Pay-Per-Click Fraud Exposed--Part II

According to Andy Jones, a member of the Best Practices Search Engine Forums, fraudulent clicks are just another aspect of the business. "Any of us that use AdWords or any other PPC has to pay for a certain percentage of fraudulent clicks," he said in a forum discussion. "I factor it in as a cost of doing business."

Can you believe that? In other words, he's saying, I know the pay-per-click companies are stealing my money, but it's okay, because I've considered that fact ahead of time.

Unfortunately, that mentality is pervasive among pay-per-click advertisers. No wonder the pay-per-click companies aren't making stopping pay-per-click fraud a top priority. Who can blame them? If their advertisers don't care, why should they? Heck, with all of the money the pay-per-click companies are making, it's actually more cost effective to issue an occasional refund, than to develop technology to eliminate click fraud.

And if you read between the lines of the following statement, Google even admitted as much:

In a recent filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Google acknowledged, "We are exposed to the risk of fraudulent clicks on our ads. We have regularly paid refunds related to fraudulent clicks and expect to do so in the future. If we are unable to stop this fraudulent activity, these refunds may increase. If we find new evidence of past fraudulent clicks, we may have to issue refunds retroactively of amounts previously paid to our Google Network members."

That statement doesn't exactly instill any confidence, now does it?

And if Overture is asked about click fraud, they'll just issue their standard company line:

"Our Click Protection System is sophisticated software that evaluates each of our advertisers' clicks. This software makes decisions as to the validity of any click. Our Click Protection System uses search and click data to make both rules-based inferences and pattern recognition-based inferences about which clicks are valid clicks. We have two patents pending related to this technology, so we cannot currently disclose too many details about the methods we use."

Do you honestly think newspaper, magazine, radio or tv advertisers would just sit back and let those media get away with blatantly stealing their money? You know they wouldn't.

Then why do pay-per-click advertisers allow it? I don't know the exact answer to that question, but I have my theories: First of all, you're talking about a whole different level of sophistication with pay-per-click advertisers, compared to media advertisers. Many pay-per-click advertisers don't even know how to access or even analyze their log files, so they have no idea how much money is actually being stolen from them.

In addition, some pay-per-click advertisers are making more money than they've ever made before. And rather than upset the apple cart, they'd rather keep quiet and allow the vicious cycle of click fraud to continue, so that they can keep cashing those big checks.

I also suspect many advertisers are afraid that if they complain too loudly, they may be penalized in the search engines, in regard to their free listings.

If my theories are accurate, silence is one heck of a trade off, if you ask me. Why? Because according to a report on MediaPost, an online study done by Clicklab revealed that fraudulent clicks can account for more than 50 percent of your total clicks.

So, if the goal of pay-per-click search engines is to bring lucrative, targeted traffic to your web site, what are the pay-per-click search engines doing about the click fraud epidemic, to prevent abuse that needlessly drive up your costs and reduce your ROI?

Unfortunately, since so many pay-per-click advertisers are willing to play the role of "lambs going to slaughter," the pay-per-click companies really don't have to do anything.

In the meantime, your ROI is going to continue to plummet, and the pay-per-click companies are going to continue to milk those cash cows (AKA) pay-per-click advertisers, for all they're worth!

About The Author

Dean Phillips is an Internet marketing expert, writer, publisher and entrepreneur. Questions? Comments? Dean can be reached at mailto: dean@lets-make-money.net.

Visit his website at: http://www.lets-make-money.net

---

How to Take Advantage of the New Google Adwords Changes

On Friday, July 15th all Google advertisers got the email... Read More

Google AdSense Rewards Content with Adversiting Revenue

If you've been looking for an easy way to increase... Read More

AdSense - 7 Keys To Empire?

There's a lot of buzz around about how you can... Read More

Using Google AdWords to Increase your Adsense Profits

I had been using Google's Adsense program to generate some... Read More

Relevant Ads Increase Adsense Profits

If you've started using Adsense as a way to increase... Read More

Googles AdSense Soon To Have New Rival?

A large part of Google's multi-billion dollar annual turnover comes... Read More

Adwords & Adsense: A Beginners Guide

The Mechanism First a brief glossary of terms: Adwords: The... Read More

What The Adsense Top Earners Are Doing To Constantly Increase Their Earnings

It is really frustrating, is it not, to log into... Read More

PPC Advertising Explained

Advertising on the Internet has always been a bit of... Read More

Advertising And Generate New WebSite Traffic

Here's a simple way to use "No Results, No Pay"... Read More

How To Win The War of Pay per Click Advertising.

Do you know what is the most important question among... Read More

The New Google Ad Links

You know about Google Adsense, now it's Google Ad Links... Read More

The Perils and Pitfalls of Pay-per-click Advertising

In this age of speed dialing, T1 lines and other... Read More

5 Critical Pay-Per-Click Tips

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising is a good supplement to natural search... Read More

Buying Your Way to the Top with Pay Per Click Advertising

Imagine if you could advertise ONLY to people who have... Read More

Google Adwords ? Online Riches Without Owning A Website Or Product!

Did you know that you can make money from Google... Read More

The Future of PPC Advertising

For those of you who haven't used a Pay Per... Read More

Irresistible Click-Me Tools for Marketing

Never mind the irritating, but effective, pop-up window. There is... Read More

Expand Your Horizons - Sell Your Professional Services Through ClickBank

ClickBank allows its merchants to sell many different types of... Read More

Disguise Your ClickBank Affiliate Links Using Status-bar Faking

Many surfers are savvy enough to identify ClickBank affiliate links,... Read More

The Evolution of Google AdSense

The web has evolved into a complex "organism" which, to... Read More

Improved PPC Marketing Performance from Time-Tested 80/20 Principle

As marketers and business owners, we're always looking for "the... Read More

5 Top Tips for Maximizing Your Adsense Profits

1: The ideal Google AdSense page should have great content... Read More

4 Ways To Get Relevant Adsense Ads On Your Site

If you're an active Adsense publisher, I'm sure you have... Read More

The Truth About Pay-Per-Click Ads

Are pay-per-click ads the best method of getting customers to... Read More

Pay Per Click Search Engine Marketing - Starting A Campaign

Pay per click advertising is an on-going and growing arsenal... Read More

Cost Per Click Bid Management

Cost per click or pay per click is a common... Read More

Google Adwords: Higher Traffic and Sales in 2 Hours or Less!

There are various ways to purchase highly targeted advertising at... Read More

Tips for Maximizing AdSense Revenue

Google's AdSense program is probably the best affiliate program on... Read More

MSN PPC Advertising Behavioral and Demographic Targeting: Killer App. or Achilles Heel?

Examining the failures of the web content design of many... Read More

Dynamic Resource for Adsense: 3 Practical Models Quickly Earn & Maximize Google Adsense Revenue

Looking back in time, I could still remember standing in... Read More

Market Research Means Money

I recently made a critical mistake in my progression towards... Read More

Pay Per Click Advertising Can Be Very Risky Business

Click fraud is an unfortunate byproduct of the pay per... Read More