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(rt) If you’re investing in pay-per-click (PPC) marketing, you’d better watch out for click fraud! Seem like a paranoid scenario? Well, nobody can tell for sure, of course, and we certainly don’t want to sound alarmist, but when even Google evaluates it as one of the biggest threats to the Internet economy (and their own business model), it’s time to get serious.

Do your homework: check out the selection of links below (they’ll open in new browser windows), read all about it and return here to see what you can actually do about it.

Click Fraud in the Media
• → CNN Money: “Google CFO: Fraud a big threat. Google exec calls click fraud the ‘biggest threat’ to the Internet economy, urges quick action.” [2005-01-04]
• → MSNBC Newsweek: “When Mice Attack. Internet scammers steal money with ‘click fraud.’” [2005-31-03]
• → WebProNews Insider Reports – PPC ClickFraud: It’s A Bigger Problem Than You Think“” [2005-03-14]
• → CNet News: “Click fraud roils search advertisers” [2005-03-04]
• → The Times of India: “India’s secret army of online ad ‘clickers’” [2004-05-03]

If you actually read up on the problem, as we advised, welcome back!

As you will have seen, it’s truly a major problem – according to industry analysts’ estimates between 30 and 50% of all paid placement clicks are either fraudulent or misguided. Nevertheless you, as a PPC advertiser, will be charged in full by the search engines you have signed on with. Note that this affects Overture’s keyword bids as much as it does Google’s AdWords and other PPC platforms including banner ads.

So what to do about it?

Can you prevent it from happening? No, you are in no position to control fraudulent users’ behavior. If your competitor should have hired some shady outfit in Asia or wherever to click your advertising budget into oblivion, you’re as helpless as a sitting duck out there.

So can you protect your web site from these scammers? No – traffic is generated via your PPC advertisers’ servers and that’s where your ad debt will accrue.

Well, maybe you could coerce the PPC engines to set up a more reliable protection against click fraud than they have in place now? Fat chance – while they may realize it’s not conducive to their public image being targeted by click fraudsters, they’re still making a pile of money from it. So why should they really care?

Unless … you can hit them where it hurts them the most – their pockets! Wouldn’t it be nice to force them to refund you for all that fraudulent traffic generated?

Now you can fight back: this ultra neat tool will furnish you with all the evidence you need to prove your click fraud refund claims. Coming from a neutral third party, chances are the documentation tracked and generated will stand up in any court.

Click Sentinel automatically creates a report for every campaign. This report can be converted into a PDF Refund Request. Containing evidence (the precise documentation that your PPC search engines require), they can then easily make a decision to give back what was fraudulently taken.

But how are the PPC engines taking it? Here’s Google’s take: “We have regularly paid refunds related to fraudulent clicks and expect to do so in the future.”
Whereas “Overture” states, “We try to be very liberal in our refunds because a big part of what we do is instill trust in our model.”

Well, with this tool in your hands they’d better put their money where their mouth is, because what it will give you is proof positive in lieu of mere suspicion.

By checking clicks per IP address within a set time frame, cookie refusals and disabled JavaScript, clicks from high risk countries, via anonymous proxy servers, etc. Click Sentinel offers hard data to back up your reimbursement requests – at a fraction of a cent per click!

So check them out in all detail here:
→ Click Sentinel – Protecting Your Advertising Investment

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