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DO I need to Protect myself from Click FraudsThe occurrence of Pay Per Click fraud - also called PPC click fraud or click fraud - is rampant all over the Internet. PPC click fraud occurs when either a person or sophisticated software simulates a visitor to a website and starts clicking on the advertisements featured on that website not with the intention of doing business with the advertiser but with the foul intention of creating a fraudulent charge per click to the advertiser.
The origin of any fraud, including PPC fraud, is related to the invention of a scheme that involves money. Therefore, though there is no specific date that one can put on the origin of click fraud, but it will be safe to say that it originated soon after the pay per click advertising come into being, somewhere in the mid-nineties.How PPC click fraud affects the Internet communityPPC fraud affects the advertisers. Take the case of advertisements on Google and Yahoo. Now, both these search engines are publishers and advertisers themselves, in the sense that they publish advertisements as well as invite affiliate websites to join them so that they can feed advertisements on affiliates' websites too.
So, on the one hand Google and Yahoo make money when an advertisement published by them is clicked (by charging the advertiser), and on the other hand they pay out money (to their affiliates) if such a click comes from one of the affiliated websites.
The fact is that any search engine or website - be it Google or Yahoo or anybody else - will charge more to its advertisers and pay a lesser sum to its affiliates. So, even if click fraud does occur, the publisher will gain because the advertiser will pay more than what the publishers hand down to their affiliates.
So, who suffers while the publishers and the affiliates make hay? It is the advertiser who suffers, because fraudulent clicks to his website get him nothing except a higher hit count, whereas he is actually looking out either for increased sales or at least for visitors who will linger around on his website for sometime.
When a PPC fraud is discovered, publishers will not want to do anything about it and will fight it out when asked for a refund from the advertisers. Similarly, advertisers will not want to pay for something for which they have not received publicity. Ultimately, the matter heads to the courts or into arbitration.
Who commits PPC fraud?You may think that it might just be the publishers or the affiliates who are into the PPC game of frenzied clicking. No, they are not alone; there are more parties who can get involved in this game:Advertisers' competitorsAn advertiser's competitor might get the advertiser's links clicked repeatedly so that the publisher pays for the meaningless clicks and forms an adverse opinion about the advertiser.Publishers' competitorsMany publishers normally rely on their PPC advertisements to survive. Their competitors might get the publisher's advertisements clicked so that it gives out the impression that the publisher is out to defraud its advertisers.Click avengersApart from competitors, there might be individuals or companies who want to wreck havoc on some advertiser or publisher because of some personal or business grudge. These guys can perpetrate PPC fraud in order to seek revenge.Detecting click fraud If click fraud is not detected well in time, it can mess up an advertiser's budgets and the publisher's reputation. If a click fraud case goes to the courts then there is more hell to pay. Hence, it is important to detect click fraud and nip it in the bud.
It is the publisher's responsibility to seek click fraud solutions and implement a click fraud analysis tool to ensure that his advertisers are safe from the click fraud menace. He should get his web logs audited and check digital signature patterns - Are too many hits coming from the same IP address, or geographical locations? Is there a pattern to the timing of such hits? Are computer programs triggering clicks?
If hits are coming from affiliate sites then tracking click fraud is a difficult task because statistics will show that the hits are coming from the affiliate, but for all you know the affiliate might be using a computer program or may even be paying visitors to click on the affiliate links. If an affiliate is suspected then his site should be tracked and the n umber of visitors to his site should be compared to the number of clicks the affiliate is generating on advertisements. Every visit from an affiliate site generates a unique identification number, which should be audited if click fraud is suspected.
Sophisticated click fraud tracking software (e.g., AdWatcher, Click Auditor, ClickSentinel, Click Tracks) can also be used to fight the menace of click fraud.Click fraud solutionsThere is now proven way to put an end to click fraud. Clever programmers use various means of faking IP addresses and use different fraudulent techniques to exploit PPC advertising.
However, there are effective deterrents that can help prevent click fraud:- States can enact laws that make PPC click fraud a felony. California has already enacted such a law (Penal Code 502), and many fraudsters have been arrested.
- The publisher has to protect the advertiser's interest - after all, the advertiser is his customer. He should track down fraudulent accounts us ing a click fraud analysis tool and offer his advertisers some kind of assurance that something is being done on the publisher's website to prevent click fraud.
- Publishers should track clicks using click fraud tracking software and forensic analysis software that intelligently take a detailed look at the sources of traffic and its behavior.
- Many publishers collect visitors' information by offering cookies and then audit the information collected to determine any click fraud occurrence.
An effective deterrence mechanism backed by strict laws will no doubt go a long way in preventing PPC fraud.
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