Click Fraud In recent weeks, I have received a lot of calls from my marketing colleagues asking me to explain to them what click fraud is, the causes, the consequences, and especially the solutions available to them in order to remedy their problems.
Here is a summary that is more suited to those less familiar with the subject.
Definition and causes of click fraud
This type of fraud is particularly problematic when we establish a cost-per-click arrangement with a publisher. For example, you establish with the publisher that you are prepared to pay up to $ 1 for each click generated on your ad, but will not pay for the number of times you have appeared, i.e. the CPM model (cost per thousand ). We can sign these kinds of agreements with several networks, but I will focus my post on search engines.
Click fraud occurs when a person (such as a competitor) or an automated computer program impersonates a real user and clicks heavily on advertisers’ ads in order to generate fees for them.
The consequences of click fraud
According to a study by research firm Click Forencsis in the second quarter of 2006, about 14% of clicks on paid search engines are fraudulent.
In other words, if you invest $ 50,000 per month on search engines, your fraud rate is 14%, and you pay an average of $ 1 for each click generated on your ads, you will suffer a potential loss of $ 7,000.
As recently noted by Jérôme Plantevin, a journalist for the weekly Les Affaires, “in 2005, Canadian advertisers spent more than $ 197 million on bill-to-click advertising.” If we apply the 14% rule, at $ 1 per click, nearly $ 28 million would be collected by the Google of this world as a result of click fraud. Apply this ratio globally, you will understand why these players (Google, MSN, Yahoo, etc.) are taking their time to resolve the situation.
14% fraud, is it possible?
This figure is obviously contested by Google, MSN and Yahoo. According to Google, the level of fraud in Canada is more around 5%, based on the performance reports I receive from the campaigns I run for my clients.
As reported in the newspaper Les Affaires, the level of fraud of 14% seems to correspond with what Guillaume Brunet sees in his Internet campaigns, project manager in Internet marketing for TD Meloche Monnex.
In short, it is difficult to verify the figures put forward by research companies. Moreover, these companies do not provide a detailed portrait of the situation in Canada, says Paula Gignac, president of the Internet Advertising Bureau of Canada (IAB).
SOLUTIONS
Internal search engine tools
In order to reassure their customers, search engines are starting to integrate invalid click monitoring tools into their customer campaign management interface. In other words, you can quickly see how many invalid clicks Google is detecting. These clicks will obviously not be charged to you. Try to invest your marketing budgets with search engines offering this service.
A good way to identify fraud not detected by search engines is to compare your conversion rates. Your conversion could be selling your products online, signing up for your email newsletter, etc. An exceptionally low conversion rate is usually attributable to fraud on one of its networks. This is a good homemade mammogram, but it can be difficult to report the percentage of loss fraudulent and get a refund.
External tools
Do not rely solely on the tools offered by search engines because this fraud is especially beneficial to them. Their current role is not to eliminate fraud, but to reassure its customers.
You can opt for external monitoring tools specialized in click fraud such as AdWatcher, ClickFacts, and Click cease(Clickcease 14 Days Trial). The downside is that the search engines do not recognize the methodology used by these players, so you will have difficulty convincing Google, MSN, and Yahoo to reimburse you for the fraud detected.
Monitor traffic to your website
There are easy ways to monitor the level of fraud by monitoring your website traffic. The downside is that you have to manually observe the logs of your visits, which can reach over 2 million visits per month in some cases.
You will then be able to detect the warning signs of click fraud, i.e. a large number of visitors with the same IP address frequently visiting your site.
Seo Lead Generation 