. These allow us to see the number and percentage of clicks that has categorized as invalid.
Variation in bid rates for targeted sites
Reduction of your financial risk can be achieved through restraining the amount you are ready to pay per click. Limit your exposure by controlling your ad placements on any random website relevant to your keywords.
Collaboration with Forensiq helped Vertoz to analyze ad traffic and click patterns more accurately. Observing different indications of any fraudulent activity is much easier now. Clicks from known sources of invalid activity are automatically discarded by us. This is done to protect and safeguard you from click fraud.
Cost per click advertising is a very important component of your marketing strategy. Preventing click fraud can be a tedious task since it is hard to know who is behind a computer and what their real intentions are. But, if you understand the advertising ecosystem and follow these above pointers, chances are there that the click fraud rates may deteriorate. If you want to know more about Click-Fraud-Proof ad-network, then click here to register with Vertoz, which is against click-fraud!
