PayPerClick Fraud ExposedPart II

PayPerClick Fraud ExposedPart II

by: Dean Phillips

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

Can you believe that? In other words, heกs saying, I know the payperclick companies are stealing my money, but itกs okay, because Iกve considered that fact ahead of time.

Unfortunately, that mentality is pervasive among payperclick advertisers. No wonder the payperclick companies aren’t making stopping payperclick fraud a top priority. Who can blame them? If their advertisers don’t care, why should they? Heck, with all of the money the payperclick companies are making, itกs 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, กWe 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.ก

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

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

กOur Click Protection System is sophisticated software that evaluates each of our advertisersก clicks. This software makes decisions as to the validity of any click. Our Click Protection System uses search and click data to make both rulesbased inferences and pattern recognitionbased 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.ก

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 payperclick 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 payperclick advertisers, compared to media advertisers. Many payperclick 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 payperclick advertisers are making more money than theyกve ever made before. And rather than upset the apple cart, theyกd 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 payperclick search engines is to bring lucrative, targeted traffic to your web site, what are the payperclick 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 payperclick advertisers are willing to play the role of กlambs going to slaughter,ก the payperclick companies really don’t have to do anything.

In the meantime, your ROI is going to continue to plummet, and the payperclick companies are going to continue to milk those cash cows (AKA) payperclick 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: [email protected].

Visit his website at: http://www.letsmakemoney.net

This article was posted on October 24, 2004

by Dean Phillips